LittleGrad.com
Thanks to a comment I got from Joyce on my Saving for my retirement post I got Dad to check out LittleGrad.com. Essentially LittleGrad.com is a service that provides links to sponsoring companies that will deposit money into your child’s 529 savings plan for shopping at their stores. Basically they have a list (a very extensive one at that) of all participating companies. If you click on a link from LittleGrad.com you will be taken to the company’s site and any purchases you make at their website will be eligible for the bonus that gets deposited into the 529 plan. Each store has their own deal, most are matching percentages some are straight dollar amounts. Most companies will deposit 4-10% of your purchase into the 529 plan, but some companies offer up to 24% matching funds!!
The cool part is that LittleGrad.com seems to be adding new sponsors almost every day and they have some very big name companies such as Home Depot, Sears, Walmart, Dell, etc. You can see the entire list of participating companies here http://www.littlegrad.com/View.php?pageName=ShopAll
You can actually set up a new 529 plan at LittleGrad.com or you can specify that the money be deposited in an existing 529 plan such as the one Dad opened up for me last month.
There are other companies that provide similar services. Two that I have run across so far are BabyMint and UPromise but in my opinion LittleGrad.com seems to be the most promising as far as the best matching funds and the most companies that are participating.
Anyway if you do a fair amount of online shopping and have a little person in mind it sure is an easy expense free way to contribute to the college savings of your favorite future college graduate.
on March 13th, 2006 at 6:00 pm
You didn’t mention bondrewards.com, they are a similar program. With them you get free us savings bonds. you can use those bonds for education and get more tax breaks, you shop at over 500 merchants and get paid for every purchase. www.bondrewards.com
on March 15th, 2006 at 2:26 pm
Take a look at evreward.com. This is not a rewards program but a comparison engine of rewards programs. For a gazillion stores, you can find what rewards (cash back, frequent flyer, college, points) you can earn for shopping at them. Little Grad, Upromise and Baby Mint are included.
www.evreward.com
on April 15th, 2006 at 6:37 am
You might also like to look at RewardsDB.com - similar idea to evrewards but with more portal (includes littlegrad, upromise & babymint as well as many other cashback and savings portals etc) - I like the interface a lot more when you are looking at a category - you can see all the rewards available for all the merchants at once rather than seeing the ‘best’ offer and having to click on each merchant to pull up the details.
on May 3rd, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Hi Jack,
I’m so glad you like Little Grad! I have a Jack as well and we signed him up right before Christmas last year. His grandparents like it too — we have almost $200 in free money in the 5 months we’ve been on.
Love your blog
Your friend Ms. Jenny
on September 8th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Can you use all thre programs for the same purchase and get essentially triple credit?
on September 13th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Probably not - usually the website you go to purchase only allows one promo program at a time, but you can sign up for all 3 and use the best one for each purchase.