Has anyone had good results with the UPRISE college savings program ?

Question

It is offered ny CITI bank. It requires you to register your credit cards and store saving cards. Certain products and services donate a % of your purchase to an account which then can be transfered to a 529 savings plan. Is this a scam or is it a decent side savings plan to add to a 529 ?

Answer 1

Hi -
I am a Upromise member (and have been for 4 years). It is not a way to make big money, however it does give me a little back on groceries and some online purchases (such as gap.com, buy.com, etc.). I don't shop specifically for certain items but sometimes I'm happily surprised to see that I received contributions from companies I didn't know were part of the program (such as Minute Maid, LandOLakes butter, etc) I have accumulated about $200 since I started and I've withdrawn $175 of it. That's what's nice about it: you don't have to put it in a 529, you can just withdraw it. As soon as the money is confirmed in your account, it is yours. All I had to do was write a letter requesting a withdrawal and they sent me a check for $175.
There's nothing to lose, so I definitely recommend it - it's free money!
I hope this helped.

Answer 2

I looked into UPROMISE.com for college savings and was not impressed. Most of the savings involved shopping at stores we did not shop at. However many other people on Yahoo answers like the system. I would not call it a scam. However, it is in some ways a marketing gimmick. They are trying to encourage you to buy at stores, some of which may be high priced.

Answer 3

check out http://scamsbeware.com - consumer resource center. all kinds of scam info there, there's also a forum where u can keep up to date on current and future scams. And if u have any questions just post it in the forum and somebody out there should help u. http://scamsbeware.com/forum Best of all it's FREE 2 join, just register at the top it'll be worth it for u to keep up 2 date on scams/fraud. Hope this helps.