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  • Plant trees 🌳 with any bunq Card in Premium

Yesterday I was sad and very disappointed that after the announcement of something "great", all the hype about it and my expectations for really new innovations only a metal card was presented, a product that was completely useless for me. Yes, I would love to plant trees with my daily expenses. But, I am a premium user, love rainbow card design, have all 3 included cards and all 5 online cards in use for budgeting with my numerous accounts. So no, I don't need a (for my taste ugly and unecological) metal card and I don't want to go back to using just 1 single card. Yesterday I was very angry about this nonsense!

But today it is better to think positively and look into the future.
I grant bunq the income of 99.000 EUR in one day and I also grant it to those who absolutely want a metal card at any price.
But what still annoys me is the negative greenwashing image that bunq now has with the combination of a metal card for 99 EUR/year and planting trees. In my eyes the whole action yesterday was rather harmful for the image of bunq.

The solution and a real win/win situation for everyone:
Bunq, please let us premium users also plant trees and see our own forest grow in the app! So the idea is the tree planting for premium users, which depends on the card sales of all bunq cards. How much turnover is needed to plant 1 tree at a time could be different depending on the card used. The Interchange fee for card payment that bunq receives will be different for Master Credit, Master Debit and Maestro. So it could be with the trees.
I don't know the actual fees, but I've got them out of the air, why not 1 tree for 200 EUR for Master Credit, 1 tree for 500 EUR for Master Debit and 1 tree for 1000 EUR for Maestro.
This is just one example with the tree/card turnover, but I imagine the implementation to be similar.

So really everyone would benefit, the environment (more trees), the users (more joy and satisfaction) and bunq (profit for the image, potential customer growth, higher customer satisfaction and loyalty, relatively low costs or loss of profit). This would really attract eco-savvy customers to bunq and it fits better with bunq's core philosophy (better than the greenwashing concept of the metal card).

I hope it comes in the next update: Planting trees for premium users!
This is the only way to combine the eco/sustainability concept with bunq's user-friendliness and innovation.

    Of course I hope to find as many supporters as possible for this topic and to enable a soon update with Planting Trees 🌳 for all premium users.

      Ich habe zwar die Karte bestellt, denke aber auch dass jeder seinen Teil zur besseren Welt/ Aufforstung beitragen können soll.

        @Esther-Orange-Unicorn#136242 Ich finde das Bäume pflanzen mit bunq rein gar nichts zu tun hat.
        Ich habe einen großen Garten mit vielen Bäumen und suche im Internet www.ecosia.org und behaupte mal das dies wesentlich effektiver ist als diese zweifelhafte Aktion

          @----#136298 Nun, leider kann nicht jeder Mensch einen Garten sein Eigen nennen. Aber Du hast Recht, dass es verschiedene Wege gibt, Aufforstungsprojekte / Bäume Pflanzen zu unterstützen (ecosia als Bsp. und andere). Aber das muss sich ja nicht ausschließen. Jeder Baum zählt.

            Going though the hassle to change already existing transactions to the Green Card in order for them to count towards the tree-planting which also is problematic if you use multiple accounts for different transactions is [***].

            I think it would be nice if the virtual cards would also count towards the tree-planting

            ℹ️ Moderator (Sander): please watch your language. Thanks!

              Esther 💎 changed the title to Plant trees 🌳 with any bunq Card in Premium.

                @Esther-Orange-Unicorn#136242 I totally agree with you on the green washing on the Green Card.

                As far as I understand it, you have to pay €99 to get just the card, without a single tree being planted. You’ll get one tree planted for every €100 spent with the card.

                I can find many charities on the internet that will let you plant a tree for one euro or dollar, where a donation of €99 ill get you around 100 trees. To get the same result with the Green Card, you’ll need to spend €9.900.

                One is very likely to spend those euros on things that will cost more than the 100 trees planted, such as clothes, flights, food, petrol, gadgets and others.

                At least with the Green Card that would get 100 trees planted, where with any other card these trees won’t be planted. But the Green Card comes at a price that only a few are actually willing to pay. One could wonder why they won’t donate their €99 a year to a charity on the web.

                What you suggest is a great idea, which makes it effortless for bunqers to help getting more trees on this planet. Every bunqer can join in, even when they don’t have the funds to buy a fancy card!

                Another option for bunq can be to have an optional add-on subscription of one euro to make all of you spendings a bit greener. When you add a green subscription to your existing subscription, you’ll pay one euro more, but all your spendings will (as you described) earn the Earth one more tree.

                This way it stays optional, yet affordable to all bunqers. And yes, it will get us more trees than the Green Card, without much burden for both bunq and its customers.

