Aspiration Zero Mastercard Review: Plant Trees With Every Credit Card Purchase

As more people become aware of the extent of the climate change threat, there's a growing call for more environmentally friendly products, including eco-friendly and green credit cards. The Aspiration Zero Mastercard is made of biodegradable plastic, and users help plant trees with every card purchase. However, though this card is great at being green, it's not necessarily a great rewards card. Check out our full Aspiration Zero Mastercard review to see if it's the right choice for your lifestyle.

This credit card is a good fit for: Card users more interested in using an eco-friendly card than in earning rewards.

Top perks

The perks of this card are green -- and not just metaphorically.

Automatically help plant trees with every purchase

The core green feature of the Aspiration Zero Mastercard is that users can plant trees simply by making purchases. There are two ways to "earn" planted trees:

1. Aspiration automatically plants a tree for every purchase.
2. Plant Your Change rounds up your purchase to the nearest dollar to pay for another tree.

In other words, every time you use your card to make a purchase, that's one tree planted. And if you have Plant Your Change enabled, it's two trees for every purchase. Plant Your Change is enabled by default for every new Aspiration Zero Mastercard, but you can turn it off. Planted trees are tallied as you go and each quarter.

Aspiration doesn't plant the trees; the company works with "tree-planting partners" from reforestation projects around the world. Aspiration partners are focused on responsible reforestation, with an eye to restoring native ecosystems and biodiversity.

Card is made of PLA bioplastic

A green credit card made of PVC isn't all that green, because it isn't biodegradable. The Aspiration Zero Mastercard is about as close to biodegradable as a modern card can be. It's made of around 84% PLA (polylactide) plastic, a plastic made from fermented starch from plants like corn, sugarcane, and sugar beet.

Although some parts of the card are not biodegradable, including the magnetic stripe and chip, the PLA itself is compostable. Additionally, unlike PVC -- the most common credit card material -- PLA doesn't emit toxic fumes when incinerated.

Up to 1% cash back for being carbon neutral

Aspiration Zero Mastercard cardholders earn up to 1% cash back on purchases -- but note the "up to." You only earn 0.5% cash back on your purchases by default. To earn the full 1% cash back, you need to use your card enough to effectively erase a typical carbon footprint.

If you reach "carbon neutral" for a billing cycle, your cash back rewards for that cycle are doubled, for a total of 1% cash back. You reach "carbon neutral" status by earning 60 planted trees in one billing cycle.

Users who have Plant Your Change enabled earn two planted trees for every purchase, so they need 30 purchases in a billing cycle to reach "carbon neutral" status. If you don't have Plant Your Change enabled, you need to use your Aspiration Zero Mastercard 60 times in one billing cycle to earn 1% cash back.

Redeem rewards to plant more trees

As with most cash back cards, you can redeem your Aspiration Zero Mastercard rewards for a statement credit. This posts to your credit card account and helps pay down your balance. (Keep in mind that most statement credits can't be used to make your minimum card payment.)

However, a unique feature of the Aspiration Zero Mastercard is that you can also use your cash back rewards to plant more trees. Rewards are redeemable for planted trees at a rate of $1 in rewards per tree.

The Aspiration Zero Mastercard's cash back rewards are redeemed automatically each month. The default setting for cash back rewards is to redeem 50% of your cash back as a statement credit and 50% as planted trees. You can change your redemption preferences inside your Aspiration Zero Mastercard account at any time.

Earn a $300 sign-up bonus

One of the better aspects of the Aspiration Zero Mastercard is that new cardholders can earn a cash back sign-up bonus. You earn $300 cash back by spending $3,000 on your card within three months after account opening. This is a competitive sign-up bonus, especially for a card with an annual fee under $100. It also goes a long way toward helping the Aspiration Zero Mastercard compete with other rewards credit cards that have much higher cash back rates on purchases.

What could be improved

Even eco-friendly credit cards have some drawbacks.

$60 annual fee

The Aspiration Zero Mastercard may be environmentally friendly, but it's not entirely wallet-friendly, due to the $60 annual fee. According to Aspiration, that fee is part of what pays for the trees planted for purchases. The annual fee also helps fund the cash back you earn for meeting the monthly trees-planted quota. However, compared to other cash back rewards cards, Aspiration Zero Mastercard requires a lot of fee for not a lot of rewards. You can easily find a no annual fee card with double or triple the cash back.

Low cash back rewards rate

Though we touched on it above, it's worth mentioning again: This card has a very low cash back rewards rate. The starting rate of 0.5% is less than basically any other rewards card on our list of credit card reviews.

Additionally, unless you use your card every day and have Plant Your Change enabled, you're unlikely to meet the requirement to get the rewards boost up to 1%. Even if you do meet the threshold for the higher rewards rate, it's not all that much of a boost. Most rewards cards start at 1% and go up from there.

Of course, while the cash back rate is very low, you do get a tree planted for each purchase. So, if you highly value trees, that could mean the Aspiration Zero Mastercard has a better purchase rewards rate for you.

No intro 0% APR deals

One thing most cash back cards share these days is an intro 0% APR offer -- but not the Aspiration Zero Mastercard. There's no introductory interest rate on new purchases or balance transfers. This means you pay interest fees on any balance you carry past your due date, right from the start. So, you may plant trees with your purchases, but if you can't pay off your balance by your due date, you also pay interest for the privilege.

2% foreign transaction fee

Aspiration works with reforestation projects around the world. But your Aspiration Zero Mastercard is a lot less global thanks to its 2% foreign transaction fees. These fees apply to any purchases in a foreign currency, making traveling abroad with your card more expensive. But it's not just travel that you need to consider. Foreign transaction fees also apply to any purchase that routes through a foreign bank, such as online purchases from overseas vendors.

See more: Best No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Cards

Saving the environment may be for everyone, but the Aspiration Zero Mastercard is intended for applicants with at least good credit. In general, this refers to a FICO® Score of 670 or higher. Like most credit card issuers, however, Aspiration looks at your entire credit history, not just your credit scores. If you want an Aspiration account but don't qualify for the Aspiration credit card, the company does offer bank accounts (such as its Aspiration Spend & Save™) and debit card options with similar green features.

While it was available, we recommended the Aspiration Zero Mastercard for people who valued an eco-friendly card over earning purchase rewards. Between the biodegradable plastic and the trees you plant, this card was about as green as credit cards get. But the high annual fee and low rewards rate didn't compare to those of other cash back cards. The Aspiration Zero Mastercard is no longer offered to new cardholders by its issuer, leaving potential customers free to investigate more compelling options.

Keep reading: Best Mastercard Credit Cards

Our credit card methodology

At The Motley Fool Ascent, we rate credit cards on a five-star scale (1 = poor, 5 = best). Our rating criteria includes rewards rates, welcome bonuses, fees, and perks like travel credits and 0% intro APR offers to evaluate our ratings.

We combine these factors with an evaluation of brand reputation and customer satisfaction to ensure you're getting the best card recommendations. Learn more about how The Ascent rates credit cards.