At the beginning of last year, I set an unofficial and unadvertised goal of increasing my passive income. Since then, I’ve signed up for Mypoints and Ebates and I’ve been pretty happy with the proceeds with minimal effort on my part. It’s not a lot by any means but every little bit helps.

This past weekend, I signed up for Upromise. I’ve heard of them before and they are actually a featured sponsor of SingleGuyMoney. I was under the impression that the program was only for individuals with children looking to save money for college. After looking more into the program, I realized that Upromise can benefit anyone.

If you don’t have a child headed to college and decide to open an account, you have a couple of options:
Save for Someone else: You have the option of designating a beneficiary of the funds you earn in your Upromise Account. You can save for your child, your sister or brother, cousin, friend, next door neighbor or virtually anyone you wish.
Save for Yourself: Save to help yourself with college costs or withdraw the funds to use for whatever. Withdrawing money is as simple as mailing in a withdrawal request.
The money you earn can be saved in a 529 plan, credited towards your student loan or saved in your
Upromise account.

Earning Money:
Earning money for your
Upromise account is as simple as doing what you do every day. Once you sign up and link your debit, credit and/or grocery rewards card, everything is automatic. More than 550 companies and over 8,000 restaurants will give you college contributions through Upromise. The percentage cashback you earn is listed on the website in the company list. You can also earn money for shopping online through the Upromise website.
Like to dine out at your favorite restaurant? Sign up as a preferred diner and earn up to 8% towards your college savings if the restaurant is a participating member. You don’t have to guess if the restaurant is a participating member. Just pop in your zip code under dining and you’ll get a list.

There are numerous ways to earn money with Upromise. Considering opening an account today. It’s free, easy and takes no time to sign up.

5 comments

  1. Anonymous // March 5, 2008 at 6:48 AM  

    I'm going to have to go check upromise out, I wasn't aware you could use it to pay back student loans.

    Thanks for the review!

  2. Anonymous // March 5, 2008 at 10:09 AM  

    You can also just cash out your account at anytime. I did that at the end of last year. There is a link to the withdrawal form here...

    I check my account from time to time and I'm always surprised by the little things that are earning me money. A trip to the pub earned 75 cents, that toothbrush earned 12, etc, etc. It adds up, especially if you link to online purchases through their site.

  3. PT // March 8, 2008 at 10:33 PM  

    Wow, I didn't realize these options existed. I'll have to check that out.

  4. Anonymous // March 11, 2008 at 6:00 PM  

    I've been a member of Upromise for a year and still haven't earned a penny from them. I have my credit card,debit card,grocery card and drugstore card all registered with them but I guess I haven't bought a participating product yet.

  5. Anonymous // March 19, 2008 at 7:57 PM  

    I've been a member for quite some time and have earned a substantial sum for my kids. It really is not that hard if you do it at the right time. This month they are bonusing money if you shop online from their site. I've earned about $400 just from shopping at their web site. I'll be doing that again this month too!