If you’re using a credit card issued by a mega-bank such as Citi, Bank of America, Chase, or Wells Fargo, each credit card swipe could be supporting destructive pipelines, fracking, tar sands, predatory lending, fraudulent foreclosure practices, and outrageous CEO salaries.
Want to make a change by climate-change fighting through your wallet? Eliminate your carbon footprint, and get cash back for doing so.
How? Simply put, by providing a mechanism by which cardholders can take climate action with every swipe of their card.
Try these eco-friendly credit cards and debit cards to help support the environment.
Top Eco-Friendly Credit Cards That Support The Environment
As the world becomes more aware of the importance of taking care of the planet, companies are beginning to offer eco-friendly credit cards. These credit cards help support businesses and organizations that are environmentally friendly. Here are some of the best eco-friendly credit cards available.
Spend daily with Zero to neutralize your footprint and earn up to 1% cash back. Use your rewards to plant more trees or receive a statement credit. Sign up today and earn $300 by spending $3000 within your first 3 months.
- Welcome bonus
- Aspiration advertises a more eco-friendly ethos than most banks
- Transactions with the card fund tree planting efforts to offset carbon emissions
- $60 annual fee
- There’s a foreign transaction fee
- Earns relatively low cash-back rewards on purchases
Get 5% cashback on selected climate-friendly purchases with FutureCard Visa® Card, and 1% back on everything else.
- No annual fee
- No interest charges
- No welcome bonus
- Does not report to credit bureaus as its a secured charge card
- 5% cash back is capped at $25k in annual purchases
- Physical cards not available yet
Green America credit card lets you support a clean environment, local and green businesses, fair housing loans, and more.
- No annual fee
- 0% introductory APR for 12 billing cycles on purchases and balance transfers
- Zero fraud liability
- Chip card security
- Rewards program is lacking
Our Pick
Aspiration is the leader in the market of fighting back and taking climate action with every swipe of its card.
Each time a customer makes a purchase with the Aspiration Zero credit card, Aspiration will fund the planting of a tree through one of Aspiration’s global reforestation partners. This includes Eden Reforestation, Arbor Day Foundation, and One Tree Planted.
Through Aspiration’s Plant Your Change (“PYC”) program, cardholders can double their impact by rounding up their change and planting an additional tree with every qualifying transaction.
In order to eliminate their carbon footprint, and unlock increased cashback, cardholders must plant 60 trees. If a customer does not have PYC activated, they must swipe 60 times to hit carbon zero.’ With PYC turned on, two trees are planted per swipe (one by the cardholder, one by Aspiration) and carbon zero is reached at 30 qualifying transactions.
Rewards
- A climate-change fighting tree planted with every swipe
- 0.5% cash back on all purchases
- 1.0% cash back on all purchases (updated retroactively) for every month carbon zero is reached
- Updated retroactively for the current billing cycle
Rewards are redeemable towards statement credit or planting additional trees at a ratio of 1 tree to $1.00.
Welcome bonus
- $300 cash back after $3000 in spend in 3 months
- Reward can be redeemed as cash or trees (300 additional trees planted)
Spend daily with Zero to neutralize your footprint and earn up to 1% cash back. Use your rewards to plant more trees or receive a statement credit. Sign up today and earn $300 by spending $3000 within your first 3 months.
- Welcome bonus
- Aspiration advertises a more eco-friendly ethos than most banks
- Transactions with the card fund tree planting efforts to offset carbon emissions
- $60 annual fee
- There’s a foreign transaction fee
- Earns relatively low cash-back rewards on purchases
Debit Cards & Banks To Support The Environment
Debit cards and banks are a great way to support the environment. By using these services, you can help reduce your carbon footprint and support sustainable practices. Here are some ways to use your debit card or bank to support the environment:
There's a good chance your bank is using your money to fund oil projects that destroy the climate. Put your money where your values are. Join Aspiration today.
Aspiration is a digital banking alternative that helps people spend and save in ways that are good for the planet.
Features
- Earn $150 when you spend $1000 in the first 60 days of account opening.
- Choose your own monthly fee, even if it’s zero
- Enable Plant Your Change and plant a tree with every purchase round-up (Optional)
- Get paid two days early
- Shop with a conscience with your Personal Sustainability Score
- Access 55,000+ free ATMs worldwide
- Get 3-5% cash back on purchases at Conscience Coalition partners [including TOMs, Warby Parker, Blue Apron, Cariuma, and more]
- Up to 3.00% APY interest on savings balance
Summary
Big banks are not eco-friendly and if you are looking to be more sustainable, you should consider banking with one of the green credit cards or debits listed in this article.
Don't believe me? Big banks have…
- Invested over $3.8 TRILLION in fossil-fuels since the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016
- Collected over $30B in overdraft fees in 2020. In fact, the average overdraft fee increased to a record high of $33.47
- Charge an average of $13.95 in monthly maintenance fees.
- Provide an average 0.06% APY on savings
While it is clear banks are profiting off unnecessary (and predatory) fees, it is not so clear to see behind the scenes. When you deposit your money into a bank, it doesn't actually sit there. Banks are allowed to use 100% of your deposits for investing/lending. This means that banks can use your money to invest in fossil-fuels, political lobbying, private prisons, and gun manufacturing (to name a few).
Good luck finding an eco-friendly card that doesn't cost the earth.
- Up to $250 Instant overdraft coverage
- With Instant, you can overdraw your Albert Cash account up to your Instant limit
- Costs $14.99 per month after a 30 day free-trial