Being able to check your credit card statement online is convenient. Don’t you love the fact that you don’t have to wait for a piece of paper to arrive just so you can review your transactions? Don’t you appreciate the fact that immediate access to your list of charges means you could spot unauthorised transactions sooner? You can’t lose it. You can’t accidentally throw it away. Your online credit card statement is there when you want it, any time of the day.

You would be hard-pressed to find any credit card company that doesn’t offer online credit card statements these days. Online statements are more cost-effective for banks. They don’t have to pay for paper, printing, or postage. They don’t have to pay staff to manually review paper stubs with payments, entering the information into their database to reflect your payment. There’s even one benefit that you and your credit company share by using online credit card statements.

Online Credit Card Statements Save the World

Okay. It’s not as if online statements have super powers or anything, but they really do help you and your credit card company go green and minimise your impact on the environment.

An online credit card statement’s most obvious contribution to going green is that you won’t waste paper. Everything is digital. Trees aren’t cut down to make the paper, and old statements won’t end up shredded and in a landfill somewhere (not to mention the lack of files cluttering your home).

There’s more to going green than saving some trees though, and online credit card statements are an all-around good deal for the environment. Did you know that many types of ink and toner traditionally used in printing are bad for the environment? They can pollute the air. Toners release particles that we breathe in and some inks can release volatile organic compounds (VOCs). What are VOCs? Think about the last time you used a solvent or painted a room. The smell in the air was an example of a VOC, which basically just means you’re putting potentially unsafe chemicals into the air.

Other Ways to go Green Using Credit Cards

If you’re really gung ho about living a greener life, your credit cards can help in other ways too. For example, don’t write cheques to pay your bills. Cut out more paper waste by paying with a credit card.

Even shopping online is an exercise in being more environmentally friendly. You won’t be driving to the store, using petrol and polluting the air with your vehicle. Even better, you’ll get digital receipts instead of paper ones.

There are a lot of things you can do to go green, including when it comes to your finances. Credit cards can help you take several little eco-friendly steps that eventually add up to big benefits for the environment.