Lessons Learned in Using the Upromise College Savings Plan

If you are looking to increase the amount of money that you are saving for your child's college education, Upromise may be able to help in your efforts. Upromise offers a free service which rewards consumers by putting money towards your child's college savings plan when you buy certain products by companies who also participate in the program. Although Upromise states that it is easy to gain rewards, I've found that the rewards don't always add up as quickly as one would hope.

At this point, I've been a Upromise member for almost a year and have earned less than $2.00 towards my child's college savings plan. I didn't pay anything to join and have put minimal effort towards this process, but am still very disappointed by the small amount of savings that I've generated at this point. I have followed Upromise's advice and have registered both my grocery advantage card and my credit card for this program, which means that any purchase that I make with a participating vendor will be credited to my Upromise account, but so far I've seen just pennies from a few companies such as Nestle's and Florida's Natural Orange Juice trickle into my account. From the Upromise website, it seems that users generate the most savings by shopping online, but in order to be credited with an online purchase, you have to actually access the company that you plan to shop at through the Upromise website (I had thought that registering my credit card was enough, but have not been credited with online purchases since I didn't know that I had to make this important step, which honestly most people probably forget to do).

According to the Upromise website, there are other ways that you can increase your savings. For example, if you use the Citi Upromise Card, you'll receive 1% towards your college savings plan for all purchases made, which can add up if you have large credit card purchases. You can also have your friends and family sign up so that their grocery and credit card purchases count towards your Upromise college savings (I haven't done this since I've seen so little benefit in having my purchases count towards my Upromise savings).

Since there is no fee to join Upromise, it certainly won't hurt you to use the Uprmise program to increase your college savings, and if you do a lot of shopping online, then Upromise may be a great benefit to you (as long as you access the site that you plan to shop at through the Upromise website). Otherwise, Upromise may just add a few dollars to your college savings instead of the larger money that you may be looking for.