Upromise: Earn Money For College or Pay off Student Loans
I’ve mentioned Upromise here and there, but never really talked about it much, so I figured this is the best time to do a post, especially with many people going back to school this fall.
College is expensive. Even more expensive in hindsight if you have student loans to pay off. Upromise gives you many ways to earn money back on purchases you’re already making and the program is extremely passive, meaning you sign up and then there’s not much else you need to do to earn money back. That’s what I love best about Upromise.
Let me say this as well: You do not have to use Upromise earnings to pay for college. They will also send you a check. So just because you’re not in school, not in debt, or not planning to pay for your kids college, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of earning money from Upromise.
These are the easy ways you can earn from Upromise:
- Shop Online
- Buy Gas
- Buy Groceries
- Eat at Restaurants
- Travel
Those are things I already do every month as I’m just living my life. If you sign up for Upromise, you can start earning money back on those things without doing any extra work.
Okay, it’s a little extra work, but ultimately it’s pretty passive. Here’s what you do after you sign up:
- Register your credit cards and debit cards, and all of your dining and gas purchases will automatically be credited to your account.
- Register your grocery and drug store cards (you know, those loyalty cards you get from places like CVS, Jewel, Albertsons, etc) so your eligible grocery purchases are automatically tracked.
- Activate the eCoupons every month for extra grocery earnings.
- Install the Turbosaver toolbar. It does not slow your computer down and it will automatically credit you for any eligible online purchases (I have mine installed, but hidden so it doesn’t take up space on my browser).
Do those things and you’re all set to passively earn cash back. As a bonus, Upromise provides exclusive coupons and online deals to make your shopping experience even sweeter.
If you want extra savings, Upromise offers a credit card, which rewards an extra 1% on all purchases and 10% on grocery purchases, plus either 10% on dining or 2% on gas. Be careful with this though. I’m a firm believer that credit cards should only be used for emergencies or used very carefully and paid off every single month.
In addition to earning for yourself, you can invite friends and family to sign up and earn on your behalf. Since it’s pretty passive, it’s not too hard to convince Mom, Dad, Aunt, Uncle, or the creepy extra-friendly guy from work to sign up and help you pay for college. There’s also a guest shopping link you can send out so people can shop and earn without signing up.
How do you receive this money you’ve earned? There are many different options. First you can link your Upromise Account to your Sallie Mae account to pay down your student loans (that’s what I do). Whenever your account reaches $25, it’s automatically transferred quarterly to your loans. You can also invest the money into a 529 college savings plan or transfer to other friends and family members. If none of that floats your boat, you can request a check be sent to you.
My personal experience with Upromise has been great. I use it passively and make sure it doesn’t dictate where I shop or what I buy. I use it as a tool to save money and earn money and I think anyone can benefit from it.
If you don’t want to sign up for Upromise, but would like to “guest shop” for me (I get the percentage from your purchases and you get deals and coupons from Upromise) you can do it through this link. All of my Upromise earnings go straight to my Sallie Mae account to pay off my loans.
Upromise Stats
Info Required to Sign Up: Name, email, address, phone number. Optional info about credit cards and loyalty cards you want to register.
Sign up bonuses: I believe you’re entered into a sweepstakes.
How money is earned: Cash back for buying gas, dining out, groceries, and shopping online.
Value of action: Depends on the partner, exact percentages are available on the site.
Redemption options: Check, transfer to pay Sallie Mae loan, or transfer into college savings account.
Fees or rules for redemption: Minimum $25 to pay loans, automatically transferred quarterly
Paying a Little Extra on Student Loans Really Adds Up
I haven’t written too much about my personal finances on this blog in the past year, and that’s mostly because I’ve spent the majority of the year unemployed, so it’s been very tough.
One of the biggest strains on my finances is the immense amount of student loan debt I amassed before I graduated from college in 2008. I had no idea when I took out the loans to pay for school exactly how much a financial burden it would be, especially since everyone kept saying, “Oh, just take out the loans and then with your degree you’ll get a good job and pay them off.”
Obviously, that has not been the case. The economy sucks, unemployment is high, and I haven’t had a decent paying job since graduation. I spent most of the time since graduation putting my loans in forbearance, so I didn’t have to make payments but the interest kept piling up and adding on to my principal. It was a snowball effect.
