>World's first wooden debit card.
I have my doubts considering Säästöpankki has offered debit cards made out of birch years ago.
TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
51–60 of 102 posts
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s also worth noting that while planting trees is very good for the environment, it is not a silver bullet against climate change. Not buying things is better for the environment. Projects like this are brimming with good intention but are little better than salve for consumer guilt.
Yeah but objecting to every attempt to do good because, it doesn't go far enough! Is a recipe for doing nothing.
A card that leaks crude oil on every purchase would be more effective (if ridiculous from an engineering/logistical perspective) -- salves for consumer guilt aren't merely not doing enough, they're enabling the behavior that's doing the most harm.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah but objecting to every attempt to do good because, it doesn't go far enough! Is a recipe for doing nothing.
A card that leaks crude oil on every purchase would be more effective (if ridiculous from an engineering/logistical perspective) -- salves for consumer guilt aren't merely not doing enough, they're enabling the behavior that's doing the most harm.
I can imagine a variant of this card that tries to tackle the point you bring up. Not all purchases are equal. Some of them have negative carbon footprints. The tree planting offsets the footprint for every purchase. These things are not easy to estimate exactly but since there are probably order of magnitude differences in carbon footprints for different products there should be useful information about the relative impact of a purchase to display to the consumer and to demonstrate the overall impact of the project.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#54Is it just me who dislike being incentivized like this to do something? By having someone do a totally unrelated donation to charity when I do something?
I much rather do X because X itself is good than because X will have someone do Y and have me consider X to be good because Y is good.
It is essentially green washing, no matter how well intended it is or how good X in itself is. Doing some totally unrelated donation is essentially PR, where one instead could lower prices and have me myself donate that money.
(Also, credit card charges are insane and almost amount to stealing a percentage of all sales from businesses. Debit cards are better in that they, at least in Sweden, have a fixed low rate that doesn't change if someone buys for a lot or a little)
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#55Ecosia, the company backing TreeCard, has a search engine that plants trees. Ecosia has claimed to have planted 116M trees. Several environmentalists have come out in support of the product — and specifically in support of the way Ecosia uses partners to plant trees on Ecosia’s behalf and the way Ecosia keeps their partners accountable. I personally will have a hard time saying good-bye to my credit card rewards. How…
> It’s also worth noting that while planting trees is very good for the environment, it is not a silver bullet against climate change. Not buying things is better for the environment. Projects like this are brimming with good intention but are little better than salve for consumer guilt.
Processing a transaction might be a carbon negative interaction with this company. That is a noteworthy innovation.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#56Ecosia, the company backing TreeCard, has a search engine that plants trees. Ecosia has claimed to have planted 116M trees. Several environmentalists have come out in support of the product — and specifically in support of the way Ecosia uses partners to plant trees on Ecosia’s behalf and the way Ecosia keeps their partners accountable. I personally will have a hard time saying good-bye to my credit card rewards. How…
> It’s also worth noting that while planting trees is very good for the environment, it is not a silver bullet against climate change. Not buying things is better for the environment. Projects like this are brimming with good intention but are little better than salve for consumer guilt.
Do you need to be such a judgmental scold? People need to pay rent. People need to buy food. People need to pay for all kinds of things that don't really constitute the kind of acquisitive consumerism that you're trying to criticize.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, where I live you have exactly the same protections using credit card vs debit cards. Credit cards here don't usually have good rewards either. If you spend 10000 euros you might get 10 back in the end of the year, hardly something to hurrah for. Sometimes they give you a free TV if you open up a bank account with the bank and change to the bank to receive your monthly salary, but that's about it. So don't reall…
What do you think about the argument about it allowing you to keep your money invested for longer? Say you're ordering something large like a car. You can pay the deposit on a debit card, and lose access to the money immediately, or you can pay on a credit card, and keep your money invested for another month or so, still earning you money, until you need to settle. A credit card gives a consumer liquidity. I don't th…
What kind of income are you looking at for an extra month, even with a huge payment like a car (which I don't think people use credit OR debit cards for in Europe)?
I suspect for the vast majority of people it's going to be negligible at best.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> This is location dependent though Definitely true. > Meanwhile in Europe, there is no reason to have a credit card instead of debit Ehh, I'm not sure I'd agree 100% with this one. You can certainly get by with just a debit card (and enjoy the access to e.g. the chargeback scheme) but I find credit cards a useful tool to build credit (and my credit history built up by never missing a CC payment undoubtedly helped me…
Yeah, credit history is something I never really cared about as I don't have any interest in getting a loan or touch anything else related to credit histories, so I'm probably a bit biased in that. I also guess the cost of living is so low where I live so I (together with many others) don't need to be able to take loans, not even to be able to afford a house. Edit: not a complaint, just found it funny that someone th…
Credit history is equally location dependent as the use of credit cards. It's simply not a thing over here. Whether you'll be granted a mortgage (usually) simply depends on whether or not you have a steady source of income that's sufficient to cover the risk. Whether or not you missed a CC payment when you were on an extended trip really doesn't factor into it. I think I prefer it this way.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, where I live you have exactly the same protections using credit card vs debit cards. Credit cards here don't usually have good rewards either. If you spend 10000 euros you might get 10 back in the end of the year, hardly something to hurrah for. Sometimes they give you a free TV if you open up a bank account with the bank and change to the bank to receive your monthly salary, but that's about it. So don't reall…
What do you think about the argument about it allowing you to keep your money invested for longer? Say you're ordering something large like a car. You can pay the deposit on a debit card, and lose access to the money immediately, or you can pay on a credit card, and keep your money invested for another month or so, still earning you money, until you need to settle. A credit card gives a consumer liquidity. I don't th…
Atleast in my experience (NL, DE), a very small minority of institutions allow credit card payments. For example, online orders and food delivery. No car dealership or landlord will accept credit card, only direct debit or bank transfer.
Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why dicey?
They don't have the same legal protections for their use. There's hardly ever any reason to use a debit card over a credit card.
It's strange to me that legal protections vary per payment method where you're from. If you bought something defective, warranty should cover it. If your flight gets cancelled, there's probably some kind of consumer protection in place. If you were robbed or defrauded in some way, there's laws and protections against that as well. Some CCs come with insurance over here, but those are just that: insurance.