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TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

treecard.org

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Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#71

Post by xwdv »

war1025 wrote: post #62
xwdv wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The no.1 personal finance advice is pay your credit card balance in full every month. The exception is when you have a credit card offering a 0% interest promotional period. As long as your overall credit utilization is low, you can pay the minimum each month to maximize the amount of time your money sits collecting interest. I usually pick up a new 0% promo card every year to get cheap financing for large purchases…

The amount of interest a savings account is going to accrue in that time is negligible to the point of being worthless.

Nope. Invest the money into an S&P 500 ETF and you’ll probably gain 10% profit by the time you have put down your last payment.

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#72

Post by klyrs »

darawk wrote: post #66
klyrs wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How exactly would a card that leaks crude oil be more effective? Leaking crude oil is terrible for the environment. Planting trees is good for it.

It's a thought experiment, analogous to Tullock's Spike [1]. The idea is to modify incentives, by putting environmental impact at the forefront of a consumer's mind, by making them actually handle the mess that the card produces (thereby making them reluctant to make purchases).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullock%27s_spike

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#73

Post by skeeter2020 »

darawk wrote: post #66
klyrs wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

How exactly would a card that leaks crude oil be more effective? Leaking crude oil is terrible for the environment. Planting trees is good for it.

maybe take a closer look at the thread; they're saying that purchasing "stuff" is the worst thing for the environment, so a card that leaks oil on purchases would discourage the act of doing so, and hence do more good tha encouraging purchases to plant trees.

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#74

Post by nmca »

klyrs wrote: post #52
JoeAltmaier wrote: post #47

Earlier 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.

"Enabling the behaviour that's doing the most harm" - I'm somewhat skeptical of environmental viewpoints that hinge on individual consumer guilt. As one random reference point, a single cruise-operating corporation was responsible for as much sulphur-based air pollution as all the cars in Europe in 2018/19 [0]. This is not so much to say that the card in question is a good idea, but more to point out that if you can salve some guilt and get people to vote green, you likely end up in a better position than if you maximise guilt.

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/8bceef94-86cd-11e9-a028-86cea8523...

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#75

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

Jommi wrote: post #49
lol768 wrote: post #24

Earlier 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…

Building credit is not a thing in most european countries.

How do they handle assessing creditworthiness, then? Ex. someone walks into a bank and asks for a loan to buy a house. How does the bank evaluate that?

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#76

Post by capableweb »

odiroot wrote: post #33
capableweb wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is location dependent though. A easy way to see if someone is from the US, is if they advice you to prefer credit cards rather than debit cards. Meanwhile in Europe, there is no reason to have a credit card instead of debit. On the contrary, it's more risky to have a credit card rather than debit as on debit cards the limit for overdraft is usually way lower than how much someone could spend with your credit car…

> Meanwhile in Europe, there is no reason to have a credit card instead of debit. Much easier to get your money back, e.g. in common 2020 situation of cancelled flights.

Again, not everywhere. Credit cards and debit cards are treated the same way here. Same process to request money back for both, and I have the same protections with both.

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#77

Post by danaliv »

chrisseaton wrote: post #21
TeMPOraL wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better secured and you're using the money you have vs. taking a loan? I ditched my CCs as soon as debit cards could be reliably used for on-line purchases. And AFAIK, the no.1 personal finance advice is "stop using CCs". I'm in Europe, though. That may be an European thing.

> you're using the money you have vs. taking a loan? Why would you want to use the money you have when you can take a free loan until the end of the month? A free loan means you can keep your own money invested or otherwise working more efficiently for you somehow. > the no.1 personal finance advice is "stop using CCs" I've never seen this - I see 'use CC's more to build up your credit'. I use my cards religiously an…

You keep trying to make this "keep your money invested for a month" argument but without actual numbers I don't believe it. How much are you spending in a month that you actually get any kind of investment return on it? And what is your return?

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#78

Post by capableweb »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #75
Jommi wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Building credit is not a thing in most european countries.

How do they handle assessing creditworthiness, then? Ex. someone walks into a bank and asks for a loan to buy a house. How does the bank evaluate that?

A) Do you have a job?

B) How long you've had the job?

C) How much is your salary?

D) You have family?

And so on. Bunch of questions and documents back and forth until the bank is confident you'll pay back.

It's funny to hear people from North America talking about the scary new Chinese "Social Points" system when they've had credit score for such a long time they don't even think about it anymore and find alternatives strange and hard to imagine.

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#79

Post by cglace »

knutwannheden wrote: post #63
klyrs wrote: post #46

Earlier 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.

Very well said! It appears like the other commenters deliberately try to misinterpret you. Consuming less is indeed one of the best things we can do. Instead of buying new cheap clothes all the time to be trendy we should buy quality clothing and wear it for a long time. Repair it (and other things we buy) or sell it or give it away rather than dispose of. Here in Europe things are moving in the right direction, but…

I think people get tired of everyone bashing every initiative that doesn’t solve every problem that exists. If someone can plant trees with their grocery purchases instead of gaining points to purchase flights I think it’s a net win.

Re: TreeCard: The wooden debit card that plants trees

#80

Post by throwaway201103 »

xyst wrote: post #65
zrail wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The keyword is "interchange". (disclosure: I work for Stripe but this is my own recollection of how this all works and could be wrong in the details) There are multiple parties at play in a card network transaction: 0. The card holder 1. The card brand (TreeCard) 2. The issuing bank (unknown right now, but this is usually a bank like HSBC, Citi, Wells Fargo, etc) 3. The card network itself (MasterCard) 4. The merchan…

Looking at this chain of middlemen between the buyer and seller, it's a bit nauseating. No wonder products cost so much.

It all adds up to just a couple of percent. That's a lot in aggregate, but for most people the convenience is worth it. Remember having to go to the bank every payday and getting enough cash for the week? Or carrying a checkbook everywhere? If you're under 40, you probably don't.
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