These eco-friendly debit and credit cards let you help the environment, one swipe at a time

Aspiration has discontinued the Aspiration Zero credit card and will be closing accounts on May 3, 2023. For more information, click here.

When it comes to choosing the right credit card for your lifestyle, it's important to consider your spending habits as well as your personal values.

Fintech companies have recently started to think the same way, aligning themselves with consumers' current standards and morals — working to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, for instance, or supporting societal causes such as gender equality — through new financial products. 

John Tobin-de la Puente, professor of practice of corporate sustainability at the Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University, notes that in recent years, there has been a significant shift in how people think about investing and spending their money.

"One hundred years ago, you would invest your money in a way that maximized returns in the market. You didn't mix your personal values with your finances," says Tobin-de la Puente. "If tobacco had the best returns, you would invest in tobacco stocks and then at the end of the year, you would donate to public health organizations, but this might cause cognitive dissonance."

Another interesting trend: As these new, more socially and environmentally conscious financial products have gained popularity, so has the overall scrutiny of them.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced the creation of a task force that would investigate misconduct related to environmental, social and governance funds, many of which claim to avoid investing in tobacco, oil, coal and firearm companies.

With so many companies saying their financial products are helping the environment, it can be difficult to figure out which ones are actually making a difference. Below, Select takes a closer look at credit and debit cards that claim to help the environment by making eco-friendly promises.

Aspiration offers several financial products, including a bank account, an investment account and a credit card. With a $60 annual fee, the Aspiration Zero Credit Card offers an unlimited 0.5% cash back and up to 1% cash back on all eligible purchases, as well as a welcome bonus of $300 if you spend $3,000 with the card within the first three months of opening your account.

According to the card issuer, every time you swipe the card, one tree is planted, with the idea being that consumers can effectively reduce their carbon footprint by making purchases with the card.

While 0.5% is the default cash-back rate, if you reach carbon-neutral status — which you can do by spending enough for 60 trees to be planted or by using your card 60 times in a month — you'll get 1% cash back on every purchase made that month. And thanks to the card's Plant Your Change function, Aspiration automatically rounds up your purchase to the nearest dollar and plants an additional tree. 

Keep in mind that the card may not actually be as eco-friendly as Aspiration's executives have claimed. A ProPublica article determined that, in 2021, CEO and co-founder Andrei Cherny claimed far more trees, 35 million, had been planted through the 'Plant Your Change initiative' than actually had been, 12 million at the time of publication. Cherny responded to those claims by asserting that it can take up to 18 months to plant a tree after the time of transaction.

"As mentioned, to make sure that tree planting is a high quality process that maximizes the potential for tree survival, it can take up to 18 months to plant trees after funding," says Sehrish Sayani, Director of Communications at Aspiration. "This includes planting during appropriate planting and growing seasons, planning all logistics, starting up nurseries, and accounting for any climate, political or health challenges that might arise."

That said, if you choose to open an account with the company's banking service, Aspiration's website states "deposits won't be used to finance fossil fuel exploration or production projects." Banks can choose how to use their customers' deposited funds, and Aspiration promises not to use that money to fund oil and coal efforts that would have a negative impact on the environment.

The FutureCard Visa Debit Card is a free digital debit card that provides cash-back rewards when you use it to pay for goods and services that have a lower carbon footprint than other alternatives — it's meant to encourage people to reduce their carbon footprint by using public transportation instead of driving or by buying thrifted clothing rather than fast fashion.

Since this is a debit card, cardholders can connect it to a bank account, cash app or Venmo. Cardholders won't need to undergo a credit check to get the card and your payment history won't be reported to the credit bureaus. While there's no welcome bonus, there are also no annual fees or foreign transaction fees.

Cardholders can receive 6% cash back by using the card with certain Future partners, 5% cash back by using public transportation, shopping at thrift stores, charging electric vehicles, as well as for purchases made at bike shops, and for plant-based meat alternatives and electric scooters. You'll also get 1% cash back for all other purchases. Note that these cash-back rates only apply to up to the first $25,000 worth of purchases per calendar year.

In order to receive cash-back rewards for purchases involving plant-based meat alternatives, cardholders will need to send photos of their receipts to Future via email, which may be cumbersome process for some. When it comes to redeeming your rewards, cardholders automatically earn a statement credit at the end of each billing cycle.

Although each of the cards listed above claims to be helping the environment, you may be able to achieve the same goal by opting for a traditional credit card and using it to rack up rewards to donate to relevant environmental causes — or by redeeming those points to buy more sustainable goods.

In that case, no-annual-fee cash-back cards — such as the Wells Fargo Active Cash® Card, the Citi Custom Cash Card or the Chase Freedom Unlimited® (See rates and fees) — would all make good options. These traditional cards all earn cash back at a higher rate than the cards listed above, so you may be able to donate more to eco-friendly charities over time.

Note that traditional banks may have investments in, finance or otherwise support non eco-friendly and fossil-fuel companies.

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