Upromise.com is a program that lets you save for college (or anything really) just by doing your normal shopping. By registering your grocery reward cards and credit cards with the service, every time you make a qualified purchase 1-10% of the purchase is deposited into your account. You don't need to do anything special. Just shop normally. For example, we use to take our cars to Pep Boys for oil changes and routine repairs. I got $44 deposited into my Upromise account in total just for doing what I had to do anyway. You can get money back when filling up with gas at Exxon and other gas chains. I got a $5 rebate for sending flowers to mom for Mother's Day, something I was going to do anyway.
You can withdraw money for any reason, but the real benefit is that the program really is maximized to save money for college. You can have the on'y deposited into a 529 college savings plan that earns interest tax free.
You can also invite others to join the program and deposit their savings into your child's account. So grandparents, aunts, and uncles can help as well. They can even "split" their savings between multiple children.
If you don't have children, but want to help your community, you can link your savings to a participating school as well, helping local schools raise money.
I've been a member since 2002. I don't have children, so instead we use the money to pay for continuing education classes.
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Comments: 4
The group: We Comment Back
This is a really neat program, Julie! It seems even more practical given the current economy and difficulties saving for college in the traditional way. I'm sure this program will help a lot of people out! I actually just posted something about how hard it is to save for college given the current job and stock markets. Would you mind if I link this to my discussion? I'm sure people who read the discussion would be very interested in UPromise. Otherwise, would you care to comment on my discussion? Here's the link. I'm sure this would add a lot to the discussion, regardless! Thanks.