Color Credit Green : A percentage of ‘affinity card’ purchases goes directly to environmental agencies and causes.
Shelah Bernstein has a green card. And my New Year’s resolution is to get one, too. She’s not an “alien”--unless you want to get panicky about people who move to suburban Ventura from Los Angeles.
Bernstein is just a local example of a growing movement among credit card users who have “affinity cards.” She explained to me that by obtaining her Visa card through an organization called Co-Op America, she was able to make her money “work for what one believes in,” which happens to be environmental causes. A good thing to do any year, or all year long.
A graphic designer employed by Ventura County’s Resource Management Agency, Bernstein became a member of Co-Op America, a national organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., 10 years ago. According to the group’s Green Pages Directory, they promote “green businesses which minimize waste, make products built to last . . . energy efficiency, pollution control, community health care . . . and which bring respect and dignity to the people they hire.”
Bernstein’s lifestyle is the embodiment of this litany. She car-pools to work, lowers her food bills and her impact on the planet by eating vegetarian, and--being frugal and cooperative at the same time--shares ownership of her four-apartment complex with a couple of other families. Recently, when their building needed repair, her group even went so far as to select a contractor who “prefers to remodel rather than build new houses, which take up green space,” according to Bernstein.
For the record, the Co-Op America Visa, issued by Vermont National Bank, has an attractive interest rate--11.75% on any balance transferred in from another card and 15.9% on new purchases. All the others I checked were approximately 17%.
Just how do these “affinity cards” work? According to Debbe Stern, spokesperson at Visa headquarters in San Mateo, 20 million Americans have been issued such cards. Consumers use them to charge normal purchases, and “a percentage of the transaction amount is sent directly to the affinity group.” To this end, for example, Visa sent $100,000 to the Audubon Society last year.
More than 80 environmental groups are involved, along with 2,000 other types of interest groups such as college alumnae associations, the Antique Auto Club of America and, astonishingly, the American Dental Assn. Some of the environmental groups are quite colorful, as well: the National Wild Turkey Assn., Trout Unlimited and Pheasants Forever.
Discussing the future of affinity cards, Stern said “participation by environmental groups is expected to continue to grow.” She cited a recent Gallup survey which showed 57% of Americans are “spending more time keeping abreast of politics which may aid environmental groups in gathering consumer support.”
The credit card industry has noticed that “greens” and other affinity card holders default on card debt less often than do those who obtained cards through unsolicited mass mailings. The largest affinity card-issuing bank, MBNA of Newark, Del., with more than $9 billion in card holder debt on the books, reports losses of 3%; this compares to 5% for the rest of the top five non-affinity card issuers. Bernstein has a “green” explanation for this phenomenon: “People who have more of a sense of responsibility about the planet and the influence their lifestyle has on it take that into their personal financial lives.”
Let’s take that thought into the New Year.
‘GREEN’ CREDIT CARDS
By using certain “green” credit cards, you can support your favorite environmental cause. Here are some examples. If your favorite group isn’t listed, contact them yourself to see if they have hooked up with a card-issuing institution.
Co-Op America: 800-424-COOP
Environmental Defense Fund: 800-952-3377
The Nature Conservancy: 800-841-8745
Friends of the Earth: 800-572-4004
World Wildlife Fund: 800-242-9409
In order to get a “green” credit card in the name of one of the following organizations--Sierra Club, Audubon Society, National Resources Defense Council--call 800-362-6255. Also, there’s a Working Assets Visa card, the use of which causes donations to be made proportionately to environmental groups like the National Toxics Campaign, Institute for Alternative Agriculture and Greenpeace. Call 800-847-7378.
