If your investment strategies could use a little help, or if you're the type who loves a good incentive program, there are rebate programs available to add a little more to your fund.

Frequently in the news are two such programs: BabyMint and UPromise. The premise of each revolves around program-affiliated vendors or products who have agreed to rebate a percentage (which range from 1% to 10%) of the purchase cost to program members. The rebates are credited to a member's account, which can in turn be invested in a 529 savings plan. As an added bonus, each program also offers a credit card that will provide members with additional rebates on all purchases made, not only qualified products.

A similar credit card is affiliated with Fidelity Investments. Rather than join up with a program, cardholders receive a flat 2% rebate on all qualified purchases.
As far as rewards cards go, each of these has reasonable rates and incentive returns. However, when you speak of saving and credit cards in the same sentence, you must use care, otherwise you defeat your purpose by spending more money-either on purchases or interest fees-than you save. Therefore, a few tips to using credit cards with the purpose of saving for college.

1. Take a good look at each of the incentive plans to ensure that it has the "more bang for your buck" quality. You should choose the one that is affiliated with vendors you already use or products you already buy. Otherwise, you'll most likely spend more money than usual.

2. Take a look at the number of credit cards you already have in your wallet. If you are serious about saving money, think about replacing one of your existing cards with one that works with a 529 College Savings Plan rather than adding an additional card to your collection.

3. If you are using a credit card's incentive program to save money, be sure that you pay off your balance each month. If you don't, the money spent on interest fees is money that could have been contributed to savings.

4. Be aware that the card rebates are not meant to replace your individual contributions. Even if you make every effort to max out the amount of rebates added to your 529 account every year for 18 years, at the very most you'll earn enough for a few semesters. And remember that to achieve rebates, you have to use the card for purchases. Purchase judiciously, and rather than saying to yourself "oh, if I buy that, I'll get a rebate toward our education account," think about the money you can save if you don't make the purchase. Before signing on, make a commitment to make your own contributions to the 529 account to see maximum growth. This will help you to spend and save wisely.

5. Start early. That way you have the advantage of time to help your savings grow. If your child is starting to master calculus and plans to enter college in a year or two, investigate a different method of saving, and fast!

With wise spending habits, you can utilize any of these programs to assist you in your quest to save for education. Investigate each of these cards and their programs to find out if one has a program that will help you start. But always keep in mind that they are meant to assist, not replace, your savings.