UPromise College Savings Tool
Being a new dad, I fill my time between feedings and changing diapers reading up on how I can successfully get rid of my child and relive the peace and quiet I enjoyed before she was born. From what I've discovered, I can send her away to college in about 18 years. Good, I can't wait! Now, what do I do to make sure I can afford this when the time comes?
Of course I'm not serious, I would never want to send my daughter away anywhere. Sure, she's loud, and diapers do need changed often, but I still love her. The fact is though, college savings is a very real problem facing most of America.
There are many savings plans out there, but what I'm going to share today is UPromise. UPromise is basically free money you can get towards education expenses in exchange for buying stuff. The price of what you buy doesn't change, you'll just get a certain amount of money (usually pennies) for buying certain items.
The way it works is you enter any number of credit cards, drug store cards, grocery store cards, etc into the UPromise system, and when UPromise sees that you bought such and such an item, say kraft mac & cheese, they will collect the amount Kraft has decided to contribute and put it into your UPromise account.
I just opened my account, and will post again in a few months on how things are going, but from what I've seen here are the basics:
1) It won't pay for all of college, it should be viewed as a supplimental plan at best.
2) You need a 529 plan to transfer the funds to. Not a big deal for me because I will be opening a 529 plan shortly anyway. Even if you don't have a 529 for your child, there's nothing to say you can't open one just for UPromise.
3) Not only can you put your cards in the system, but you can also have others (grandparents/aunts/friends) enter their cards as well.
4) It does not affect any rewards your credit cards already accumulate.
Basically, I don't see a reason not to do it, but at the same time I can't see it generating more than $200/year or so.
• VirtualBank gives you up to 5.13% APY for your savings!
• Blue Cash from American Express: 5% Back on Gas, Up to 5% cash back on eligible purchases, No Annual Fee, 0% Introductory APR for 6 months, Pay over time
• Try Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. Great rewards and first year fee free!
• Bad Credit Home Loans
• Life Insurance in 10 minutes if qualified. No medical exam.
Paper trading has long been a way for individual investors to get their feet wet in the market. It involves giving yourself a set amount of fake money, and treacking your own virtual trades in the market. People use this to test out trading strategies ... Read
A few days ago, I blogged about UPromise. An alert reader, KB, pointed out that Babymint has a similar program, so I headed over to check it out. I will detail the differences here. Read
There are many theories about whether or not you should pay off your home mortgage early, or even make extra payments on it. One group, which my brother falls into, says pay as much extra as you can afford every month in order to own ... Read
Seeing as we just brought our daughter home from the hospital a few days ago (our first child) I thought it would be a good time to start thinking about what big expenses I can forsee in her childhood and the best way to prepare ... Read
That first sentence was the funniest thing I've ever read in any blog. I'm a dad of twins so I can definitely relate.
There's another program like this one:
http://www.babymint.com
Do you have to open the 529 account through Upromise? If so, are there fees?
Are they sharing your spending habits and personal information with all of these companies, so that they can market to you?
Are they encouraging you to purchase brand-name products when cheaper generic would do?
You don't have to open the 529 account through Upromise. I have a 529 through my home state, to take advantage of the state tax break, and every so often I send Upromise a letter asking them to mail my reward accrual. In a few weeks I get a check, which I then deposit in my 529. That way I get the tax break and avoid the fees of the 529s affiliated with Upromise, which I find to be high. Upromise doesn't publicize this option; I discovered it by accident when I called them up to ask if they planned to include my state's 529 in their offerings.
Interesting Sharp, I didn't know that. I knew you could have a 529 other than theirs and transfer the money to it, I didn't know they'd simply send you a check.
Do you know if you'll have to claim that as income?
UPromise says they are considered rebates, not income.
Yes, you can request check from Upromise. Check out my experience:
http://www.pfblog.com/archives/575_upromise_check_received.shtml
