Withdrawing Funds From Upromise
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FacebookA long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… I signed up for a Upromise account on a whim. I knew that it would never really make a dent in our college savings, but I’m a big fan of free money, so why not?
For the most part, I just ignore the fact that we even an account, but every once in awhile I log in and check out our balance. This past weekend I did just that, and discovered that we have $44.96 in savings built up — mostly from . Woohoo! That’s enough money to go to the trouble of withdrawing it. What’s that you say? You didn’t know that you could just withdraw the funds rather than investing them through Upromise? Sure enough, you can do just that.
Here’s the scoop straight from Upromise:
Can I withdraw company contributions from my Upromise account without transferring them to a savings plan, and if so, how?
You can withdraw your Upromise contributions at any time during your membership. To withdraw company contributions from your Upromise account, submit a letter in writing to Upromise requesting a withdrawal from your Upromise account. The letter must state your full name and exact amount that you would like to withdraw, up to total amount available in your account, pending contributions are not eligible for withdrawal.
For the protection of our members, we require that your letter either be notarized or contain a Signature Guarantee if the withdrawal request is in excess of $200. A Signature Guarantee is a guarantee you can obtain from a financial institution, such as your bank, that your signature is yours and that it is genuine.
Withdrawal letters should be sent to:
Upromise
ATTN: Customer Care
P.O. Box 55555
Boston, MA 02205-5555Checks are sent once per calendar quarter, so you should typically receive your check within 12 weeks of your request being received.
To make your savings work for you, you may want to consider transferring your company contributions to an investing plan for a future college student.
So there you have it… Just whip up a letter including the requested information, send it to the above address, and then wait. As long as you’re withdrawing less than $200, there’s no need to deal with obtaining a Signature Guarantee.In my experience, it actually takes quite awhile to get your check — they say up to 12 weeks because checks are sent once per quarter, and it was at least that — but the check does come. You’re then free to do anything you want with the money.
Published on October 16th, 2006 - 24 Comments
Filed under: Education, Saving & Investing
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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24 Responses to “Withdrawing Funds From Upromise”
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October 16th, 2006 at 11:43 am
I did that too, and yes it took a really long time. I forgot about it by the time it came, so yay, free money!
October 16th, 2006 at 12:30 pm
Wait a minute, aren’t there tax implications to withdrawing this money? Technically, isn’t it income? I believe it’s only tax-free if used for education.
We have over $400 in our account, which I have considered moving into a 529 college savings account. Whoa! I just found out that Upromise can now link to a variety of these accounts, not just the Vanguard option. I might need to reconsider the 529 account.
October 16th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Andrew, that’s a really good question. In general, I think of Upromise ‘earnings’ as being (effectively) rebates. I’m by no means an expert on this, but I wouldn’t think they’d be any more taxable than money you otherwise save by using coupons, mailing in rebates, or cashing in on credit card rewards. Think discount as opposed to income. Here again, don’t take me at my word — you’ll need to verify this with someone that’s more well-versed in the tax codes than I am.
October 16th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
As you say, it’s essentially free money. I’ve had an account for almost a year now and I’ve saved up a grand total of $13.26! Woohoo! Still, it only took a few minutes to set up, so it was worth it.
October 16th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
Thanks! This is new info to me. I haven’t signed up for UPromise but now I probably will
October 17th, 2006 at 8:23 am
Thanks for being a fan of “Free Money”.
October 18th, 2006 at 12:10 pm
We have over $1,000 in the Upromise account (because we have relatives joining in with us)! I am anticipating extracting the money and funding a Roth.
January 24th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
Upromise dollars are considered REBATES, so the money you withdraw is indeed nontaxable.
The program isn’t nearly as good as it promised to be, when it started 5 years ago. Lots of mismanagement…for example, you used to save on Kelloggs and Coca-Cola products, but many of these partners are leaving in droves. You’re better off with any number of the competing credit card loyalty programs where you can save much more.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Ukidme — it doesn’t cost anything and you just link your cards (credit cards, grocery cards etc) and it just works. It’s not like you have to pick one or the other. ie you could be in a credit card loyalty program AND be in Upromise.
I didn’t know about the fact that you could extract the money — but that’s ok, I needed to set up a 529 for my daughter anyway. It’s a nice bonus that every quarter there’s a little something extra contributed by upromise.
October 25th, 2007 at 2:59 am
I use the Citi Upromise credit card for all my purchases and every quarter the remaining money gets swept into my student loan. This is what I was doing with ThankYou points but it eliminates the step of calling Citi and requesting a check.
I haven’t gotten any friends or family to sign up for it yet, that’s where the real savings is I think.
October 26th, 2007 at 10:05 pm
I’ve been a Upromise member for about 2 years now. I love going to the grocery store and looking for those little blue-and-yellow tags. I can ususally spot one about every 3 aisles! I always get about a dozen frozen Swanson t.v. dinners, well, even though no one in my family eats them, but think of the savings! My balance after 2 years got all the way up to $11.13. I filled up my car’s gas tank! Well, I got the needle up to 1/4 anyway! Like everyone says, it’s free money! Woohoo!
