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What to do

1. (US residents only) Upromise is a free program where companies and businesses give a portion of eligible purchases back to Upromise members as college savings. To sign-up, visit Upromise and register for a free account (we recommend using a registration email).

2. Log in to Upromise. Click on the My Account tab in the upper left hand corner.

• In the left hand column, click on Add Credit/Debit Cards. There will be a form to register your debit and credit cards with Upromise. You can fill out the form for each credit/debit card you own.
• When you have finished inputting all your cards, click on Add Grocery Cards in the left column. Here you can register any grocery or drugstore cards you own.

From now on, when you make eligible purchases with your registered credit/debit/grocery/drugstore cards, a portion of your purchase will automatically be deposited in your Upromise account.

To learn more about Upromise, read below.

A little more

What is Upromise? At it’s core, Upromise is a free service that works like this - you make eligible purchases, and corporations return a designated percentage of your purchase back as Upromise Rewards, which is basically money for college savings. Your Upromise Rewards are stored in a UPromise account. You can withdraw the savings for educational expenses, or you can roll over the rewards into a 529 college savings plan.

The first key point is that Upromise is a for-profit company. The second key point is that for a lot of the opportunities to earn savings, you need to register your debit, credit, grocery, and drugstore cards with the service. That way when you make eligible purchase, Upromise automatically tracks the transaction, and then deposits any savings into your Upromise account (sort of like when you use a frequent flyer credit card - no extra work on your part, your credit card tracks your purchase, and automatically awards you frequent flyer miles).

We have some tips and suggestions as to how to use Upromise effectively - indeed, there are a couple parts of Upromise we you may not want to use, because you won’t be maximizing your savings.

But the points to remember is that Upromise Rewards is essentially free money, and that it requires minimal effort to set up your account and to earn savings.

How You Earn Upromise Rewards

Once you’ve registered your cards, you can earn money for your Upromise account in a couple of ways:

• ‘Real World’ stores - If you shop at participating ‘real world’ stores and pay with a registered debit/credit card, the stores will donate a pre-designated percentage of your bill into your Upromise Rewards account.
• Restaurants - If you eat at a participating restaurant and pay with a registered debit/credit card, that restaurant will donate a pre-designated percentage of your bill into your Upromise Rewards account.
• Grocery and Drugstore Shopping - Participating products in grocery stores and drugstores carry the Upromise sign. If you buy these products, portion of the purchase is donated to your Upromise Rewards account. As we understand it, you need to use a registered grocery or drug card to get savings (it’s unclear to us if you can use just a registered credit card to get savings).
• Designated Services - For designated services with eligible businesses, you can get Upromise Rewards by following the directions on the Upromise website.
• Special Programs - Essentially, these are special offers you can complete to get Upromise savings.
• Online Shopping - If you visit the Upromise website, and then click through to any of the listed online stores and make a purchase, you will receive a designated percentage of your purchase price placed in your Upromise Rewards Account. This is the one part of the program where ‘extra action’ is required on your part. If you don’t click through Upromise.com to an online store, you won’t get any Upromise Rewards for shopping at that online store.

To learn about the specific companies, businesses, online stores, and restaurants that participate, the offers the provide, the percentage of eligible purchases they give you, or more details on the above, we recommend visiting Upromise and logging in to get more details.

A Recommend Way to Use Upromise

Is there a ‘right’ way to use Upromise? Every user should decide on his or her own. Here’s what we suggest.

• Use Upromise for ‘Real World’ Stores, Restaurants, Dining, and Grocery and Drugstore Shopping - Here is where Upromise is powerful. Once you have registered your debit, credit, grocery and drugstore cards with Upromise, you can basically ‘forget’ about the program. No need to change your spending habits - everytime you make an eligible purchase and use your card, the Upromise Rewards will automatically be credited to your account. So after the initial registration, there isn’t extra paperwork for you to fill out to get your rewards.
• We recommend you don’t use Upromise for online shopping - Instead, we recommend you use cash back sites every time you shop online. There are two reasons for this:

1. For the vast majority of stores online, cash back sites will give you more cash back than Upromise – More often than not, you are going to save more money going through cash back sites than Upromise.

2. It’s harder to get your money out of Upromise - Upromise requires a written letter to get your rewards out. Cash back sites either just send you a check automatically or automatically deposit your savings into your PayPal account.

• We are ambivalent about using Upromise for special offers and discount services - Our attitude is if you are going to use these services anyway then it makes sense to check Upromise to see if you can get some free rewards.

Power Tips for Upromise Users

Here are some of our power tips:

• You don’t need to have a kid to open a Upromise account - You can save for yourself, or more importantly, you can begin saving for a kid you may have someday. Which means that just about anybody who is of legal age in their state of residence can open a Upromise account. We tell our friends who recently graduated from college (and who are in college!) - sign up for a Upromise account, because (1) the program is free and (2) you have the benefit of time before your kids reach college. Say you are graduate from college, and you plan on having kids in 12 years. Assume your kids will go to college when they are 18. That means you have 30 years to collect free money on purchases you already make to help your kid with college expenses.
• For the most part, having a Upromise account won’t affect your other awards on your cards - For example, if you have a frequent flyer card, registering your card for a Upromise rewards likely won’t affect your frequent flyer miles. You should check the Upromise.com site for more details.
• You can add friends and family’s cards to your account - Here’s another great aspect of Upromise: you can add family members’ and friend’s cards to your Upromise account. That means you can harness the purchasing power of your grandparents, aunts and uncles, close friends, etc, and can pool the savings from their savings into your account. Again, you can register their cards and forget about it - when they make applicable purchases with registered cards, the savings will automatically show up in your Upromise account. Follow the directions on the Upromise site to learn how to connect friends and family to your Upromise account.
• If you get gas at Exxon or Mobil, you can get Upromise savings - If you fill up by more than 20 gallons per month at Exxon or Mobil pumps, and pay using a registered credit card, you get 1 cent per gallon placed in your Upromise account.

What You Can Do With Upromise Rewards

There are two things you can do with your Upromise Rewards:

1. You can withdraw the funds - The big disadvantage is how hard it is to withdraw your money from your Upromise account. You need to write a letter for withdrawal - and if you are withdrawing over $200, you need to get your letter notarized or contain a Signature Guarantee. Instructions for withdrawal are located in the Help section of the Upromise website.
2. You can roll over the funds into a 529 College Savings Plan - Your Upromise Rewards account is a non-interest bearing account. If you want to, you can rollover your savings into an eligible 529 College Savings plan through Upromise. The downside of doing this is the savings plan may have a service fee - so make sure you keep eye on all fees associated with maintaining an account. They also often have a bear minimum monthly contribution.

If you already have an eligible 520 College Savings Plan, than connecting your Upromise Rewards account makes sense. If you don’t have a plan, you’ll need to decide whether the eligible plans and/or fees/monthly contributions are worth it. Check the Upromise site for more details.

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