Babymint vs. UPromise
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.
Babymint (http://www.babymint.com) has a few ways for you to accrue savings. All require registration to their site.
1) Buy from online retailers after clicking through to their site from BabyMint.com. You can receive up to a 30% rebate depending on the merchant you buy from. A few examples are:
4% 1-800-Flowers
3% Office Max
7% Target
2) If you sign up for the BabyMint MasterCard. You can earn rebates up to 7% shopping in stores. Although the selection isn't very full, and mostly stores I've never heard of, there are some notable names:
3% Media Play
5% Hickory Farms
5% Eddie Bauer
With this card, you will receive at least 1% rebate with every purchase.
3) Buy gift certificates, mostly you'll get a 5% rebate, but in a few cases you can get 10%. There are some good names in this list, like Amazon, Gap, Cabela's, O'Charley's, etc.
4) Exchange frequent flier miles for savings. I didn't look into this much, since I don't fly enough to join any miles programs.
5) Tuition match plans from select colleges. There is a list of colleges that, should your child choose to go there, will match all of the rebates you've earned in the form of tuition cuts. I looked at this list for my own home state, and every college was a private school, most of them being liberal arts schools. I don't see this as being anyhting too special for me, since my kids will probably not attend private colleges, but it doesn't cost any extra to join this program so I might as well.
As with UPromise, you can get friends, family, grandparents to join the program and earn rebates for your kids as well.
UPromise has the same kind of setup, but also has a feature where you enter your grocery, drug store, credit cards and get savings just for buying things.
So, there are minor differences, and nither one is a clear cut winner in my opinion. So what I will do is sign up for both programs. When I want to buy something I'll see which program gives me the best rebate and buy through them. I could see this becoming a hassle, but with only 2 programs it shouldn't be too difficult. I don't expect to simultaneously use more than 2 or 3 of these though.
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