时间：2022-08-27 12:24:40
世界性的经济寒潮扑面而来，企业的招聘计划被冻结或者缩水，面对这样的情势，考研、出国留学的同学递增。OE特开辟“直面留学”版块，为同学介绍留学过程中的种种窍门。
It sounds like just a new twist on the all-too common Nigerian scams or Madoff-style Wall Street bait-and-switch. But it’s true: Some states, businesses, and colleges are really handing out free cash to help build up parents’ college savings accounts.
There are a few catches, of course. Nobody should sign up for anything that sounds suspiciously good without doing a little homework. And most of the grants and rebates are comparatively modest: The typical family might reap a few hundred dollars. Few parents will get enough free cash to make up for the average 20-plus percent decline in 529 college savings plans over the past year. (Tax-protected education savings accounts are called 529s after the part of the Internal Revenue Service code that created them.)
Still, those who collect the grants when their children are young or who are diligent about maximizing rebates could generate several extra thousand dollars.
There are six sources of free cash for college savings:
States: In at least nine states, government agencies or charities offer grants for college savings to local residents. Maine, for example, in 2009 started handing out $500 to babies born in the state for whom anopens a Maine 529. In states such as Arkansas, Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, Rhode Island, and Utah, the matching grants go only to low-and middle-income families. Louisiana, New Jersey, and a few other states offer different kinds of grants or scholarship programs to encourage savers.
Employers: In 2008, Unum started giving new parents grants of $700.
Credit cards: Fidelity offers an American Express card that will rebate 2 percent of all purchases to a Fidelity 529. Upromise just launched a Mastercard that will send rebate checks or funnel rebates to a Upromise 529 account or to reduce Sallie Mae educational loans. The new card will rebate at least 1 percent on all purchases, 10 percent on groceries at selected stores, and―if consumers choose―additional rebates on certain gasoline or restaurant purchases. Babymint, Futuretrust, and FreshmanFund offer credit cards that rebate at least 1 percent to any 529 account.
Websites: Babymint, Littlegrad, Futuretrust, Upromise, and other rebate websites will send cash back to shoppers who click through their sites to partner retailers.
Colleges: Several hundred colleges are offering matching grants for parents who sock away college savings. A marketing company, Sage Scholars Inc., has persuaded 230 private colleges to guarantee “Tuition Rewards” scholarships to students from families who invest or shop with Sage’s business partners. And 274 private college members of the prepaid Independent 529 plan give parents at least a half-percentage-point discount if they buy tuition for a youngster at today’s cost. Dickinson College upped the discount ante last year, adding an extra 4 percent to its inflation discount. That means a family with a 10-year-old who puts about $29,000 in the plan today will have paid a year’s tuition in 2017, even though a year’s tuition in 2009 is nearly $40,000 and, at the current rate of inflation, will probably reach $60,000 in eight years.省略 and Ugift offer electronic tools to make it easier to ask relatives and friends to donate to your college savings account in lieu of, say, a birthday or graduation gift.
（责编：王莉娟）