Awhile back, I posted on joining the Upromise program.

To update, I am still very happy with the program and would highly recommend it to anyone who is saving for college or trying to pay down student loans. It’s been about nine months since I joined. In that time, I’ve picked up $204 in rewards towards my Sallie Mae college loan, though I would tend to think that I buy more stuff online than most people because of my business.

The bulk of the rewards comes from two sources: eBay and eRewards. eBay offers 1 percent rewards for every purchase. We buy a lot of our business supplies through eBay venders rather than traditional suppliers. As example, we buy packing tape, static bags, some boxes, packing supplies, office supplies, general equipment, and more. Since I already bought these items on eBay, it fit right in without any disruption to my normal habits.

I was highly skeptical of eRewards when I signed up. I just didn’t buy into the whole “take surveys, earn money” line. But, I figured if they had partnered with Sallie Mae, I would give them a shot. I might spend an hour a month taking surveys, quite often taking them as I’m working on other tasks on my computer. I’ve managed to get $50 worth of credit to my Upromise account through eRewards during the nine months I’ve been signed up.

I’ve also picked up rewards from Newegg (the best place in the world for desktop computer parts), Office Max, our local grocery store and our favorite local BBQ joint, Biggs.

The best, and most consistent, way to use the program is still to install the browser toolbar. Otherwise, you have to go to the Upromise site, log in, find the store you want to shop at, then finally click on a link to the store to make sure you get your rewards. It’s a pain. Sadly, while a better option, the toolbar is still annoying. It briefly routes you through the Upromise site every time you visit a site that gives rewards. It delays loading the desired site by maybe a second. Sometimes, if you open a page on a rewards giving site in a new tab, the re-routing kicks in again and dumps you off at the stores main page. Annoying. But, still better than having to manually go through the Upromise site. I still suggest running two browsers, one for you daily use and one for shopping. I run dual instances of Firefox (which I finally learned how to do a few months ago).

At the pace I’ve been earning rewards, I figure I will have earned the equivalent of three extra payments by the end of the year. I can’t stress enough that I think I buy more online than the average person, but I still think the program can be good for anyone trying to pay down a Sallie Mae student loan. Even earning one extra payment a year for a few years could shave serious money off your student loans.

Okay, eventually we’re going to finish slogging through all the changes. Today we’ll tackle the new PowerSeller reward system. There are basically two components to this, fee reduction and greater protection.

PowerSeller discounts on Final Value Fees (or Transaction Services Fees)

-DSRs of 4.6 or more (based on the last 30 days): 5% Final Value Fee discount

-DSRs of 4.8 or more (based on the last 30 days): 15% Final Value Fee discount

For years I’ve thought PowerSellers deserved additional rewards for maintaining their status. So, while this should be a “WooHoo!” type moment for PowerSellers, this won’t offset the fee increase some of us will be seeing. Also, I want to see numbers about how many PowerSellers actually maintain that DSR of 4.8 in every category. Some of the best sellers I know carry a 4.7 or 4.6 in at least one category. There’s also the question of exactly what is the carrot for a seller. Especially in shipping fees, lowering shipping cost to attain a 4.8 in that category could end up costing sellers far more than the fee savings.

Expanded and Extended Unpaid Item (UPI) Protection Program

-Expanding to single-item fixed price listings

-Extending refund of Feature Fees permanently

eBay is still not automatically refunding list fees and the new feature fee refund only applies to PowerSellers. If a buyer doesn’t pay, all fees should be refunded. Not just for PowerSellers, for everyone. Unfortunately, unpaid items still represent profit for eBay while they represent loss of time and money for sellers.

Expanded seller protection from PayPal beginning February 2008

-Protection for any shipping address, not just a confirmed address

-Unlimited annual coverage, not just $5,000 per year

-Global coverage, extended to 190 countries around the world

Color me skeptical on this one until I see it in action. Anecdotal evidence I’ve heard from other sellers indicates that buyers win disputes the vast majority of the time. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any hard evidence to prove the system does or doesn’t work. This makes business sense for eBay and PayPal. Many sellers need eBay and losing the occasional dispute might piss them off, but too much of their livelihood is tied up in each service to leave. A single lost dispute by a buyer could easily drive that customer away forever. I would like to see some more openness about how this system works. Provide statistics about the current seller protection program, including the number of sellers who have be reimbursed and the total amount given back to sellers. This would give everyone more (or a lot less) confidence in the program.

All of the PowerSeller rewards strike me as trying to divert attention away from the negative changes. Few people will qualify for the big fee discount no matter how good their service and shipping prices are. eBay still keeps some of the fees sellers pay when an item isn’t paid for (and a lot more from non-PowerSellers). And they will expand a system almost no one qualifies for in the first place. It all looks good on paper, but falls flat in real life.