Consumer credit behavior is fragmenting. Shoppers now assemble debit, credit, and BNPL into a personal portfolio and switch between them by context rather than committing to one card. That threatens static loyalty and co-brand programs, but it’s an opening for retailers. The solution is a flexible credential: a single card that lets users choose debit, credit, or installments at the moment of purchase.

Loyalty programs aren’t holding. Consumers belong to more than a dozen each, engagement has been sliding, and 81% of Gen Z and Millennials switched brands in the past year. Adding tiers or bigger welcome bonuses hasn’t reversed this, because a free program costs nothing to leave and can always be outbid.

Marqeta’s 2026 State of Credit research shows credit is now a set of tools people move between based on what they’re buying and their cash flow:

Among consumers with multiple financial products from one provider, 33% started with the credit card (60% among 18–34 year olds). A co-brand card is therefore an acquisition channel for a durable relationship, not just an interchange line. Retail also has a trust advantage: 47% of consumers would trust a large retailer for financial services.

A single card that lets a consumer choose, at purchase, whether to pay via debit, credit, or installments, with no extra cards or apps. Building one requires an issuing platform that can combine multiple funding sources on one credential, route transactions in real time (typically under two seconds), manage authorization, clearing, and settlement across rails, and maintain network compliance for each payment type.

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