The 529 college savings credit card market has seen a major shakeout over the last several months. The financial crisis, coupled with enactment of the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009 has prompted card issuers to scrutinize their offerings and abandon lines of business not deemed profitable. As a result, where once there stood 5-6 529 Reward credit cards jousting for your business, now there are just two significant players: Fidelity and Upromise.
529 Credit Cards Now Defunct
- Futuretrust 529 Credit Card – From their website: “On March 1, 2010 Destination Maternity Corporation announced the termination of the Futuretrust® MasterCard® Program. We greatly appreciate your membership in the program and we regret any inconvenience that the termination of the program may cause you.”
- Babymint 529 Credit Card – No mention of credit card on their website.
- Babycenter 529 Credit Card – No mention of credit card on their website.
- Savingforcollege 529 Credit Card – No mention of credit card on their website.
Fortunately, these two have long been the best 529 credit card offerings.
In the past, the Fidelity 529 credit card was our clear choice because it offered the best reward (2% of all purchases) and because it was a MasterCard accepted almost everywhere. The Fidelity 529 MasterCard is still going – but only for cardholders grandfathered in. All new Fidelity 529 cards are issued under the American Express label which is not as widely accepted as MasterCard or Visa.
So, today the choice between Fidelity and Upromise 529 Reward credit card is less clear. Much will depend the things you buy with a credit card and whether the merchants you frequent accept American Express. Upromise has now focused its cards to provide more generous rewards for certain classes of purchases – i.e. gas, groceries and dining. Below is a summary of the terms and conditions of each of the major contenders to help you select the best 529 credit card to match your needs.
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