Free Money: Paying Off Student Loans, or Saving For College
Melissa threw a little BBQ this evening and our chatter turned to the high cost of "higher" education. Most of our peers are stuck with massive student loans, and have straddled a decade or two of debt. (I should know: I spent one year at Bennington College, infamous for the Cosby Show episode where it was pegged as the most expensive school in the US.) I was chatting with one of the guests, and he was lamenting his unsubsidized student loans. As it turns out, he was unaware of UPromise.com, the service best known for letting you save for a child's college education. Lesser known -- but equally as important -- UPromise lets you hack away, little by little, at your student loan debt.
Here's how it works:
1) Sign up for an account.
2) Shop online.
Every time you click and make a purchase through a UPromise affiliate, a portion of your order (between 1% and 25%) goes into a fund to transfer to your student loan.
3) Register your grocery card or drugstore card
with your UPromise account.
Use
your registered grocery or drugstore card at checkout and get 1% - 5%
back into your fund.
4) Choose your meals out effectively.
Eat at a preferred Restaurant and earn up to 8% of your bill in college savings rewards when you pay with a credit card you register at UPromise
5) Book travel with purpose.
Visit the Travel section of UPromise.com
to find participating car
rental companies and travel sites, when you book a rental car or hotel through UPromise and earn a dollar amount or percentage back.
6) Buy a home.
If you are buying or selling a home, consider going through CENTURY
21,
Coldwell Banker, or
an ERA office, and you can get up to $3,000 back from UPromise for your student loans.
7) Shop strategically.
Shop at select merchants (online retail stores and catalogs) and you can earn between 1% and 6% back.
8) Register for a rewards credit card.
UPromise even offers a credit card. Each purchase you make earns a bare minimum of 1% back, and grocery and drug store purchases can earn you up to 10% back.
Think about it: with a little extra effort, you can earn money back on the same purchases you make every day. That really is free money.
~Meghan

