Conscious Money Part 3: Credit Cards

In this next installment of my Conscious Money series, I cover conscious credit cards. Credit cards are huge money makers for financial institutions – U.S. households have nearly 1 trillion dollars in credit card debt as of mid-2022. This means that any credit card interest you pay back supports whatever your financial institution invests in. For example, JPMorgan Chase, the parent company of Chase Bank, is one of the biggest investors in the fossil fuel industry. If you are a climate justice advocate, perhaps stopping the use of your Chase Sapphire credit card is a big action you can take to ensure that your dollars are not being used invest in fossil fuels.

First, a great place to start in terms of Conscious Money is to always look for financial institutions with the Certified B Corporation designation. It is a pretty rigorous designation that ensures the company is transparent and accountable to high social and environmental performance. All the options listed below are sourced from Certified B Corporations.

Also keep in mind that, just as in investing, the credit cards below do not have as great as rewards as others that aren’t as socially conscious or green. This is the tradeoff you’ll have to consider in the end.

Personal Credit Cards

• Green America – This is pretty high up in ranking in sustainability on many levels, including their governance: their CEO only receives an annual salary of $174,000, which is a great indicator of their company’s ethics.
• Sunrise Bank
• Aspiration Zero – Rewards your spending with 1% cash back AND the planting of a tree!
• Beneficial State Bank – There’s a climate-specific credit card for you climate justice advocates.

Business Credit Cards

• Beneficial State Bank 
• Amalgamated Bank – Rewards your spending with 1.5% cash back.
• Sunrise Bank

Do you use any of these credits cards yourself? I’d love to hear how your experience has been so far! Please share in the comment section below.