College Tuition Rebates

Wouldn’t it be nice to get money towards college tuition simply by sticking to your regular household routine?  There is a program out there that lets you do just that.  Upromise does just that.  It is a free service designed to help families save for college.  The program lets you save for college by purchasing everything from gas to groceries.  

The idea behind Upromise is simple enough: you save when you shop for the things you need.  You or anybody else, who wants to contribute to a child’s college savings fund, shop as you would normally do.  You then earn rebates from companies who participate in the Upromise program.  Money earned is automatically placed into an account that Upromise maintains.

Upromise has a growing list of partners in every major category of consumer goods, representing more than 7,000 grocery store products, 9,000 restaurants and 200 online retailers.  What is most surprising is how much you could be losing by not participating in this.  For example, if you purchase a new General Motors car, GM will put $300 into your Upromise account.  Or if you buy/sell a home through Century 21, Coldwell Banker or ERA, they will donate $3,000.

Many partners now prominently display and advertise their affiliation with Upromise and print their logos on their products You may have even seen this logo, but never understood what it meant until now.  To take full advantage of this program, register all of your credit cards and supermarket loyalty cards on the Upromise web site.  Family members and friends can do the same and increase your benefit. 

The program will run seamlessly in the background, although it does take some time for the rebates to be posted to your account.  While Upromise is a national program, there are some advantages that are only available to New York State residents.  In November, 2003, New York State appointed Upromise to administer the New York State 529 College Savings Program.

The New York's 529 College Savings Program provides a flexible, convenient, and low-cost way to save for college. The Program features a wide range of investment wide range of investment choices, tax-free withdrawals when used for qualified higher education expenses, and contributions that are tax-deductible (up to $5,000 per person / $10,000 per couple) for New York State residents.

This created an opportunity for NY State residents to leverage the two programs by linking them together, something no other state presently performs.  The accounts can be easily linked up.  The funds are automatically swept into the College Savings Plan on a quarterly basis, as long as the Upromise balance exceeds $25.  Otherwise the balance will remain in the Upromise account until it reaches that amount.

For those residents not from New York State, your only other investment option is to open up a Vanguard 529 account.  Once the account is set up, the cash can be swept into the Vanguard account where it can be invested and grow tax-free.  Be advised that Vanguard does levy a $20 annual fee for members of Upromise.