BabyMint Adds Ability to Accelerate Repayment of Student Loan Debt Through Shopping Rebates

College Savings Program Relaunches with Added Features to Mark the Start of College Savings Month

ATLANTA, GA (PRWEB) September 2, 2004 -- BabyMint, the nation's leading college savings accelerator, announced today the launch of BabyMint 3.0, a dramatically enhanced version of its award-winning college savings program. Through the BabyMint program, consumers receive up to a 30% rebate on everyday purchases made through BabyMint's network of more than 500 in-store, online, and catalog retailers. Retailer rebates are automatically tracked and deposited into virtually any 529 college savings plan or Coverdell educational savings account of the consumer's choosing. According to Financial Research Corporation, merchant and credit card rebates, such as those facilitated by BabyMint, have the potential to represent an incremental $1.1 billion per year in assets to individual investors.

Along with a revision of the BabyMint website and the addition of several top name retailers to its shopping network, the newly expanded program is now providing members the ability to direct their shopping rebates towards the outstanding balance of their student loans -- thereby accelerating the payoff of their debt. "For the past four years BabyMint has been helping families generate incremental college savings and -- through our 'Tuition Rewards' program -- qualify for guaranteed scholarship credits. Now, BabyMint 3.0 further enhances our leadership position in the college savings arena by allowing parents and families to direct their shopping rebates towards the repayment of their student loan debt," says Peter Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of BabyMint. "No other college savings program offers this three-pronged solution to the challenge of educational funding."

According to "The Burden of Borrowing: A Report on the Rising Rates of Student Loan Debt," published by the Public Interest Research Group, the average loan debt is $16,243 for students graduating from four-year public institutions and $17,613 for those attending four-year private institutions. "Next to retirement, educational funding is one of the most difficult financial planning problems families face," says Jordan Goodman, an eighteen-year veteran of Money Magazine and author of "Everyone's Money Book," a best- selling book on personal finance. "Unfortunately, many families often find that student loans are a necessity. BabyMint's enhanced ability to accelerate the repayment of those loans makes it a program every family should join."

About BabyMint
Widely recognized as the nation's leading college savings accelerator, BabyMint is the flagship brand of Vesdia Corporation. BabyMint's proprietary "savings engine" enables consumers to save toward a child's college education, accumulate tuition credits, and/or pay down student loan debt while doing their daily shopping. By directing rebates on everyday purchases into their educational savings accounts, or against the outstanding balance of their student loans, consumers can work towards their educational funding goals. The BabyMint program is also offered by more than 20,000 financial advisors who provide it to their clients as an enhancement to any college saving account, including federal income tax free 529 plans and Coverdell education savings accounts (formerly known as Education IRAs). For more information please visit http://www.babymint.com

About Vesdia Corporation
Headquartered in Atlanta, Vesdia is the nation's leading microinvesting technology company. Through its nationwide network of retailers and name brands, Vesdia's patent-protected technology enables individual investors to save towards major life events without incurring out-of-pocket expenses. In addition to serving as the "savings engine" behind its own award-winning coalition loyalty savings programs, BabyMint and NestEggz, the company's proprietary technology is also licensed by more than a dozen financial institutions, retailers, and credit card issuers in the U.S. and Canada to facilitate customer loyalty. For more information please visit http://www.vesdia.com

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