UPromise is an online program that you create a saving program with. Many retailers will give a percentage of your transaction with them back into the college fund. For example, every time I fill up my car at Exxon, I get a rebate of 1 cent per gallon of gas purchased. Some retailers offer up to 10% credits.
The way it works is that you create an account and tie your credit cards to it. Any purchases with those cards automatically trigger the rebate. This isn't limited to a single card or family either. So for example my mom, aunts, uncles, and others in the family can also add in their cards and participate in the donations.
New York 529 is the New York state college savings program that has the best terms, options, and features. My wife did quite a bit of research on this and while we live in Texas, we went with the New York plan. The link on the name is to the FAQ section where your questions may be answered. If you notice once you get there it's part of the UPromise framework so you can really take advantage of that program and grow things even further.
EBates is a program that doesn't help you save directly for college but it gives you cash rebates on your online purchases. Sometimes it's quite a lot and getting cash back for something you were going to do anyways is pretty nice. This isn't a pyramid scheme or multi-level marketing. You just go to the site, login, and then find the retailer you were going to purchase from, and go about your business. My wife and I have been using it with success for a while and it's been nice to get the rebates back in the form of gift cards.
There are so many scams and pyramid systems on the internet and it's hard to tell which is real and which isn't. I'll tell you we have been using these programs for years and have literally saved up thousands of dollars as we are also putting in my directly from our paycheck as well. It's nice to do what you were going to do and earn more for the kids. Getting gift cards of our choice back from EBates is fun too.
The purpose of my email is to just share the information as so many people I've talked to have no idea that these types of programs exist and their first response is an assumption that it's a scam or too hard. I'm a very happy user and have been for years sleeping well at night knowing I'm saving for my girls college.
