Pros & cons
Pros
- Every time you use this card, Vancity allocates 5% of the profits to the Vancity enviroFund™.
- Use the Vancity Carbon Counter™ to estimate your carbon footprint.
- Plenty of options to redeem points for high value.
- No annual fee.
Cons
- Only earns 1 point for every $2 spent.
Your rewards
How you earn rewards
Each card earns rewards differently. Part of choosing your card is deciding what type of rewards you want to get. With Vancity enviro Visa Classic card with Vancity Rewards, here's how you earn rewards:
- 1 point per $1 spent on travel booked through Vancity Rewards
- 1 point per $2 spent on all purchases
For all reward details click here.
How much your rewards are worth
The dollar value of your rewards depends on the specific rewards program ‒ and what you choose to redeem your points for. For Vancity enviro Visa Classic card with Vancity Rewards in particular, if you spend $2,000 per month, here's our estimated annual rewards earned depending on which reward you choose:
| Statement credits | $126 | |
| Travel | $126 | |
| Gift Cards | $126 | |
| Donations | $126 |
Calculating your annual rewards
$24,000 annual spending x 0.53% return on spending = $126 annual rewards
$126 annual rewards − $0.00 annual fee = $126 net annual rewards
Details and eligibility
- Estimated Credit Score
- 560 - 659
- Personal Income
- N/A
- Household Income
- N/A
- Annual Fee
- $0.00
- Extra Card Fee
- $0
- Card type
- Credit
- Purchase
- 19.50%
- Cash Advance
- 19.50%
- Balance Transfer
- 19.50%
Insurance coverage
- Extended Warranty
- 1 year
- Purchase Protection
- 90 days
- Travel Accident
- $200,000
Please review your insurance certificate for details, exclusions and limitations of your coverage, terms and conditions apply.
Learn more about the value of credit card insurance coverage.
Genius Rating
Vancity enviro Visa Classic card with Vancity Rewards's 3.2 Genius Rating is based on the weighted average of the following scores:
Methodology
All scores are produced by our math-based rating algorithm that takes into account over 126 credit card features.
Top card from Vancity
Our review
If you’re a resident of British Columbia, Vancity is probably a name you’re pretty familiar with when it comes to banking.
They also offer a lineup of credit cards you can take a look at, one of which is the Vancity enviro™ Visa card. Here's what it has to offer.
Earning rewards with the Vancity enviro™ Visa* card
The Vancity enviro™ Visa card is a rewards card, and you'll earn Vancity points on all your purchases.
Here's what you'll earn on all your purchases:
- 1 point per $1 spent on travel booked through Vancity Rewards
- 1 point per $2 spent on all purchases
But what can you use your Vancity points for? You have several choices:
- cash back‡,
- travel through Vancity Rewards,
- donations, and
- gift cards.
No matter which option you choose, 100 Vancity Rewards points will get you $1 in rewards value.
Meaning, you're looking at a return of 0.5% on all your purchases (1% on Vancity travel bookings).
4 benefits to the Vancity enviro™ Visa card
There are a couple of benefits to having the Vancity enviro™ Visa card.
1. Contributions made to the Vancity enviroFund™
By having this card, you'll be helping the environment. With every purchase you make on your enviro™ Visa card, 5% of profits go to supporting environmental initiatives through the Vancity enviroFund ™.
On top of that, you'll also get access to Vancity's Carbon Counter™, which is used to estimate your carbon footprint based on your purchases.
2. No annual fee or income requirements
There's no annual fee or income requirements to meet when you have this credit card.
3. Ability to get a lower interest rate
There's one interesting feature you can get – a lower interest rate. The standard interest rate is 19.5%.
However, you can pay an annual fee to lower it to 11.25%. How much will that lower rate cost you? It depends on if you also want to earn rewards.
If you want to keep earning rewards, you'll pay an annual fee of $50. However, if you forgo rewards, you can pay an annual fee of $25.
It makes for an interesting way to tailor the card you want.
2 downsides to the Vancity enviro™ Visa card
This card is by no means perfect – here are 2 things to keep in mind.
1. Only available to residents of British Columbia
If you live in BC, you can skip this section.
But if not, this card won't be available to you – it's only available to residents of British Columbia.
2. Low rewards on purchases compared to other no fee cards
Unfortunately, the rewards are rather lacklustre. The best no annual fee credit cards earn at least 1% back on all your purchases.
If rewards for no annual fee are your game, you may want to take a peek at our listing of top no annual fee credit cards.
Comparison to the Vancity enviro Visa Infinite Card
Vancity offers a few different credit cards. Here's a comparison to the Vancity enviro Visa Infinite Card.
| Vancity enviro™ Visa card | Vancity enviro Visa Infinite Card | |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome Bonus | None | None |
| Earn Rates | * 1 point per $1 spent on travel booked through Vancity Rewards * 1 point per $2 spent on all purchases | * 10 points per $1 spent at select local businesses * 5 points per $1 spent on public transit and ferries◊ * 2.5 points per $1 spent on groceries.◊ * 1.25 points per $1 spent on all other purchases * 2x the points when booking travel through Vancity Rewards |
| Insurance Coverage | 3 types§ | 9 types§ |
| Special features | * Ability to get a lower interest rate of 11.25% * 5% of profits to go the Vancity enviroFund | * 5% of profits to go the Vancity enviroFund * Visa Infinite benefits * Visa Airport Companion membership (no free passes) |
| Income Requirements | None | * $60,000 personal * $100,000 household |
| Annual Fee | $0 | $120 |
There's really no comparing these cards. However, if you want savings on credit card interest, the Vancity enviro™ Visa card has an optional annual fee you can pay to save on interest.