October 27th, 2007 at 8:24 am
The problem I seem to run into is that the Upromise items are always more expensive. You don’t find them on store brands! I’ve been signed up for over a year and I’ve only made something like .60 cents (I’m a college student right now). But you are probably buying a lot more groceries than me to feed those mouths.
That is AWESOME though that you’ve made so much. Congrats!
October 27th, 2007 at 8:45 am
We don’t actually do anything different when we shop. I just enrolled the cards and then every once in awhile (like about once a year) I log in to upromise to see where we’re at.
It builds up pretty (very!) slowly, especially since we buy a lot of store brands. But since we don’t do anything special, it really is free money.
November 6th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
I have been with upromise for approximately one year. I have had nothing but trouble for the past 3 months trying to log into my account. Upromise unilaterally CHANGED my password and now, although they have no problem bombarding me with emails EVERYDAY about savings, they can’t seem to connect me to my account. I have talked with service techs, emailed, and requested my password for months. One of the problems that I see is that, I won an auction for over $2K on eBay (one of their merchants) in July. In August, the last time I was able to access my account, I had not received any credits for my eBay winnings (numerous auction winnings, not just the $2K)….When I complained, for some strange reason, I could no longer get into my account. I have spent over 2 hours talking with techs, and they just tell me that upromise is having technical “difficulties” with “SOME” of the accounts. When I go to the home page, I receive the “Welcome, _____”, and shop on line at their preferred merchants….But, the real big ticket credits NEVER arrive in your account!!!! Only the grocery stores!!!! This is a scam.
January 29th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
I’m surprised to see how little some of you have made. If you sign up for the Upromise master card and add that card to your Upromise credit card list, you’ll save tons. 1% of all your purchases are put into this account. Plus whatever participating merchants contribute on top of that. We don’t go crazy with spending either – we pay off the credit card each month. But all purchases we make are with this cc. I’ve had the account over 5 years now and have earned over $2000. Most of the contributions have been from the MC. I withdrew $1500 last year to buy my freshman in college a Dell laptop. I was wondering if I’d have any tax implications for 2007 – it sounds like not from what I am reading above. This is an awesome program.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
I’ve done the same…
February 9th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
We have been putting $$ into a upromise account for 4 years, both purchases and % of credit card purchases. We recently tried to get the $$ out–no luck. I spent several hours on the phone with someone who I had difficulty understanding. She kept checking with her supervisor. Finally, she said that since my daughter also had a upromise account we needed to be her “friend” and then we could transfer money to her account. We did all of those things–no luck. I didn’t realize that we could simply write a letter and withdraw. I can’t believe it could be that simple after the runaround we got but it’s worth a try. Thanks!
August 7th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
We’ve been members for only seven months and already have $70.00
I think people don’t remember to shop online through the Upromise links.
Got $10 for ordering my Sears dishwasher online for store pickup.
Got $ from Best Buy by ordering online for instore pickup.
Got $ for ordering clothes from JCPenney online.
March 10th, 2009 at 9:21 pm
I am beginning to think Upromise is a scam. I signed my son up in Oct 08. We have not been able to access his account because it is linked to his SallieMae loan. They keep saying they are working on the problem but nothing changes. I have to use a new password every time I go into his account and then it changes the SallieMae password. It is totally ridiculous and not worth the trouble.
May 20th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
what about now that the upromise card changed banks? still the same info to withdraw $$?
December 13th, 2009 at 4:35 pm
From everything that I see Upromise really works if you are banging out bucks and spending on cards all the time. Sounds like excess spending. I do spend money but on food for my children. I only buy what I need. I’ve only built $.82 in savings. My 529 plans have made no money in 2-3 years. I’m closing shop and managing my babies future myself.
January 5th, 2010 at 6:20 pm
I use both LittleGrad and UPromise. LittleGrad offers higher rebates, and sweeps automatically into my checking account once each quarter. I signed up for UPromise just for the websites that LittleGrad doesn’t offer cashback on.
I recently discovered that UPromise has been absconding with business I intended to go to LittleGrad. I don’t know how they do it, but it has cost me (hence, my daughter’s 529 plan) about $40 in lost rebates. I AM SO PISSED!
Now that I know how to sweet the UPromise funds, I’ll do that, and shut down the account. Trust me – check out LittleGrad.com.
January 8th, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Wake up people. Nothing in life is “free”. There is no such thing as “free money”. Upromise is organized through banks and investors. You think they don’t have to report to the IRS every dollar that goes through their fingers? Anyone have a savings account? At the end of the year they send you a IRS 1099, statement of earned interest. Any monies you receive is considered income by the IRS, no exceptions, however some are identified as tax free. If your spending your Upromise money on anything other than schooling your going to pay to Uncle Sam.
January 23rd, 2010 at 1:31 pm
I am so pissed at LittleGrad now! As of January 18, they are “no longer available”. No notice, no email as to why, and – I just realized – they never posted the 3Q or 4Q rebates. I had checked my Littlegrad account earlier this month, and saw that it had something like $35 in it. Grrrrr.
They used to advertise that it could take up to 6 weeks for funds to post to the account. It kind of makes sense, if retailers are waiting to see if merchandise is returned before posting the rebate. I’m hoping that there will be a deposit no later than March. But, with no info from the company, no phone number posted, privacy enacted on whois, I’m not holding my breath. (And I’m considering contacting the local attorney general…)