By the time I was able to start making payments on my loans in January of this year (thanks to a temporary job), my monthly payment was $1024.43 for my private loans. That’s a lot. In fact it was just a little bit less than I was making each month after taxes. Luckily I don’t have expense many people have like rent or a car, but it’s tough to make those payments every month (even more so now that I’m not working).
In March, I wrote about ways to help pay off your student loans, and the first tip I mentioned was paying a little extra each month.
I know it may not seem like it makes a difference, especially if you’re only paying a couple extra dollars a month, but it does. With Sallie Mae (and probably other lenders as well) anything extra you pay each month is applied to your principal balance (as long as any interest or fees were already paid). Those couple dollars each month are shaving off of the amount you’re charged interest on, which decreases the amount of interest you pay each month. That in turn means more of the money you pay each month ends up going towards your principal and so on.
But how does a couple of dollars make a difference? Well, I’ll show you, with evidence from my e-bills.
As I said before, my monthly payment was $1024.43 a month when I started making payments in January.
Instead of paying that exact amount I rounded up and paid $1030 a month. That extra $5.57 a month doesn’t seem like a lot, but it made a difference.
In April my bill came and I noticed Sallie Mae lowered my monthly payment to $1021.63. That’s $2.80 a month less.
You may think, “Oh, 2.80 a month isn’t much.” Well, I have 176 months of payment left, so multiply that by $2.80 and that’s $492.80 I saved.
This is when my job ended, so I lowered the amount I was paying to $1025 a month. That’s only $3.37 extra a month, but it’s something. For last month, I tacked on an extra $10 and paid $1035.
My new bill came yesterday and my new payment is $1021.59 a month.
That’s only a 4 cent adjustment, which isn’t too exciting, but over the next 172 months it will save me $6.88.
So far I’ve saved myself $499.68. That’s a significant chunk of change, and this is only after 7 payments with a little extra. Think of how much more this will snowball when I can pay a little more extra and really start reducing my principal.
My recommendation is that if you’re using this technique and Sallie Mae starts lowering your monthly payments, keep paying the same amount you started out with. You already know how to live on a budget where you’re paying that amount to your student loans, so keep doing it. It will help you pay it down even faster and lower the amount of interest you are paying.
This technique could also be used to pay down other loans or credit card debt.
Unemployed Once Again
As I believe I’ve mentioned briefly before, last December I scored a seasonal job in a tax office. Last Thursday was Tax Day in the US, so I worked a lot in the weeks leading up to it (which explains the lack of regular posting for the past few months). With Tax Day comes the end of the tax season, which means the end of my job, so I am unemployed again.
I have to say that at this point, I feel pretty good about it. Most of that is because I was so overworked the past few weeks that I need a little break. Also, I knew when this job would end when I took it, so I was mentally prepared for this (not at all like last summer when I suddenly lost my job).
Even though I wasn’t preparing taxes and I don’t see a future for myself in that industry, I learned a lot about personal finances and helping people. I plan to take those experiences and move forward, looking for new opportunities and ways to improve this blog and my own thrifty ways.
Being unemployed again will present new challenges in stretching my budget and finding creative ways to earn money, all things I will share here.
Mostly, the point of this post, is just to share a little optimism. I know a lot of other people out there are unemployed and have been for a long time. Things are not better yet, but they’re starting to get better. This is not the be all and end all. And things could certainly be much worse. So, let’s keep our chins up and be on the look out for our next opportunity.
Also, I’ll be a lot more active on this site with all this extra free time. So look forward to more fun and thrifty content.
Smart Ways to Spend Your Tax Refund
Tax day is two weeks away, and hopefully you’ve file by now. If not, get on that!
If you are lucky enough to receive an income tax refund this year and not owe any money to the IRS, then congratulations! Everyone enjoys the thrill of receiving a big check or extra money they didn’t plan for.
Once you have that extra cash in hand, what do you do with it instead of just blowing it all at an impulse?
