It is hard to believe that consumers are not taking advantage of every bit of relief offered by the government, but when it comes to a change that was made to the rules for 529 college-savings plans for 2009, it is clear either nobody noticed the news or nobody cared.

At the least, the change made by the government should be a cue for millions of college savers to review their holdings and maybe find a new place to stash their future tuition payments.

College-savings programs - generally known as 529 plans for the section of the Internal Revenue Code they were created under - have been a primary savings tool for parents since they were introduced in the late 1990s. The plans allow for tax-deferred growth of money earmarked for higher education, with investment options ranging from age-based portfolios to individual mutual funds run by the plan's sponsor.

College-savings plans are what fund-industry types call "sticky money," meaning that once they get the cash in house, it tends to stay there until it is withdrawn to pay for college, no matter what happens with performance in the interim. Between the rules for college-savings plans - which are less complicated than most investors know - and the short time horizons compared with retirement savings, college investors tend to stay with the plan they start with.

One other reason for limited movement is that investors are allowed just one "switch" per account per calendar year, a rule designed to curtail transfers that would raise costs or morph into market-timing.

And yet millions of parents have been frustrated by the lack of performance in their college-savings plan. Changing from one plan to the next, or switching allocation options within a program, is a logical response.

That is why, with the economy flagging, the Treasury Department changed the rules for 2009, allowing a second switch. (There is no clear ruling on whether two switches will be allowed in 2010 and beyond.)

"There's no question that some people feel powerless, like they bought into a 529 plan and they're stuck with it," said Joan Marshall, executive director of the College Savings Plan of Maryland and vice chairwoman of the College Savings Plans Network (www.collegesavings.org). "You don't want people moving around all the time, but there are options open right now that most people are not using."

For proof, consider the numbers from Marshall's plan in Maryland, where there are 74,000 account holders and, as of July 31, just 103 of them had used their second exchange for 2009.

Other states are reporting similar numbers.

Consumers should be deciding whether a change is necessary, beneficial, or both.

Because most 529 portfolios are spread over a company's funds in an age-based portfolio, it is tough to compare performance. Lousy performance, of course, becomes obvious, such as in Oppenheimer Funds' nine college-savings plans, all of which were exposed to Oppenheimer Core Bond, which lost more than 35 percent in 2008 on bad bets in mortgage-backed securities.

Lacking a similar disaster, however, results can be a bit deceiving. One plan's age-based portfolio may include a 20 percent allocation to stocks even when the child is entering or in college, while another may have no equities whatsoever at that point. Expenses are always a key performance determinant, and switching to a lower-cost option can be sound thinking. Investors also must consider possible tax ramifications in any move; not every plan is treated equally.

Moreover, barring a switch from an age-based portfolio to something that is fixed on equities while the market is hot, a change will not necessarily result in a huge boost in dollars in the plan come college time.

"The real question is how much risk you can afford to take," said Joseph Hurley, founder of SavingforCollege.com, which developed an independent rating system for 529 plans. "You need to find a program that matches your philosophy, and if the one you are in doesn't meet your thinking, change it now."

Chuck Jaffe is senior columnist for MarketWatch. Reach him at cjaffe@marketwatch.com or at Box 70, Cohasset, Mass. 02025-0070.