A look at UPromise: buying your way to college

I can't remember exactly when I became a UPromise member, but it was early in the company's history. It was July 12, 2000 when they debuted their service, aimed at helping parents save for their children's college education, and by the time my first daughter was born a little over a year later, I had drunk the water and was an enthusiastic member.

Like so many people, I imagine, I signed up, intrigued by their siren call that if you sign up at the UPromise web site and give them your credit card and debit card information and buy a product affiliated with UPromise, things you're presumably buying anyway, perhaps a brand of soap or cereal, a small percentage of your money will go into an account that would be used for your child's college education.