Here are some thrifty suggestions on how to put your refund to good use:
- Pay your monthly bills
- Pay off credit card debt
- Make extra payments on other debt like student loans or mortgages
- Start an emergency fund or add on to yours
- Start saving for a big purchase or financial goal
- Invest
- Pay cash for a big purchase instead of buy on credit (car, furniture, appliances, etc)
- Do something fun or interesting you’ve always wanted to do
I used my refund this year to pay extra on my student loans. How will you use your?
Tricks to Pay Off Student Loans After College
If you went to college, it’s pretty likely you’re one of the 2/3rds of student who graduated with an average of $23,186 in student loan debt. I’m one of them, and my debt amount is way more than the average.
Now that I’m out in the real world, I have the challenge of repaying that debt in a tough economy. Since consolidation no longer seems to be an option, there are less tricks to reduce interest and payments. For those who have been unemployed or underemployed since their graduation, paying debts off can seem impossible.
I know I’m not the only one trying to manage student loan debt, so I thought I’d share a few tips on how I save money and try to tackle this huge debt. Most of these tips could easily be applied to other debt, so take what you can and use it to eliminate your debt.
Pay a Little Extra
If you’re currently just paying the minimum each month, think about bumping those payments up a bit. With most lenders, anything extra you pay each month will be applied to your principal (check with yours to be sure).
If paying extra seems like an impossible task, try rounding up your payment to the nearest dollar. Once that seems easy, try round it up to the nearest 10 dollars. Then try tacking on an extra $20 a month.
Push yourself to find extra money to devote to paying off your loans. Try money saving tips like bringing your lunch to work, getting rid of cable, eating out less, etc. Take the extra money you save and tack it on with your monthly payment.
Look for ways to earn extra money. Try legitimate online sites to earn a couple bucks, sell old textbooks or other books, or recycle electronics & other items for cash. You may even want to try UPromise to passively earn money back from shopping online, dining out, & grocery shopping.
The point is, whatever extra you can pay down on your principal reduces the amount of interest you’re charged each month. By reducing that interest, less of your payment each month goes to interest, so more of you principal balance is paid off. This has a snowball effect, reducing the amount you owe much more quickly than just making the minimum payment each month. (Read about how paying a couple bucks extra each month lowered my monthly payments)
Prioritize Your Spending
If you’re like me, you probably have a mixture of loans, private & federal, all with different interest rates and terms. Make sure you prioritize your spending. Put the extra cash towards privates loans with the highest interest rate first. Once you’ve conquered those, move down to the one with the next highest interest rate, and so on.
Federal loans usually have the best interest rates and the most flexible repayment plans, so leave those for last.
Look For Benefits From Your Lender
Many lenders have incentives for borrowers with a good track record. You’ll have to check with your lender for specifics, but I’ve seen lenders that will lower your interest rate by 0.25-0.5% just for making on time payments for a specific period of time. Some lenders will even lower your rate just for signing up to have your bill direct debited from your account each month.
A lower interest rate can equal big savings over the long run, so take advantage of these incentives when you can!
Avoid Loan Deferments & Forbearance
Unless absolutely necessary, do not put your loans in any type of forbearance where you aren’t required to make payments but interest still accrues. This is how many graduates’ somewhat manageable student loan debt balloons into a seemingly unclimbable mountain.
Unfortunately I’ve had to put my loans in forbearance a few times, and I’ve seen first hand the problems it causes. Basically, what happens is your account keeps accruing interest and then at the end of the forbearance period, that unpaid interest becomes capitalized interest, which means your lender can now charge you interest on that capitalized interest. You’re basically increasing the amount of principal balance you owe. After a few months or a few years of forbearance, your debt can snowball in the wrong direction.
If you cannot make payments on your loan and there is no other lower payment plan or option that works for you and you must do the forbearance, then make whatever payments you can (if there’s no penalty). Even if it’s only $10, make that $10 payment, because that’s $10 that won’t be added to your capitalized interest.
These are just a few of the ways to tackle student loan debt. Now, my dear readers, how are you dealing with your debt, or how did you pay off your loans? Let us know.
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About Tiffany
I'm a 20-something living in the big expensive city of Chicago. I'm post-college and bouncing between underemployment and unemployment, while trying my best to be thrifty, save money, pay off my 6 digit student loan debt, and still have fun and enjoy life. I live with my boyfriend, a rabbit, and a chinchilla. Read more.
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