"What the heck is this UPromise thing?" you might ask...
UPromise is a totally free service that helps parents, family and friends save for children's college education. As I type this, the kids have nearly $1675.00 in their UPromise accounts of which almost $125.00 came specifically from family and friends! Available funds are transferred quarterly into 529 savings plans in each of the kids' names. "So how does the money get there?" you may be wondering...
First, you have to sign up with UPromise. The easiest way to sign up to contribute to our kids accounts is through an e-mail I can send administratively. You can also click the link below for more information or to join. After doing that, there are TONS of easy ways to earn money for your Upromise account.
1. McDonald's gift certificates - Have you ever noticed that long alpha-numeric number on the books of McDonalds gift certificates? You can type that code into the McDonald's section of the UPromise website and earn 15¢ for each book of gift certificates.
2. Groceries - There are a bunch of companies that give you a percentage of the retail cost of their items back to your Upromise account. Big ones for me are Enfamil and Huggies. Covergirl, Kellogs, Coca Cola, and Tylenol are some other popular brands. You have to register either your grocery store's loyalty card, or in some cases, a credit card for them to track your spending and depoist your earnings appropriately.
3. Gasoline - Exxon and Mobil are both UPromise companies. We don't have these in Lawrence, so I'm not sure whether they have a loyalty card of some sort if they track it via registered credit card.
4. Restaurants - There are lots of restaurants nationwide that will contribute up to 10% of your total bill to your UPromise account. The Upromise website has a really nice restaurant search. Indianapolis brought up 4 pages of results, Lawrence has 9 restaurants currently participating and Wichita has 7, including a fabulous pizza place recently introduced to me called Fusion Pizza. Usually with restaurants, you have to use a credit card that you registered with UPromise.
5. Shopping - Several stores such as Bed Bath & Beyond, Sharper Image, and GNC will contribute to your UPromise account when you use your registered Credit Card in their store.
6. Online Shopping - this is the biggest one for me. There are TONS of online stores that will contribute up to 15% of your purchase to your UPromise account. You have to shop through the UPromise link, and some require you to use a registered credit card. Some of my favorites include OldNavy.com, Staples.com, BestBuy.com, OneStepAhead.com, Overstock.com, etoys.com, WalMart.com, JCPenney.com and so much more! They really have their site organized nicely for online retailers. You can search by category, retailer or even type in what you're looking for in their search box. It will bring up a list of matches at assorted retailers and you can even find which one has the best price! Plus, you will often get free shipping or an extra 10% off or something just by being a UPromise member!
"But is it safe to give them my credit card and personal information?" you might be wondering...
Absolutely! They have an extremely secure website that is perfectly safe to transmit your information through. And they won't sell you e-mail address or other information to other companies. They havea variety of newsletters they can send out, but only if you want them to. If you have other questions about the service, visit their website through the link below, or feel free to e-mail me and ask questions! |
