Citi Upromise Card Review by AskMrCreditCard.com
If you are looking to save extra money for your kids' college education, the upromise college fund 529 plan is a tax-advantage way to accumulate college savings. The Citi® Upromise® Card allows you to earn rebates that is automatically credited into the college savings plan. The Upromise plan allows you to make purchases at participating merchants, in which a portion will be credited into your college savings plan. With the Citi® Upromise® Card, you get
- 10% rebates from participating 7000+ grocers and drugstores
- 2% at Exxon and Mobil stations
- 1% on all other purchases
- Earn 10% rebates for many grocery and drugstore purchases
- Earn 2% rebates on gasoline purchases from Exxon or Mobil stations
- Earn unlimited rebates for grocery, drugstore and gasoline purchases
- Rebates are automatically linked to your Upromise account
- No annual fee
- Low apr
- Great balance transfer deal (balance transfer fee applies)
College Savings Rebates - The Citi® Upromise® Card allows the cardholder to earn "rebates" that are credited towards the Upromise College Savings 529 Plan. You can get 10% rebates from on more than 7000+ grocery and drugstore items. You get 2% on gasoline purchases from Exxon and Mobil locations. You get 1% rebate on all other purchases. For both the grocery/drugstore purchases and the gas purchases at Exxon and Mobil stations, you can earn unlimited rebates. For "other purchases" that earn you 1% rebate, you can get up to $300 or (1% of $30,000) "rebates" in one calendar year.
What is the Upromise 529 Plan
The Upromise College Fund 529 Plan helps you to save for your kids' college education. Like most 529 plans, contributions are made with after-tax dollars (vs a 401k plan) but withdrawals currently are free from federal taxes. The Investment Manager is the Vanguard Group. By participating in the Upromise Plan, you can get rebates from many purchases which are put into the Upromise college savings plan. Presently, Upromise has partnerships with over 40,000+ retail stores and services, 20,000+ grocery and drugstores, 7000+ restaurants and 350+ online retailers. Though you can participate in the Upromise plan without getting a Citi® Upromise® Card, this credit card will allow you earn higher rebates when you shop at groceries and drugstores.
Annual Fee and APR - There is no annual fee for the Citi Upromise Card. The apr is prime rate plus 5.99%. You also get a 0% introductory apr for 12 months on balance transfer. You are allowed 12 months to make your first transfer and you get 0% from the date of transfer. This is an extremely great balance transfer deal (note that a balance transfer fee applies with this offer)l. The average daily balance method (including new purchase) is used to calculate monthly balances.
Recommendations - The beauty about this card is that it makes saving in a 529 plan almost automatic. But the other thing to take note of is that even without this card, you can still earn discounts and rebates as long as you are a Upromise member. Therefore, you don't actually need the card for earn these rebates (though the card gives you something extra). Apart from that, the rebates are just 1% for regular purchases (normal cash rebates but nothing outstanding). Furthermore, they cap it at $300.
If rebates are what you are looking for, then there are much better cash back credit cards that will pay you as much as 5% on certain expense categories and up to 20% for their online shopping partners.
We therefore recommend the Citi® Upromise® Card to parents who intend to enroll in a 529 College Savings Plan (and if they intend to participate in the Upromise program) and want the convenience of automatic savings into their 529 plans. With this card, you get to earn 10% rebates on many grocery and drugstore purchases. No other credit card pays 10% for grocery purchases. You can also earn unlimited rebates for grocery, drugstore and gasoline purchases. Best of all, these rebates are automatically put into your Upromise Savings Plan. Participation in the Upromise plan will allow you to earn even more rebates aside from your Citi® Upromise® Card purchases. If you have the discipline to take whatever earnings you have on better cash back cards and deposit them into your kids 529 plan, then you will be better off getting a better cash rebate card. It all boils down to your personality.
Update - Citi is no longer offering this card. Bank of America has taken over the card and existing cardholders have had their cards converted and the features have remained the same.
Positives
| Citi® Upromise® Card | |
| Rebate Formula | |
| Rebate Formula |
10% for participating grocery and drugstore purchases 2% for Exxon and Mobil gasoline purchases 1% for other purchases |
| Caps on Rebates | Earn unlimited rebates for grocery, drugstore and gas purchases. Earn up to $300 in annual rebates for "other purchases". |
| Cost/Fees/Interest rates | |
| Introductory rate | 0% APR on balance transfers for 12 months from date of transfer. Transfers can be made within 12 months. |
| Annual Fees | No annual fee |
| Purchase APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99% |
| Balance Transfer APR | Prime Rate plus 5.99% |
| Cash Advance APR | Prime Rate plus 14.99%, min 19.99% |
| Penalty/Default Rate | Prime Rate plus 23.99%, min 28.99% |
| Min Finance Charge | $0.50 |
| Grace Period | 20 days |
| Balance Calculation Method | Average Daily Balance (including new purchases) |
| Balance Transfer Fee | 3%, min $5.00 ($75 maximum balance transfer fee apply for the introductory offer) |
| Cash Advance fee | 3% ,min $5.00 |
| Over-the-credit-limit fee | $39.00 |
| Late Payment fee |
$15.00 - less than $100 $29.00 - $100 to $1000 $39.00 - $1000 and above |