It seems like an oxymoron: a green credit card. The more you buy, the more carbon you can offset. But that’s what set to happen now in the U.S. with the roll-out of a number of ‘green’ cards promising to offset a percentage of every dollar you spend.

Does that mean buying a Hummer on credit is a good thing for the earth? Or doing all your holiday shopping on plastic is a positive step towards stopping global warming? Eco-hip people already know that leaving the credit card at home, is the best thing for the earth.

Handing over real cash is harder, making people less likely to indulge in spontaneous purchasing. But shopping on credit is big business for the banks. According to a recent story we read in the WSJ, green cards are the newest way banks are appealing to their customers.

General Electric launched the Earth Rewards MasterCard this past July to funnel as much as 1% of your total spending toward carbon offset projects. In August MetaBank launched its GreenPay MasterCard, which also lets spenders earn carbon offsets “rewards” with each purchase.

In November, the Bank of America followed in GE’s green footsteps by offering users a Brighter Planet Visa to match every dollar with a point which can be traded in for a carbon offset at Brighter Planet. The provider will determine, on your behalf, the projects which deserve to be offset.

Are ‘green’ cards a good or bad thing for the voluntary offset market? Do they improve or reduce transparency in the already muddy waters of the offset business? We feel the less interest a bank has in our “interests” the better.

Green credit cards are not a new concept. They have been around Europe for a few years and have amassed a decent-sized following. A growing concern over climate change has brought the cards to North America.

Compared to cash-back rewards which equal about 3% of one’s total spending, the environmental cards are less generous by contributing less that 2% of your purchases to green projects, reports WSJ.

For banks, the green card is a marketing move to bolster their environmental image no doubt. Both the Bank of America and Citigroup invested billions of dollars last year to reduce corporate carbon emissions and to promote green energy projects.

As for which ‘green card’ is the best for the spender, or the environment, the jury is still out.

Using GE’s card, credit card holders can earn 1% on each purchase which gets transferred to the carbon offset projects of … GE AES Greenhouse Gas Services, a joint venture with power producer AES Corp. The points are redeemed annually, and appropriately so, on Earth Day.

Did you catch that GE is transferring carbon offset money, essentially, to itself? With GE contributing offset money to its own venture, some transparency issues no doubt need to be addressed. “The credit card is one avenue for the business of the joint venture; it’s not the only one,” says a GE spokesman.

We’re still pretty skeptical about the whole business of banks getting involved in the environment. Let’s say we wouldn’t be the first one to switch over. There seems to be so many other interesting incentives out there, and if cash back is one of them, wouldn’t you rather take the cash and offset with providers and projects that you choose? Take a gander at some U.S. provider options listed on Carbon Catalog.

::Wall Street Journal

(Image credit: wookieslayer)