What is Upromise, and how can you use it to pay for your child's college
With college prices on the rise (an average 20-40% increase from 10 years ago) worried parents are concerned about saving enough money for their children to be able to attend college. A program called Upromise offers some help to set aside money now so that your kids can have some sort of college savings account when they are older.
The Upromise College Fund has many advantages that include portfolio investment management by Vanguard and federal tax advantages. Upromise members automatically receive deposits into a protected college savings account when they make eligible purchases of participating products and services from a list of participating companies. All you do is sign up for the program and spend as you normally would. It's that easy!
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Joining is free of charge. All you do is go to the Upromise website at www.Upromise.com and sign up to participate in the program. When you are a member you will be able to save money for college every time that you shop online, eat out, buy gas or groceries, or shop at thousands of other participating retail establishments.
As a Upromise member you can save now by purchasing products form many leading companies such as ExxonMobil, Citi, Eddie Bauer, McDonald's, Tide and many more (for a complete list visit the Upromise website). Special Upromise programs allow you to make safe a secure deposits into your child's college savings account. Just look at how many more options you have when it comes to participating in the Upromise College Fund:
23,000+ grocery and drug stores
7,000+ participating restaurants
500+ online retailers
As a parent you may be worried if all of your small contributions will make a big enough difference by the time your child has graduated form high school. Do not fear. Upromise has come up with a way to involve grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, friends, anyone! When you increase the number of people who are participating in adding you your child's fund it can have a big impact. Getting others to participate is easy too. All you do is go through the Upromise website to send personalized invitations to the family members you'd like to invite. When they join, a portion of their everyday spending can be automatically deposited into your child's Upromise account.
Or, if you are the friend or family member of a Upromise participating parent and you would like to join on your own, you can also do so easily through the website. You can give a gift that will not be forgotten when you sign up to help one or more children save for college.
Upromise also offers what they call a Upromise College Fund 529 Plan. You can look at the Upromise College Fund 529 Plan like this, in the same way that 401(k) plans help families save for retirement, 529 plans help you save for your child's college education. Upromise members can open a Upromise College Fund savings plan through Upromise Investments. The minimum monthly deposit required is $50 a month and of course you can contribute more if you wish.
Upromise may not be able to save all of the money that you will need to send all of your kids to school. It is not designed to do this. Rather, Upromise helps to ease the financial burden still present after scholarships, government aid, and other financial assistance. With so little effort required on your part, participating in a Upromise program is a simple way to be putting a little money aside for the future. After all when it comes to the cost of going school even a little money means a lot.