Otherwise, the decision to make is whether you want to pay an annual fee or not. The Visa Infinite card offers more of just about everything for $120.
Which is better is up to you to decide.
Leave a review
These are our thoughts on this card, but what about you?
If you have the card or had it in the past, leave a user review so others can see what you thought of it.
FAQ
What does the Vancity enviro™ Visa card earn for rewards?
The Vancity enviro™ Visa card earns Vancity Rewards at these rates:
- 1 point per $1 spent on travel booked through Vancity Rewards
- 1 point per $2 spent on all purchases
You can use your rewards for cash back‡, travel, and gift cards, all for the same value of 1 cent per point.
What benefits are there to the Vancity enviro™ Visa card?
There is one big benefit. You can get a lower interest rate of 11.25% for an annual fee of $50. Or, you can elect not to earn rewards and get that same benefit for only $25 per year.
What is the annual fee and income requirements of the Vancity enviro™ Visa card?
The Vancity enviro™ Visa card has no annual fee or income requirements.
Key benefits
* Trademark of Visa Int. Used under license.
enviro™, Vancity enviroFund™ and Carbon Counter™ are trademarks of Vancouver City Savings Credit Union.
‡ Vancity membership required for certain cash back rewards. Must have a Vancity deposit account to redeem for cash. Additional terms and conditions apply.
◊ You will earn more points per $1 on eligible purchases made with an enviro Visa Infinite card. Eligibility is based on the merchant code as classified in the Visa credit card network. Purchases made at merchants classified as (i) Grocery Stores; Freezer and Locker Meat Provisioners; Candy Stores; Dairy Product Stores; Bakeries; and Misc. Food Stores – Convenience Stores and Specialty Markets are “groceries”; (ii) Local/Suburban Commuter Passenger Transportation – Railroads; and Transportation Services Not Elsewhere Classified are “public transit and ferries”. Some merchants may sell these products/services or are separate merchants who are located on the premises of these merchants, but are classified by the Visa credit card network in another manner, in which case the accelerated earn rate will not apply.
§ Common Carrier Travel Accident and Travel Emergency Medical Insurance are insurance coverages underwritten by American Bankers Life Assurance Company of Florida (ABLAC) under Group Policy number VCVIL092019. All other insurance coverages are underwritten by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida (ABIC) under Group Policy number VCVI092019. Price Protection Service and Emergency Travel Assistance Services are services only and not insurance and are provided by ABIC. ABIC and ABLAC, their subsidiaries, and affiliates carry on business in Canada under the name of Assurant®. ® Assurant is a registered trademark of Assurant, Inc. Details of the coverage, including definitions, benefits, limitations, and exclusions are in the Certificate of Insurance and the Statement of Services provided with the card. Read the Certificate of Insurance and Statement of Services, then keep these documents in a safe place, and take them with you when you travel.
User reviews
Reviewed by 7 Canadians
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Was an ok card. The rewards are weak but there is no fee and it is supposed to give back to the environment. When it was compromised I had a bad experience with customer service.
I've been using this card for years. I did not know how flexible and good they are till you try another one. I lost my wallet last month. My Vancity visa and Neo Financial Mastercard were in it and unfortunately they had been used by someone. I reported it to the police and to the credit cards financial institutions. New Financial gave me hard time to even Strat an investigation, that I initiated reporting it to a third party, finally they refunded the amount that had been fraud. Meanwhile, Vancity visa, they initiated the investigation right away and refused me the amount in a timely manner. I'm cancelling my card with Neo Financial and I appreciate Vancity visa that truly works for people and not for the cooperation.
It is a good credit card to get started as it has no fees. That is about as good as it gets. After 8 years having this card Vancity hasn't added Android Pay, the rewards are almost non-existent, and I've had bad experiences with customer service when my card is compromised. I also don't understand the "enviro" aspect of the card either. I have no reason to stay loyal to this credit card.
Base level rewards (0.5%) but no annual fee; fairly straightforward. I do wish they actually tied some level of community benefits to the card; it'd make me more loyal. Instead they make a lot of claims about "enviro" this and "community" that but there's no tangible evidence that using this card does anything extra for the environment or the community. (Yes, I know they tout that Vancity overall gives in the community, but so do all the big banks, so...really, what's different?)
The huge problem with them is service and their policies. Their online banking access policies are hugely restrictive and created only to protect them and to make the customer's life as difficult as possible. I have been locked out of my account two or three times now over the past couple of years (for things as basic as trying to connect the account to an online money manager at my main bank), and it is nearly impossible to reset your password. They don't allow you to reset your card online -- you have to phone in, stay on hold for 2 hours (yes, literally), and talk to a customer service rep who can't fix it but can instead have someone send you a "secure email" (that can't be read / replied to on an iPhone) so that you can reply with pictures of your ID. Then you wait over a week for them to respond and unlock your account. It takes nearly two weeks to reset your password. Seriously.
Not worth the headache -- go with a grown-up bank and save yourself the hassle.
Apple Pay only, no Google Pay / Android Pay.
Weak rewards, only 0.5% cashback.
Gives back to the community, which is nice. I like to support Vancity when I can but I will be putting this card on the backburner for now.
