Toget families started, Upromise is offering over $30 in bonus rewards just for signing up. You get a $5.29 bonus when you verify your email address and an additional $25 when you link your new Upromise account to your first 529 college savings plan account. Linking your account will allow Upromise rewards to automatically transfer into your 529 plan account as a contribution.
The program provides a smart way to boost your college savings, especially for those who start earning when their children are young, since all the rewards swept into 529 plans can be invested and grow tax free. Over time, this can really add up and reduce or eliminate the need for your kids to take out burdensome student loans.
Credit card. Upromise offers the Upromise Mastercard from Barclays Bank with no annual fee and with cash back rewards on all your spending. There are no rotating reward categories. There is a 23-day grace period for avoiding interest on credit card purchases. The credit card provides free access to your FICO credit score. Monthly payments on the credit card can be automated. Transaction data can be automatically uploaded into Quicken, making it easier to track your spending.
Credit card cash back rewards. Cardholders get 1.529% cash back rewards on all purchases when your Upromise account is linked to an eligible 529 college savings plan or 1.25% cash back rewards when not linked. There are no caps on how much you can earn in cash back rewards.
Round up program. The Upromise credit card includes the option of a spare change investing program, where purchases are rounded up to the nearest whole dollar. Round ups are capped at $500 per month. There is no fee for the round up program.
Along with other earned rewards, any round up amounts are automatically transferred to a linked 529 plan, so it is a painless way of increasing college savings. The round up amounts are eligible for the 1.529% cash back. If you round up $25 per month, this can yield $4.59 in extra rewards a year.
Upromise Browser Extension. Upromise makes online shopping even easier by offering a browser extension for Chrome. When you download the Upromise extension, you will automatically get notified of cash back rewards and exclusive coupon codes that you can apply to your purchases. Get cash back rewards through thousands of participating retailers with the simple click of a button
Dining rewards. You can also earn rewards by eating out. Purchases made at participating restaurants using a linked debit or credit card will earn 2.5% cash back. If you use the Upromise credit card, the Upromise dining rewards double to 5% cash back.
Grocery Shopping. Get more cash back rewards when you shop for your groceries and everyday items through Upromise. You can shop at stores like Walmart and Target to Costco, CVS, RiteAid, and Whole Foods, just to name a few. They feature deals from tons of your favorite local grocery stores.
Gift Cards. There are over a hundred different digital gift cards available, offering cash back rewards as high as 20%. They include gift cards from top brands across retail, dining, entertainment, and travel & hospitality. You can send the gift cards, via email, to family and friends, or use them to pay for items you already intend to purchase.
Surveys. Upromise offers yet another way for members to earn and save. Surveys are a fun way to provide your feedback regarding products, services, and so much more all while getting cash back rewards.
Convenience. A key benefit of the Upromise program is the automatic transfer of rewards to a linked 529 plan. Other cash back credit cards may offer a higher percentage on purchases (e.g., the Citi Double Cash Card offers a total of 2% cash back without the extra features of the Upromise credit card), but you have to manually transfer the cash back to a 529 plan. The Upromise program makes it easier to save for college.
College Scholarships. As an unique additional benefit, Upromise offers a monthly college scholarship program for its members, and the more active you are in the program the better your chances of receiving a scholarship. Every member who has a linked 529 account is automatically eligible to win one of five Upromise $529 Scholarships every month, but earns extra entries for every dollar of rewards earned during each monthly scholarship award period.
The Upromise credit card is best for people who do not carry a balance on their credit cards. You should always pay off your credit card balance in full each month to avoid paying interest on your credit card charges. If you carry a balance on your credit card, the interest on the credit card will likely exceed the amount of rewards you earn.
Complaints about Upromise in various online forums seem to mostly concern the old Upromise program. Some participants complained about not receiving credit for all eligible purchases made. Upromise has been adding new ways to get cash back rewards since 2021. Some complaints are from long-time participants who prefer the old Upromise.
