Saving with Upromise

Upromise is a free service that rewards members with college savings just for doing what they normally do: shopping, eating out, filling the gas tank, taking trips, buying groceries and more.

There are several ways to earn money for your Upromise account.

1. Shop online (similar to MyPoints, Ebates, etc.) There are over 700 online stores participating.
2. Eat at certain restaurants and pay with a registered credit or debit card. There are over 8,000 restaurants participating.
3. Register your store cards (Piggly Wiggly, Copps, CVS, etc.) and buy certain items. Over 22,000 stores participate.
4. Invite family and friends to register their cards to your account. (Hey, Grandparents!)

They also have eCoupons that you can "load" to your account and if you buy that item you get the coupon amount deposited to your Upromise account. For example, there is currently (through 4/30) a $.50/1 No Yolks "coupon". Perhaps you bought these noodles recently at Copps or Festival*... maybe even got them free. Well, in addition to using the regular coupon you can also use this one and "earn" an additional $.50 for your account. It definitely can't hurt to go load all the coupons each month and if you buy any of those products it will just be extra money.

All the money you earn goes directly into your Upromise account. What can you do with the money in this account? You can accrue your savings over time, or choose to a) invest them in a 529 college savings plan for your children b) use them to pay down your student loans or c) receive a check for college expenses. You can use it for your children, yourself, or anyone. While they encourage you to invest this money in a 529 plan you do not have to do that. There is a form on their site that you can mail in to request a check.

I signed up a long time ago for a Upromise account and then never attached any cards. I only have about $10 in my account now but I got $2 of that for charging my son's birthday pizza on my newly linked credit card! I plan to take advantage of these eCoupons from now on. If you think it won't add up, go read about this women who set up her account and then forgot about it. She ended up with over $3,000!!!  

*Hey, wait a minute Festival doesn't have a loyalty card... so how can you get the money when you shop there? Festival has a special Upromise key tag. You can pick one up at the Customer Service desk and register it online. Then present your key tag for scanning during the check out process to earn cash back (your card must be scanned at the time of purchase). If you do participate be sure and get a Festival key card and also update your Copps card since the numbers changed when they updated.

Source: Upromise.com and FestFoods.com