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I was browsing around the internet one day and one of my classmates sent me a link to a website called Upromise which made it self to be essentially free money for college. Basically, you register your credit card, and whatever money you spend at specific partner stores, they will give you a small percentage of your money back in the form of a 529 college savings plan.

It’s like a rewards program that works for any credit card!

So what’s the catch? Surprisingly, there really isn’t a catch. Essentially Upromise is a marketing company that works to establish brand loyalty in college students in the client companies of Upromise. If you don’t mind having your purchasing habits swayed, then who cares? Upromise has a number of clients which include AOL, CocaCola, Citibank, Exxon Mobil, McDonald’s JC Penny and Sears, amongst dozens of other retailers.

Here’s how it works. In order to sign up, you can visit their website and register for a free account. They’ll ask for some personal information to setup the account. After you register, logon to their website and you can link credit and debit cards to your account. After all of your cards are registered under your account, a small portion of your purchase will be placed in your special savings account automatically!

You probably will not make all sorts of money with this rewards program, but hey, it’s free money, and who can say no to that? This certainly does not mean you should go out and buy stuff just because you get a reward when you do, but if it’s there, why not take it?

You can earn rewards at a number of different types of stores through your Upromise account, including restaurants, grocery stores, drug stores, certain online retailers and other designated services.

It is probably better not to use Upromise for online shopping, instead you are probably better off using cash back sites. Most online stores will give you more cash back than Upromise, and it’s much harder to get your money out of Upromise since they put the money in a 529 plan, rather than just sending you a check or putting money in your PayPal account.

Don’t be fooled, even though this is a college savings plan, you really don’t need a kid just yet. If you’re going to have one some day, or might possibly go to college yourself again someday, you should make use of the program, because after all it is free, and you will probably benefit quite a bit from it. It will not affect your existing rewards program, so why not give it a shot?


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