Other complaints concern the amount of rewards earned not matching expectations. To earn hundreds or thousands of dollars in rebates, you must actively use the Upromise shopping portal and the Upromise credit card. You must also link a 529 plan to your Upromise account. A passive approach to Upromise will yield much lower rebates.
There are online testimonials from Upromise members who report much higher rebates and savings. These compliments tend to be from participants who use the Upromise Mastercard and have optimized their spending to maximize their rewards.
Saving For College is an unbiased, independent resource for parents and financial professionals, providing them with information and tools to understand the benefits of 529 college savings plans and how to meet the challenge of increasing college costs.
Capital One Shopping, known for its browser extension that acts just like your own personal shopping assistant to help you find better deals on items you are shopping for, offers credits from popular retailers.
Rakuten, formerly eBates, was one of the first online cashback sites and helps you earn up to 40% cashback on your purchases, although 5-10% is a more common percentage. Here are a few of the top partners:
In addition to cash back, Active Junky offers deals and promo codes to help you secure the best possible deals. They even have a browser extension to notify you when cash back is available and a mobile app for earning cash back on the go.
Most cashback sites earn money by receiving a commission from retail partners when members shop. They give a cut of this commission back to the customer as cashback. TopCashback is slightly different as they give the full commission back to customers and make their money elsewhere.
TopCashBack consistently pays high percentages of cash back. There are also coupons you can find and special offers that give higher cashback. Here are some of the top partners that TopCashback works with:
If you want many ways to earn cashback, Ibotta is a great site to use. You can either earn by using the shopping portal, which gives you automatic cash back if you follow a link from the Ibotta website to an online store and make a purchase or by uploading your receipts.
When you shop at a grocery store, scanning your receipt is the only way to receive cash back. Ibotta makes this easier by offering an app you can use to upload your receipts, and it also doubles as a place to store receipts and, therefore, track your finances.
Most tasks require you to complete a quick task before claiming the points, such as watching a video or taking a poll. You can also earn extra cash by using a unique Ibotta Referral Code to invite friends to join the cashback site with you. You can receive your points in cash or a free gift card within 48 hours after you redeem them.
Currently partnering with over 40,000 retailers, the extension works automatically in the background to find you the best prices for your online purchases. On average, Honey saves users 17.92% a year.
BeFrugal offers an impressive cashback rate of 40% for over five thousand stores, which is far higher than that of competitors. All you have to do is shop using their portal, and the cashback will be added automatically to your account.
Instead of offering one generic cashback rate across all retailers, Coupon Cabin has special offers for specific stores at different times. The deals are only for a limited-time, so if you see something you like, act fast.
Simply Best Coupons is available to use in countries all over the world for stores that encompass a wide range of categories, from travel to automotive to clothing. It can be used for coupons and cashback.
If getting the highest cashback rate possible is important to you, use the Cashback Monitor site to compare rates among different sites. Doing this obsessively every time you want to make a purchase might be unnecessary, but it can be helpful as a first step when deciding which site to use.
Every time you make a purchase using a cashback website, the retailer you buy from will give the cashback site a commission. They then give a percentage of this back to you, the customer. Sounds like a win-win-win situation!
This website is an independent, advertising-supported comparison service. We want to help you make personal finance decisions with confidence by providing you with free interactive tools, helpful data points, and by publishing original and objective content.
On January 20, I reported how Google had confirmed the publication or update of all paid-for extensions in the Chrome Web Store had been temporarily suspended. The reason was cited as being a significant increase in the number of fraudulent transactions attempting to defraud users. Things have just got a lot worse, or a lot better, depending on whether you're a glass-half-empty or half-full person: a total of 500 Chrome web browser extensions have been identified, and deactivated, that were stealthily uploading user data. Researchers say the malicious campaign executed by these 500 Chrome extensions was operational since at least January 2019 but could date back as far as 2017.
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