Free College Savings / Repayment With UPromise
Posted on: September 2, 2008 by Matt
Last month while paying my Sallie Mae student loan payment online I stumbled on a link to the UPromise site. I am pretty sure that I had seen the ads for Upromise before and figured that I did not have any use for the service since I had already been to college. When I finally did a little bit of research I discovered that the Upromise program can also be applied to existing loans held with Sallie Mae! Needless to say that I immediately signed up to earn some free money to apply to my student loan debt.
Here is what I have discovered so far about how the program works:
- Register and tie existing loans to the account: If you have existing Sallie Mae loans you can link them up to the account (there is a $25 minimum transfer though). If you do not have loans with Sallie Mae there is an option to start a 529 plan for yourself or anybody that you know. The option to change the plan’s beneficiary is available as well.
- Decide how you would like to participate: Upromise offers several methods of participating in the program. You can sign up for their credit card (I have opted not to use this method while trying to reduce debt), register your existing credit cards, register grocery store club cards or mix and match any of the methods available.
- Check Upromise before shopping online: Many retailers work with Upromise for online shopping. If you log into Upromise and start your shopping there (instead of going directly to Walmart.com for example) you can gain extra credit.
- Invite family and friends to help out: There is a built in tool that will allow you to send emails to family and friends to get them to sign up and add you as a beneficiary. If they are not saving for anyone else to go to college and do not mind filling out the forms to get it rolling then why not ask?
- Clip online coupons: There is also a coupons section to add a little bit extra to your savings. If you browse them and happen to find some for items you normally purchase anyway then it is yet another win / win situation.
Overall it seems to be a pretty cool program and over time could really add up. So far I have used the program to register my bank card, register my grocery card and have downloaded the Upromise toolbar (which I hope to review after some more experience with it). I have not changed any of my spending habits drastically and have managed to get credit from filling up my gas tank at a Mobil station twice for a total of $0.27. It may not be much but every little bit helps and who does not love the idea of free money?
Related Posts
TagsFree Money, Savings, Student Loans Filed Under: Debt Reduction, Savings, Student Loans
[...] My FInancial Recovery was delighted to find out that his UPromise account could be applied directly to his student loan. [...]
Hello. Your site displays incorrectly in Firefox, but content excellent! Thanks for your wise words =)