                  Just learned about this post on the bunq blog: https://www.bunq.com/blog/is-the-new-bunq-green-card-really-green

                  The math is quite interesting considered that they argue average groceries spendings are €140 in Amsterdam. That is way too low, but given that amount, how would you pay that with your Green Card as most Dutch merchants don’t accept MasterCard?

                  The other example they offer is the monthly rent. They gather that your landlord will accepts MasterCard for the monthly rent. As direct debits are way more common, you are not likely to plant any trees with your rent.

                  So, in the example in the blog, you’re going to spend €1.140 per month, without planting any tree, because you can’t use your MasterCard there. Spending another €200 on your gas bill and your phone and internet won’t get you a tree either, because they are all paid via direct debits.

                  By the way, on an average Dutch income of €1,500, you’ll have €160 left, of which you have to pay €8 per month to get the Green Card. So that leaves €152 to spend with your Green Card, which accumulates to a max of a whopping 1,52 tree per month, or 18,24 trees per year.

                  That is a bit less than the 136,8 trees they say your monthly expenses will get you a year. Even when you consider that the blog is actually on the greenness of the card itself, the numbers don’t add up.

                  Speaking of the greenness of the card, why not skip the whole card all together and make it a virtual card only? Why do I need a metal or plastic card when I can opt for ApplePay or Androids Tap&Pay?? That would be a whole lot greener than any physical card.

                  Or why not make the existing cards greener? Just add this feature to the plastic cards, so that no extra production materials are needed to get green?

                    @Samzoiets#136572 Depends on where you shop. I do agree with the rent, but for grocery shopping all the big shops here were I live accept Mastercard, also don’t forget when buying new clothes etc you can do that online, most of the time with Creditcard. It is a shame that MasterCard isn’t accepted that much here, but I already planted 1 tree just by doing normal shopping. I did already say that this card will replace all my other bunq MasterCards

                      @Jos-Golden-Unicorn#136574 Guess you live somewhere where Albert Heijn or Dirk van den Broek aren’t big shops then.

                      There are so much topic here on the poor acceptance of MasterCard in The Netherlands. Yet you live somewhere where MasterCard is widely accepted, which is good for you. Doesn’t help the figures in the blog post which are based on Amsterdam.

                      And yes, it ( acceptance of MasterCard in The Netherlands) gets better, but still the figures won’t add up like they do in the blog post.

                        @Samzoiets#136575 Not widely accepted, but indeed the Jumbo, Lidl and Action accept MasterCard here. Maybe it’s because of the border with Germany (where they also accept MasterCard), but I do agree that the Figures don’t add up, but in some places people can plant waaaaaay more trees than other people.

                          @Jos-Golden-Unicorn#136576 Volgens mij accepteren alle Lidl's de MasterCard, maar bij Jumbo is dat (nog) niet zo.

                          Overigens plant het project waar bunq gebruik van maakt voor 10 dollarcent een boom, dus voor die 99 euro hadden ook meer dan duizend bomen geplant kunnen worden.

                            @Jos-Golden-Unicorn#136574 Good if you can manage with the Green Card replacing all other bunq Master Cards. That's exactly what I don't want. I don't want to miss out on the easy possibility of budgeting by using different cards / online cards for different accounts. For me, this comfort, this freedom and the fact that budgeting is a matter of course is one (if not the) decisive advantage of bunq Premium. No other bank offers that. That is innovation. Once I know how to use and appreciate that, I don't want to go back to suddenly using only 1 card physically like online again.
                            That's why the Green Card concept doesn't make any sense to me at all if you're a premium user. I don't pay extra for losing part of my freedom.

                            But now that I'm also infected by tree fever, I'd like to see a way for premium users to do something for the environment without the (pointless) detour of the Green Card.

                            Either plant trees per card turnover as I described it at the beginning, or as @Samzoiets#136575 wrote it with an optional green surcharge on the premium fee and then trees will be planted depending on all expenses.

                            I am willing to pay 1 or 2 EUR more for Premium to get the benefit of planting trees depending on sales.

                              @JeroenE#136577 Where do you get this figure? Bunq says on its own blog it’s only one tree per €100 spent...

                                Hi 👋 @Samzoiets#136598

                                Just some extra info, without stepping into the discussion. 😊

                                Green Card in combination with Premium Joint or Business will result in 2 trees per 100€ spent with the Green Card. Can be found in the T&C/Pricing document, not sure which one of the 2.

                                Also, it's not much but ordering the card will result in the first tree being planted 'for free'.

                                I agree on the bad examples of paying rent and getting groceries in The Netherlands, though Amsterdam has a pretty decent Mastercard acceptance.

                                  @JeroenE#136602 Daar staat dat het vanaf $0,10 kost om een boom te planten, niet dat bunq per $0,10 een boom plant.

                                  Dat doen ze per uitgegeven €100...