Upromise

Everything works great until you try and close out your account because your child is done with college. Telephone numbers associated with Upromise don't have live people - just a VM referencing their website, which is a joke. I have submitted, as they suggest, for a phone call three times now and nobody's called me back. Not sure what's going to happen to my account money, as I need to close out my 529 to pay the final bill this week.

Ultimately, they're part of the customer-service-is-non-existent problem.

I don’t trust Upromise. I’ve bought many items items through their partners by going through the Upromise website and I NEVER get the rewards. I’ve written to them several times and they always have an excuse to not give me credit:
1) We can’t give you credit until we get it from our partners
2) It can take up to 90 days to get credit (I wrote to them after 90 days)
3) We can’t see that your purchased through our partners (it’s not my fault that their technology stinks)
4) Sir, we will do anything in our power to not give you your rewards (that didn’t actually happen but that is the essence)
It sounds like an amazing and helpful concept but if they don’t give you your credits/​rewards, what’s the point? I’ve spent too much time checking to see if I received my rewards and writing to them — it shouldn’t be a pain in the neck.

This is a pretty nice system — works a bit like Ebates. You click before shopping and a rebate collects in an account for you, which can be either disbursed or applied toward education loans. Pretty hard to find ANYTHING to complain about a site that gives you money back for shopping!
A weird thing happened to me today, though. FTD is offering 15 percent cash back to Upromise members for the holiday season. Just before I clicked «Submit Order» at
, I remembered Upromise and closed my browser so I could log in through Upromise. All was well until I happened to look at my order total and… surprise, surprise… FTD had increased the price of my item by 15 percent!
Sort of makes me wonder how many other merchants pull a fast one like that, but it certainly isn’t the fault of Upromise, and I have received a few payments toward my student loans from Upromise rebates. It’s simple and free to use — just click through if your merchant participates with Upromise. Hopefully they don’t all add the rebate on to the total price the way FTD does. Not impressed with FTD after today…

I have used Upromise for several years now and have been able to save over $ 9000 for my children’s education on purchases I would be making anyway. I have never had a problem transferring the k bet to their 529 accounts and highly recommend that anyone with children look into this as a way to save for you children’s education.

Multiple attempts at communication, retrieval of funds for college and the responses where so disappointing. After days and weeks of unsuccessfully working with the phone center in India, I was finally given the US number. All they would let me do was leave a number with the security guard. They will give out no information. Finally someone called me and they were kind enough to give me their first name and their direct line. Unfortunately, it’s been days and I have not hear back.
I’m in search of other investment vehicles where I don’t have to call India and I’m treated with enough respect that calls are returned.

Yes, you need to invest in your kids and specifically in their education. What would you say if your Upromise account one day got closed and all money shipped to the state of California? This happened to me, «inactivity» they say. So be active, or you will sponsor the state where you live and not your kids. In addition, this says a ton about their communication to the customers — no notice of any sort, just nothing, I login and everything is gone. The request to customer service directs me to talk to CA State Treasurer’s office.
What would you say if your 401K at, say, Vanguard got shipped to the state of California because you were ‘inactive’? Still waiting for the answer on this one.
Bottom line: save for college. Somewhere else.

Since 2004, my Wife and I have been using Upromise to save for our Son’s college expenses. At the time, I have to admit I was very skeptical of this company and what they were selling. However, 9 yrs later and 1 yr away from our Son’s graduation I’m extremely happy that we believed in them and participated. It’s simple and free, here’s how it works:
1 — You sign up for an account online.
2 — You register your debit & credit cards (totally safe), I’ve done it for 9 yrs w/​o any issues.
3 — You assign a beneficiary. Must be a child (yours, a family member, or a friend’s) that’s under the age of 18 and eligible to go to college. You can assign this later if you choose.
4 — You start purchasing items from normal stores (online/​brick & mortar) at normal prices or even sale prices at times.
5 — You get a rebate on some of these purchases that gets deposited into a 529 Plan for use by your beneficiary for college expenses.
There’s no strings attached… dead serious. As an example, for every trip I take… instead of using Expedia directly, I go to
and click on the Expedia link… that gets me a rebate for any hotel, airfare, or rental car purchases I make. I’ve verified using a separate computer right next to me to see if I get the same hotel rates, prices, etc. and I do… after my trip, I get money deposited into a 529 account for our Son. This is the same process for other stores you may shop on a regular basis… Walmart, Home Depot, Lucky Brand Jeans, Nordstroms, Neiman Marcus, and literally 100’s more.
On top of using the rebate feature, we also invested our own money into the 529 plan which is administered by Sallie Mae. It survived the economic downturn and we’ve had a pretty decent return even through the bad years. Since he’s now attending college level classes, we’ve made withdrawals without any issues and we’re extremely happy that we did this back in 2004. We wish we started when he was born, we’d be in a better position.
Overall, I recommend this to anyone who has or is planning to have children, or has family members or friends who have children and want to save for their future. Unless you decide to put your own money into the 529 in addition to the rebates you get, it’s free to join/​participate. My Brother-​in-​law and several friends have also joined and are saving for their kids.
Return Factor — 100%