Babymint Credit Card with 529 Plan

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).

The Babymint card addresses one of the main problems with the [tag]CITI Upromise credit card[/tag] by removing the cap on 1% rewards. With BabyMint you earn 1% rewards on all purchases. The question then becomes: are you better off with 1% on all purchases or 2% on annual purchases up to $75,000 (Fidelity 529 card)?

Bearing in mind that the supplemental Babymint rewards are available regardless of which card you use, the comparison is straightforward: if credit card purchases exceed $150,000, the Babymint card will generate greater rewards than a 2% card having a $1,500 annual cap. (Interestingly, both the 1% BabyMint credit Card and the 2% Fidelity card are issued by MBNA.)

Summary: For most families, a 2% 529 reward card is likely a better deal than the Babymint card. Fortunately,Babymint does not require you to have their credit card to participate in the other parts of the program. This allows savvy parents to utilize Babymint in conjunction with other 529 reward cards.