Sallie Mae’s Upromise to Celebrate 10-Year Anniversary with $20,000 in Prizes

Share Your Story to Enter Upromise Dream Wall Sweepstakes

NEWARK, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In celebration of its 10-year anniversary, Upromise by Sallie Mae introduces the Upromise Dream Wall Sweepstakes for people to win up to $20,000 in cash when they share a dream for the future. Anyone can participate in the sweepstakes by visiting www.UpromisetoDream.com and sharing a story about what they hope their children will accomplish when they grow up. Each week until September 29, an entrant will be randomly selected to win $1,000 for college. Participants are encouraged to vote on their favorite entries, and the person with the most-voted story after 10 weeks will win a grand prize of $10,000.

“The Dream Wall celebrates children’s dreams for the future and aims to inspire more families to plan for their children’s college education.”

“For 10 years we’ve been true to our mission at Upromise to help children accomplish the goal of a college education,” says David Coppins, president of Upromise. “The Dream Wall celebrates children’s dreams for the future and aims to inspire more families to plan for their children’s college education.”

Since its inception in 2001, Upromise’s reward network has grown to include more than 900 online stores, 8,000-plus restaurants, and thousands of grocery and drugstore items. This year alone, Upromise added a mobile application for members to locate savings on their smartphones, as well as added 3,000 local businesses across the nation.

Free to join at Upromise.com, members have earned more than $625 million in cash rewards since 2001 to help save and pay for college. Cash earned from everyday spending goes directly into a Upromise account and can be invested in a tax-deferred 529 plan, deposited into a Sallie Mae High-Yield Savings Account, used to help pay down a Sallie Mae eligible student loan, or requested by check. To date in 2011, $13.2 million of Upromise rewards were deposited into Upromise 529 plans, $3 million was applied directly to Sallie Mae student loan balances, and $1.2 million was deposited into Sallie Mae High-Yield Savings accounts.

Sallie Mae (NYSE: SLM) is the nation’s No. 1 saving, planning and paying for college company. Serving 23 million customers, Sallie Mae offers innovative savings tools, tuition payment plans and education loans that promote responsible financial habits and reward success. Through its subsidiaries, the company manages or services $234 billion in education loans and administers $38 billion in 529 college savings plans. Members of its Upromise college savings rewards program have earned $625 million to help pay for college. Sallie Mae is also one of the leading financial service providers for universities and governments at all levels, including supporting $8 billion in ecommerce transactions annually at nearly 1,000 campuses. More information is available at www.SallieMae.com. SLM Corporation and its subsidiaries, commonly known as Sallie Mae, are not sponsored by or agencies of the United States of America.