There's a customer segment reshaping the credit market right now, and not because they're loud about it. Their behavior is structurally different from every cohort that came before them. Consumers aged 18 to 44, and particularly the 25-to-34 cohort moving through their first decade of serious financial decision-making, are assembling credit portfolios that no single product was designed to serve. Most credit card issuers aren't built to keep up with them.
Marqeta's 2026 State of Credit research surveyed 5,000 consumers and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) across the US and UK. The behaviors this cohort is normalizing today will define the consumer credit landscape for the rest of the decade: multi-product ownership, contextual payment switching, BNPL alongside revolving credit, and explicit demand for graduation paths. The providers who design for this now will compound relationships with the most valuable customers in the market. Those who don't will keep losing them at the moments that should be retention wins.
Credit is a portfolio, not a product
Start with the baseline. Among consumers overall, 57% of credit cardholders carry more than one card, a number that climbs to 64% in the US. 79% of BNPL users keep using BNPL even when they have full credit card access. 59% of consumers have used both debit and credit in the past 90 days, switching based on purchase type and cash flow. 85% consider multiple factors before deciding which payment method to use for any given transaction.
This is deliberate orchestration across a fragmented set of tools. Consumers are already managing the complexity that a flexible credential would consolidate. They're doing it manually, across multiple apps and cards, because no single product does it for them.
Among consumers aged 18 to 44, those patterns are even more pronounced:
- 48% of 18- to 44-year-olds express interest in a card that can switch between debit, credit, and BNPL at the point of purchase, compared to 23% of consumers 65 and older.
- Among 18- to 44-year-olds who already carry multiple credit cards, 71% want the ability to switch between different credit products on a single card.
These aren't aspirational preferences. They describe a workflow consumers have already built manually and want consolidated.
The credit card is where the relationship starts
The finding that should change how providers think about customer acquisition economics for this cohort: 60% of consumers aged 18 to 34 who hold additional financial products with a provider got the credit card first. The credit product isn't generating interchange alone. For this demographic, it's the acquisition channel for every subsequent product in the relationship.
That reframes the strategic value of a credit card significantly. A 25-year-old who opens a card today is not just a credit customer. If the provider builds for it, they're a potential multi-product relationship across the most financially consequential decades of that person's life. Providers capturing that entry point without a plan for what comes next are leaving most of the customer lifetime value on the table.
The research is clear on what that plan requires:
- 65% of 18 to 44-year-olds are actively trying to build or improve their credit score.
- 76% of denied credit card applicants say they would undergo a credit check to upgrade to a revolving credit card when their profile is ready.
- 63% of denied applicants weren't shown any alternative product, even though 60% said they'd be interested in one that helped them build toward the card they originally wanted.
They want a visible, structured path from where they are to where they want to be. The pipeline exists; the follow-through doesn't.
Why inertia isn't loyalty
The most counterintuitive finding in the research concerns the primary competitor for flexible credit products. The competitor isn't a rival issuer; it's satisfaction with the current setup.
49% of consumers uninterested in flexible credentials say they're satisfied with what they already have. At first read, that sounds like a comfortable market position for incumbents. It isn't.
When those same "not interested" respondents were shown specific value propositions, including convenience, fewer cards to manage, point-of-purchase control, and cash flow visibility, 81% of consumers identified real benefits worth considering. They weren't opposed to the product. They hadn't been given a reason to want it yet.
That distinction matters for how providers should approach launch strategy. Programs that launch flexible credential products with structured education, specific value-prop articulation, and progressive trial experiences will consistently outperform programs that announce a feature and wait for adoption. The 18 to 44 consumer responds to relevant, direct value propositions rather than abstract capability promotion.
Non-bank providers have a real path in
Comfort with non-bank financial services isn't a future trend for this demographic. It's the baseline.
- 44% of consumers aged 25 to 44 report being comfortable using financial services from non-banks. Among consumers interested in flexible credentials specifically, that number rises to 52%.
- Established fintechs earn 53% trust among consumers overall, large retailers earn 47%, and BNPL providers earn 45%.
These trust levels aren't applied to abstract companies. They reflect existing customer relationships, transaction histories, and brand equity. Retailers earn high enough consumer trust to anchor co-brand credit card and debit programs when paired with active loyalty mechanics. Fintechs earn enough trust to credibly deliver credit builder, flexible credential, and graduation-path programs to engaged user bases.
The generational trajectory makes this more significant, not less. The 18 to 24 cohort, when asked broadly about comfort with non-bank financial services, reports 32% comfort. But when asked which types of non-bank providers they'd trust, 87% name at least one. The headline number understates real market openness. What that age group rejects in the abstract, they accept readily when a specific brand enters the conversation.
For providers evaluating whether to move into credit product ownership: the trust infrastructure already exists among the segments that matter most. The drivers are brand reputation, transparent pricing, and bank-level protections. Each is an actionable investment, not a vague aspiration. Providers who move first will benefit from demand the research confirms and trust that already exists.
Building for the credit journey, not the credit product
The pattern the research documents is consistent across consumers, across revolving credit, BNPL, credit builder, and charge cards. Customers move between products for identifiable reasons: an improving credit score, a life stage shift, a brand relationship deepening. Every one of those moments is either a retention event or a churn event, depending entirely on whether the provider built a path for the customer to follow.
Providers built around a static single product lose customers at exactly those moments. Providers built around the credit journey compound their relationships through those same transitions, because they offer graduation paths, multiple product flavors within categories, and contextual payment choice.
Marqeta's card issuing platform powers the infrastructure this requires: flexible credentials that adapt at the point of purchase, co-brand programs for retailers and brands, credit builder programs for consumers starting their credit journey, and the graduation paths between them. The companies building for the credit journey this research describes are building on Marqeta, because the capability to deploy these programs at scale exists today.
The 25-year-old quietly redefining your credit roadmap is already orchestrating credit across debit, credit, BNPL, and multiple providers. They're signaling exactly what they want next. The providers who hear them first will shape what comes next.
Download the full 2026 State of Credit Report to see what serving the next decade of credit customers requires.
Or watch our on-demand webinar, Credit Orchestration in Practice, where Marqeta's Chief Product Officer Anthony Peculic and Market Intelligence Lead Rachel Huber break down what these findings mean for your program, where the strategic window is opening fastest, and what to build next.
