Upromise
 

A friend/co-worker is going to be starting school full time and, like a lot of people, is having some difficulty making ends meet. He found this site that supposedly helps people earn money for school by collecting small percentages of peoples purchases. The more people linked into an account, the more they make.
I know it requires linking credit card accounts, but I find their web page a bit vague.

Has anyone else heard of or used this site?

My initial reaction was "scam" but I don't know if I'm just being paranoid.

I don't know much about it, It's owned by Sallie Mae so it's probably not a scam in the illegal sense of the word. I highly doubt you'd ever get any substantial savings by doing it for short periods of time. It's basically trying to create brand loyalty for the companies that support it. I mean, Wouldn't you be more likely to eat at Mcdonalds instead of Burger King if you knew that your meal was going to add 5 cents to your savings account?

I'd bet it could be taken advantage of though if you start it when the kid is young and have both parents, maybe grandma and grandpas all linked to the account you might actually be able to purchase a book or two with the money you've earned.

I've been using this for years! Apperently I don't buy enough to raise the cash too fast. It works. You need a lot of people in order to get money out of it. It's like a 503b or something. You just don't control the investments.

It's not a scam, it's real. Takes a long time to get real benefits, it's not like you will pay off your loans with it. I suppose it helps though. It's definitely legit.

It's designed with parents of young children in mind. Don't think you can afford your children's education? You might amass enough by the time they're old enough to attend college...