If you're like any other parent you're trying to find some help to pay for your someone's education. Although it's not going to help you too much today, one incredibly easy way to lessen the future financial burden on you, your kids, nieces, nephews or grandchildren from having to fund their education is with the help of Upromise.



Upromise, what is it? First of all, it's Free. Next, in it's most simple description, Upromise is a rewards-type club where you earn free money in a Upromise account towards a child's future education.

How Upromise works:

1) Join Upromise for free

2) Shop for eligible products and services you love

3) Save a portion of qualified spending for college automatically

4) Learn how to invest in a 529 college savings plan

Step 1 is nothing unexpected. They want your name, address...etc. and the name(s) and ages of the children you're setting up the account for. Again, these don't have to be your children. The key part of the sign-up process is to "register" your debit and credit cards as well as your grocery rewards club cards as well.

Why do they need your credit card numbers if it's free? I'll answer that in a minute. Anyway, don't worry about being charged anything or with security issues. Upromise is a well-respected company and was recently purchased by Sallie Mae (the big honking loan company). They don't take personal privacy and security lightly.

The second step is just like it sounds. Buy the products you normally buy. The only difference is that now when you buy them, and use your registered debit/credit card or grocery store rewards card during checkout, a small "thank you" fee is deposited into your Upromise account. These kickbacks aren't just for obscure products either, it's everything from diapers to diet Coke and film to fish sticks. Check the Upromise site for a complete list.

Upromise has been around for a while but their list of partner vendors grows every year. Beyond your grocery savings, they have partnerships with many online retailers, travel providers, local restaurants and even gas stations. Exxon contributes for every gallon you pump! These vendor relationships have larger ticket items that you already buy anyway and also contribute much higher percentages to your account as well.

Besides the fact that it's easy and free, Upromise offers up tips and tricks to get the most money into your account. One tip that you need to take advantage of is having your friends and family (who either don't have kids or just have too much money already) register their cards and link them to your account.

Upromise can send emails to them explaining the whole thing. This lets your savings grow even faster.

Upromise has some calculators on their site to help you estimate your annual savings you can expect. The bottom line...you're not going to put your kid through 4 years at Duke with Upromise. On the other hand, why not spend 10 minutes to get a couple free semesters of books?