Upomise ?

[RangerPooh]

Ater reading another thread I was wondering what your opinions of Upromise are? Is it legit or has anyone had their information taken and sold to other parties? Does it really save money lik it claims or is only a few pennies a year? Thanks.

 

[bdb7607]

We've got $1,000 put into our Vanguard 529 plan in just over a year using the Citibank Visa and linking our debit card & Disney Visa. Of course, we use our credit cards for everything and pay them off every month...

But, yes, Upromise is a great "add-on" incentive to help pay for college - it is free money!

 

[minnie1928]

We've earned about $75-100 in the past month on Christmas shopping! Who can argue with free money?

Now I just need to sign up my parents, grandparents, friends, in-laws, co-workers, etc. so they can all help pay for my kids education!

 

[cruisnfamily]

I only use it for groceries and gas. I have my debit/credit cards linked too but we don't shop online thru them(I use my points) and we don't have their credit card. I've had Upromise for years(OK, just went and looked it up..member since 1/2002) and I only have about $150 total but hey, free money is free money! I'll take it!

 

[disneychrista]

Member Since 06/2004 and I have a balance of $17.25. So less then $1 a month.

If you do a lot of online shopping and can remember to shop using links from their site you can earn even more.

 

[cruisnfamily]

I only use it for groceries and gas. I have my debit/credit cards linked too but we don't shop online thru them(I use my points) and we don't have their credit card. I've had Upromise for years(OK, just went and looked it up..member since 1/2002) and I only have about $150 total but hey, free money is free money! I'll take it!

I just did the math on mine and it works out to an average of $3.12 per month. I did just recently get grandma and Uncle to sign up and start saving for my kids.

I'm doing a withdrawal right now to deposit the funds into the kids investment accounts where the money can work a little harder.

I wouldn't do it if it was work but it's simple to scan your grocery card and then just buy what you would have bought anyway. I don't do anything special so I figure it's just free money for doing what I was doing anyway.

I bet if I used the upromise credit card it would add up way faster but I like my disney dream rewards at the moment.

 

[turnlisa]

Over the past 3 years we have saved over $700 for our kids' college funds. I also put automatic payments from our checking account into the funds so it has brought my kids' totals up to over $3000 each.

I do have the Upromise credit card and you get 1% back on all purchases. It helps to add up.

 

[sarahsmom73]

Generally speaking we have put about $400 in 3 years into DD's 529... Groceries, gas and online shopping has helped... Any extra money is great in my eyes!

 

[christinadei]

I only use it for groceries and gas. I have my debit/credit cards linked too but we don't shop online thru them(I use my points) and we don't have their credit card. I've had Upromise for years(OK, just went and looked it up..member since 1/2002) and I only have about $150 total but hey, free money is free money! I'll take it!

Same here, I've had it about a year and a half or two years and have about $35. I have my grocery cards and debit card linked and get pennies here and there. It is worth it to sign up, even for the little amount. However, I use mypoints for pretty much everything else. I've been signed up with them for maybe 6 months and have gotten about $60 worth of gift cards.

 

[Mom2Ashli]

I just signed up a week ago. You can link your credit cards to it? I thought you had to get one of the Credit cards it was offering? So I skipped all that stuff.

 

[kelleigh1]

I signed up for Upromise shortly before I got married. We don't even have any kids yet, but I'm still earning anyway. It's very small amounts from my regular grocery shopping, but as others have said, it's like free money. I'd be grocery shopping anyway, so earning even more is a good thing. Once we have kids, I'll probably kick it up a couple of notches to earn even more.

 

[LisaNJ25]

I have been using it for 9/01 and have a whole 92.22 in my account. FYI you can also use the money to pay your own student loans or you can withdraw and get the cash once you hit $50.00. I just set mine up to pay my student loan.

I am also a big time mypoints user and usuallly go through them for everything.

 

[bdb7607]

You can register your credit cards with Upromise and thus get "double" the benefits - i.e. we used our Disney Visa for Christmas shopping, did a lot of it on-line through the Upromise website, got 1% for Disney rewards, plus the Upromise: 3% from Overstock.com, 4% from Disneyshopping, 3% from JCPenny, etc, etc...

 

[aka-mad4themouse]

I've been a member since August 2001. I signed up all my grocery store cards and my CVS card as well as my CCs. Bed Bath & Beyond's B&M stores offer 1% back when you make a purchase using a registered CC. If you buy McDonald's GC's, there's a code in each book that earns you 3% back. A lot of their online merchants were offering double cashback during holiday shopping. I did almost all of my online shopping thru them this year and now have over $250 in the account (some of which is still "pending"). It's not going to make a scratch in college costs but I'll be paying for a book or two with money I earned doing practically nothing! Now, if I could just get the in-laws and my parents to sign up as well.

 

[rach2674]

I never got much with everyday purchases, but we did purchase a house this year and I got over $800 with that. So it's extra money that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise, so I say it's worth it! I could probably get it for a lot more things if I paid attention more!

Rachel

 

[RangerPooh]

A few people mentioned 'mypoints', what's that? Is it similar to Upromise?

 

[JulieEck]

I signed up for Upromise in 2002 when I was pg with dd3. We earned some, but not a lot until I finally got the Upromise Citibank credit card. We are ones who charge just about everything all month and pay in full and now our Upromise account is really growing! It's free money which is cool.
I was even able to charge our property tax bill to the credit card and then turned around and sent a payment from my savings account to pay it off. That was a $15 contribution right there! I was tickled to death to be able to do that. Sometimes the credit card has bonus contributions too. I don't pay a whole lot of attention to them though. I just shop as I normally would and get whatever they give me. I do try to remember to shop online through them although sometimes I forget. You can sign up any credit card, but you would only get the contributions from the items you are buying (groceries, etc.) Using the Citibank card gets you those PLUS a contribution from Citibank.
Do it, you'll be pleased. I like the flexibility of the account too. If we have more kids, I can split it between them, transfer, etc. When I first set it up, it was with me as the student since we didn't have dd yet. Once we had her (and a name/ssn), I added her and switched everything to her.

Now, like minnie1928 and aka-mad4themouse have said - if I can get my parents and in-laws to sign up.....

 

[kelleigh1]

A few people mentioned 'mypoints', what's that? Is it similar to Upromise?

MyPoints isn't really similar to UPromise as it isn't involved in any type of educational funding. What it does is allow you to earn points which you can cash in for gift cards, shopping, etc.

The similarity with UPromise is that you can shop online to earn these points. With MyPoints however, you can earn points simply by reading emails also which helps to build the points even faster. My husband and I each have a MyPoints account and we were able to cash in our points for a couple of Rainforest Cafe and Chili's gift cards which we're taking with us on our trip to WDW next month. And we don't hardly ever shop through MyPoints. These were mostly for reading the emails. It is well worth the time!

If you're interested in joining, please PM me...or PM me if you have more questions about the program. I would love to refer you as we receive points for referrals also.