Went west with G this morning. on Flickr.

Exploring Times Square!

Standing Tall on Flickr.

Nice to have Dag Hammarskjold Plaza virtually to ourselves on a crisp spring morning.

Happy 5 de mayo

UPromise: My Critique and Strategies

It has been a bunch of months since I signed up and started using Upromise, a program that Sallie Mae runs that is designed to “help members save money for college from everyday spending.”  My conclusion is, if you alter where you shop, how/ where you shop and where you eat, you can get some decent money into your kid’s college savings account. My other conclusion is, this program is great for merchants…by giving up a few percent on your margins, you get more customers by associating your business with this program. The question is, is it worth it? And by buying stuff at UPromise merchants are you actually spending more than you would have had you not been participating in the program?  And if you are, why not allocate a certain amount of money that could go into your Kid’s 529 or other college account rather than spending so much time tying to seek out a deal? If you are interested in the game of seeking out Upromise deals and getting the most from the program, below some tips and strategies I follow. 

Buying things online - This is my favorite part of the program. As family in the city, we can’t just get in our car and head to Walmart or Target on a weekly basis. As a city family, we also know that buying household stuff like soap and paper towels at the local Duane Reade (NYC Drugstore) can be quite expensive. Furthermore, with a small city apartment, inventory management is critical. We need enough supplies but can’t fit in too much in our 1 br apt. That’s why I frequent the UPromise website and check for stores like Walmart, Target, etc, and save up my orders until the merchant offering the best price is offering a high % of college savings and I don’t order until I hit a free shipping threshold. Saving 5% plus an extra 3% for using the Upromise MasterCard (disclosure, I work for MasterCard), is great if you are actually paying the lowest price. Saving 8% on items that is 20% higher than you should be paying is stupid. 

Restaurants - The restaurant rewards are generous. You can save up to 19% if you use the Upromise MasterCard. But you have to be careful. If you are looking for family dining out of the city, you are probably fine, but if you are going out in the city, in my experience, I find most of the restaurants that participate in the program to be either too expensive or second rate.  In my other blog, Jay’s NYC Restaurant Reviews, I review restaurants, and trust me, reviewing restaurants from the program website will not make for the best reviews. For me, there’s a local Italian place called Fagiolini. Instead of ordering Seamless (NYC online food delivery) and not getting rewards, when we are having Italian take out, we call the order in and get over 10% back.  Otherwise, my advice would be to not look at the list on the website first and benefit from the rewards if the restaurant you select by other means is on the list. 

Gasoline - I tried out the gasoline rewards on a recent trip when I rented a car. The rewards are at typically more expensive Exxon/Mobil stations. For a $45 or so fill up, I got a lousy penny per gallon and I didn’t get the penny until I reached a 20 gallon threshold.  The only way it is remotely worth it is is you have the Upromise Credit Card and get the extra 2%. But, if you happen to be on the road and see one gas station selling at $3.75 and and the Upromise participating station selling at $3.85, it would be stupid to pay more to get the small credit at the Upromise participating station. 

Car rentals/Groceries/Drugstores - There are some merchants that have old systems or whatever and it takes forever to see deals. For example, I got a deal to Budget Rent a Car and another from Dollar Rent a car a while back and have yet to see the money on my statement. I don’t keep receipts for months and end and find it inconvenient to go through the hassle contacting customer service trying to get my credit. But at the same time, I selected the rental first based on price and second because it was on part of the program, so I feel it is worth pursuing (if I could find a minute - I guess I found time to write this, but I would rather do this than call in a request for an $8 credit).  I also have not been too thrilled with the time it takes to see my credit from CVS and the grocery stores I signed up for.

Other things to note….

In general, I think Upromise does a great job partnering with the company that secures the online deals. This company does the same program for lots of banks (I am observant and the web template looks the same on other bank websites that I have cards with). With that said, I think they should put more of an emphasis on adding more local merchants to the program…. Sunglass Hut and Jos A bank doesn’t do it for me from a local merchant perspective. 

It strikes me as an opportunity to better the program to place more of an emphasis on mobile transactions. The iphone app is quite surface level and is more about finding restaurants and gas station. I don’t need to prove that mobile commerce is the wave of the future…. I think now is the time for the Upromise team to go to market with an app that makes mobile online shopping through the program easier. 

Finally, I would like to see is better acknowledgement/verification that you are actually getting a discount on partner websites. Some partners say, welcome Upromise member, you are getting this ?% off, while others don’t give you any confidence that the deal is going through. Yes, you get a screen when you go from the Upromise website and yes, the turbosaver acknowledges the deal, but if I were a partner merchant, I would invest the time to both acknowledge me as a member when I come to the site and make reference to the savings on the receipt. In addition to benefiting the consumer, the merchant benefits from better understanding what drives a consumer to buy. 

Ok, that’s it. Please chime in with any thoughts and reactions. Also, would love to see yours.  

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Paying Respects to Whitney on Flickr.

Raccoon on the loose