The Credit Card Rebate and Loyalty Program Savings Option is ideal for families that desire a painless way to earn a little bit of extra money for college!
Credit Card Rebate and Loyalty Programs are also called affinity programs. Consumers can receive rebates by shopping at specific stores or buying certain goods or services without membership cards.
Usually, registration of credit cards is required in order for the programs to keep track of the relevant purchases at specific stores. Alternatively, shopping on the company web sites is also acceptable. For example, families can go on www.upromise.com to shop online at the participating stores or locate the participating restaurants with rebates. Shopping at any of the participating stores at Upromise will give consumers 1%-25% of the purchase back. Eating at any of the participating stores at Upromise will give consumers up to 8% of the purchase back.
Free Credit Card Rebate and Loyalty Programs with emphasis in college tuition savings include:
Do not need to alter shopping habits to get the rebates. The stores are big enough so most families are not required to make changes to their buying patterns to earn the rebates.
Can maximize rebates by cautiously directing expenditures.
Some programs allow recapturing rebates as cash and transfer the rebates to pay back student loans.
Rebates received from these programs do not have income or sales tax.
Have social networking elements. Upromise allows friends and families to set up accounts that direct their rebates into personal accounts. It also offers a “Guest Shopping” UR L for people who are non-members to direct college savings rebates into personal accounts.
Programs without an emphasis in college tuition savings includeEbates (800 retailers), FatWallet (500 retailers), and BondRewards (500 retailers, rebates in the format of US Savings Bonds). Traditional rebate cards include Discover Card. Roundup savings programs include Bank of America’s Keep the Change and American Express’s One Card.
Recommendations:
Do not spend more money for the sole purpose of collecting rebates. If two items are equivalent in quality, and the more expensive item offers a rebate, sometimes it is still better to buy the cheaper item.
Should compare net prices after subtracting the rebate amount. The average rebate is between 4% and 5%.
The Credit Card Rebate and Loyalty Program Savings Option is ideal for families that desire a painless way to earn a little bit of extra money for college!