Credit Cards That Help You Save for College
Upromise
Upromise - Join millions of families who are discovering a whole new way to save for college
The CITI Upromise 529 credit card provides a straightforward 1% reward for most anything you buy with the card up to a yearly cap of $300. Then things get complicated:
- You can get an additional 10% reward for purchases on some 7,000+ grocery and drugstore brand-name items, but only if you buy from stores in the Upromise network and only if you use the stores' loyalty card in addition to the CITI Upromise Card. If the store you shop at has no loyalty card, you must be sure to register the CITI Upromise card as both a credit card and a grocery card on the Upromise website.
BabyMint
The [tag]BabyMint Credit Card[/tag] With [tag]529 Plan[/tag] provides a 1% reward for most anything you buy with no yearly cap. Additional benefits:
- You can get additional 7% rewards on purchases made from the several hundred (mostly on-line) merchants in the Babymint network.
- Gift certificates purchased from [tag]Babymint[/tag] merchants earn a 5% rebate.
- It is important to note that, as with Upromise, you are not required to have the Babymint credit card to earn these supplemental BabyMint rewards (i.e. other than the 1% reward).
BabyCenter
Like the Savingforcollege credit card, the BabyCenter MasterCard allows earned rewards to be directed to the savings account of your choice: - "a 529 college savings plan, a mutual fund, or a money market account". Although the main pitch is to direct rewards towards college savings, it's made clear that earnings can be used for "anything else you'd like to save for." Rewards are earned at the standard 1% with no annual cap. Baby Center also has an associated Baby Center Savings Program that is a clone of the BabyMint program.
Fidelity
Understanding the MBNA credit 529 card is quite simple: Use the card and get 2% of eligible purchases automatically deposited into one of three 529 plans managed by Fidelity Investments. There are no complicated tiered rebate structures to monitor, no brand-specific rebate variations - just a flat 2% on pretty much everything you buy with the card. A few obvious exclusions (e.g. no rebates on ATM advances, balance transfers or credit card fees) do apply, but these are standard with all rebate cards.
The Fidelity/MBNA 529 Card pays this rebate on up to $75,000 of purchases ($1,500 maximum rebate) made in any 12-month period. Competing 529 reward cards typically pay 1% unless you buy from "partner" merchants in which case the reward levels are higher. The very generous 2% reward level coupled with the high annual rebate cap make this one of the best reward credit cards anywhere.
Savingforcollege
The Savingforcollege Investments Reward Credit Card is not a "529 college savings card" in the strict sense. Rather, the card's main distinguishing feature is that it allows earned rewards to be directed to any type of investment account - "a savings account, a mutual fund, a 529 college savings plan, or even a money market account". Presumably, rewards could be used for retirement savings or other non-college uses. Rewards are earned at the standard rate of 1% with no cap. There is no associated merchant network where additional rebates can be earned; however, the card is affiliated with Savingforcollege.com, an excellent source of information for all types of college savings plans.
Futuretrust
The Futuretrust 529 Credit Card is another basic 1% 529 rewards card. The card does share one important negative feature with The Education Plan card: you must have the credit card to benefit from the supplemental merchant rebates offered through Futuretrust network merchants - other credit cards cannot be used.
Other drawbacks of this card are the relatively short 20 day grace period and APR rates that are on the high side compared to the other 529 reward cards. Futuretrust APRs start at 12.74% and range as high as 16.74% depending on credit history.
Free College Money: Credit Cards That Help You Save for College
Welcome to 529Rewards.com.
This site is about helping parents fund their children's 529 plan using free cash from college savings reward programs. Finance experts agree that, used wisely, college savings tools such as 529 plan reward credit cards and 529 plan reward savings clubs are a great way for families to supplement college savings. The key to using these programs effectively is to resist the pitch: companies offer these programs because, in the aggregate, they know they will lead to higher spending on their products or services. Wise consumers learn to maximize their earned rewards without altering their spending habits. More about 529 rewards...