Comments on: Withdrawing Funds From Upromise

By: Pat Milton

Pat Milton — Wed, 20 May 2009 23:03:39 +0000

what about now that the upromise card changed banks? still the same info to withdraw $$?

By: Tracey

Tracey — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 01:21:59 +0000

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.

By: ME

ME — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:32:02 +0000

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.

By: cate

cate — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:01:56 +0000

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!

By: Kristina

Kristina — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:34:09 +0000

I’ve done the same…

By: Mary

Mary — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 03:40:22 +0000

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.

By: DCD

DCD — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 20:58:47 +0000

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.

By: nickel

nickel — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 12:45:54 +0000

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.

By: Lou

Lou — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 12:24:40 +0000

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!

By: Joseph

Joseph — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:05:03 +0000

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!

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 06:59:14 +0000

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.

By: cradle

cradle — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:27:33 +0000

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.

By: UKidme

UKidme — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 18:20:18 +0000

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.

By: foolarch

foolarch — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 16:10:04 +0000

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.

By: FMF

FMF — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 12:23:50 +0000

Thanks for being a fan of “Free Money”.

By: Cathy

Cathy — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 00:53:53 +0000

Thanks! This is new info to me. I haven’t signed up for UPromise but now I probably will

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 17:37:14 +0000

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.

By: nickel

nickel — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:44:55 +0000

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.

By: Andrew Flusche

Andrew Flusche — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:30:33 +0000

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.

By: Kira

Kira — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 15:43:22 +0000

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!