Credit card loyalty schemes

Many UK credit cards offer loyalty schemes which provide rebates that can be used to reduce the cost of flights and overseas holidays.

I am asking that people who subscribe to these loyalty schemes write to their credit card company to ask them to make the rebates available to purchase energy saving products for the home and office.

Many credit card loyalty schemes shower their customers with glossy brochures full of images of foreign landmarks and images of people frolicking on sun drenched beaches.  Facilitating and promoting air travel and overseas holidays will only help increase carbon dioxide emissions and help increase energy prices in the long run.

Instead, credit card loyalty schemes could be used to help our society reduce its energy consumption and its carbon dioxide emissions.

All our homes and businesses could be more energy efficient.  Up to 40% of the heat in our homes escapes through the walls, and most homes would benefit from added insulation.

Home heating appliances are continually becoming more energy efficient.  New condensing boilers are better in this respect than boilers manufactured just ten years ago, and ground source heat pumps can reduce home heating costs even further. Solar roof panels can greatly reduce hot water heating bills. Unfortunately, installing this equipment is expensive and the return on investment can be too long for many people.

UK domestic credit card sales exceeded £100 billion in 2003.  Using a one percent rebate on total UK credit card sales would make available over £1 billion annually to credit card customers to help them reduce the cost of purchasing home insulation products and energy efficient equipment and appliances.

While many of us would still prefer to spend our money on an overseas holiday than on energy efficiency around the home, we should bear in mind that energy prices will continue to rise in the long run.  To accommodate the cost increase we would be wise to spend money on improving home energy efficiency sooner rather than later.  This would also help us reduce our carbon dioxide emissions, which is so critical to avert catastrophic climate change.

If you receive a loyalty scheme from your credit card company that promotes overseas travel I hope you will consider writing to your credit card company to ask them to use the loyalty scheme to help fight climate change and reduce energy consumption.