Three Things We’re Hearing
- So, Gen Z Likes Branches — Who Knew???
- Side Gigs – Why Issuers Keep Buying Companies That Aren’t Banks!!!
- Covid — FI Marketing Six Years Later
A four-minute read
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OK, Boomer: Gen Z Plays by Different Card Rules!
- Cash back is king: in August we reported that 44% of consumers use a cash back card as their primary card, and a third say cash back is the #1 reason they use it
- Gen Z didn't get the memo. While 37% have a cash back card, only 18% of them cite cash back as their top reason for using their primary card, about half the rate of every older generation
- Banks pour money into courting Gen Z, and it's tempting to treat them as Millennials with thinner credit files. The data says they run a different playbook entirely
- You can't (and shouldn't) target consumers by age, but generational differences shape which products and messages land. So, we asked 900+ consumers across four generations* how they choose, use, and bundle credit cards
Gen Z Starts Somewhere Else
- Cash back is still the most common primary card in every generation. The difference is what sits next to it
- 12% of Gen Z and 14% of Millennials use a secured card as their primary card, versus 3%–4% of Gen X and Boomers
- 18% of Gen Z carry a travel card as their primary card, nearly double Gen X and Boomers
- Our take: one foot on the credit on-ramp, one eye on the airport lounge. Secured cards are how they're building credit; travel cards may reflect where they want to end up
Millennials Optimize. Gen Z Goes Where the Credit Is.
- Cash back is the top reason to use a card for Millennials (37%), Gen X (34%) and Boomers (33%). For Gen Z, it ties with plain old habit: 18% just use the card they've had the longest
- Gen Z also listens to people: 12% use a card because someone recommended it, versus under 1% of Boomers, and 11% use the card their checking bank offers
- Millennials are the rewards maximizers: 36% juggle different cards to get the most rewards, the highest of any generation (possibly their way of fighting back against economic pressure)
- Gen Z is more practical: 25% reach for whichever card has the most available credit, versus 9%–12% of the other generations
- So what: a richer rewards grid won't move Gen Z the way it moves Millennials. Credit line, being the first card in the wallet, and a trusted recommendation will
Remember When We Said Branches Barely Matter for Cards?
- In August, we shared that consumers split almost evenly on whether nearby branches matter when choosing a credit card. That average was hiding something
- Only 8% of Gen Z say branches don't matter, versus 38% of Boomers
- 29% of Gen Z won't open a card without a branch nearby, versus 16% of Boomers
- As we noted in June, Gen Z loves the app but banks with names it trusts: 56% of Gen Z (and 55% of Millennials) keep checking at a national bank with nearby branches, versus about 40% of Gen X and Boomers
- Digital-only banks have built real traction by focusing on deepening relationships: 17% of Gen Z bank with one, more than the 13% who use a regional bank with branches
- Credit unions, meanwhile, fall off a cliff, from 31% of Boomers to 9% of Gen Z
- Our take: for a generation still figuring out credit, the branch may be less about transactions and more about having someone to ask
Gen Z Wants One Bank (Mostly)
- 59% of Gen Z keep checking and their primary card at the same bank, versus 30% of Boomers
- Why? Convenience, say 43% of Gen Z bundlers, versus 26%–32% of other generations
- It's a selling point, too: 10% of Gen Z would be drawn to a card they can manage alongside their checking, versus 2% of Gen X and Boomers. That sits right behind a welcome bonus (11%) and a better rate (11%) at the top of their list, while older generations stick to rewards, rates and no annual fee
- When they do split where they keep their checking and credit card account, it's for the same reason as everyone else: 47% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials say another bank offered better rewards
- One twist: 17% of Gen Z splitters cite a lower rate elsewhere, roughly double other generations (nobody brags about their interest rate, but Gen Z is apparently checking it)
Gen Z Trusts People, Then Pixels
- 47% of Gen Z would be prompted to apply by a friend or family recommendation, versus 22% of Gen X and 21% of Boomers
- Gen Z’s next biggest difference comes from digital: 24% respond to digital ads (versus 5% of Boomers) and 21% to offers in their bank's mobile app
- Millennials lean hardest on comparison sites (30%)
- And direct mail holds steady at about 20% in every generation, Gen Z included (we'll say it again: direct mail is still not dead!)
What It Means for Your Marketing
- Don't market to Gen Z like junior Millennials: they choose cards on habit, credit line and recommendations, not rewards math. Lead with a competitive credit line and a clear credit-building path
- Win the first card, win the habit: for Gen Z, inertia is as powerful as cash back, so the bank that gets there first has a real head start
- Make the card part of the checking relationship: Gen Z wants everything in one place, so put the card offer inside the checking app and make unified management the headline, not the fine print
- Fuel word of mouth, back it with digital, keep the mail going: referral offers do double duty with a generation that trusts people first, and the mailbox reaches Gen Z as well as anyone
- Regionals, your branches are an asset: for Gen Z, a nearby branch isn't nostalgia. It's a reason to say yes
* Survey Methodology: All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. Total sample size was 1,004 (977 in the generations profiled here) US Adults 21+ with an annual household income of $50k+ who have a checking account. Fieldwork was undertaken between 12th – 18th June 2026. The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all US adults 21-79 with an annual household income of $50k+.
Side Gigs!!! Why Issuers Keep Buying Companies That Aren’t Banks
- In the October 2025 Epic Report we noted that premium cards were shifting to lifestyle marketing. The Amex Platinum refresh leaned on Resy credits, while Chase built Sapphire Reserve dining credits around OpenTable
- In May’s Bundle Wars issue, Capital One’s Brex deal led us to conclude that if you can’t build it, you’ll need to buy it
- In June, American Express announced it is acquiring Europe’s TheFork from Tripadvisor for $700 million in cash, with the deal expected to close by year-end. It’s Amex’s fourth dining-related deal since 2019
- Step back and a pattern emerges. Since 2018, issuers and lenders have spent more than $6.5 billion on disclosed deals alone for dining apps, shopping tools, budgeting apps, and student platforms
- None of these companies lend money. What they own is the moment before the financial decision.
The Dining Land Grab
- Amex has quietly built a restaurant empire one piece at a time:
- Resy in 2019
- Tock for $400 million in 2024
- Payments middleware provider Rooam
- TheFork, announced in June and expected to close by year-end
- Together that’s roughly 75,000 bookable venues, enough to edge past longtime leader OpenTable, which reports more than 70,000
- JPMorgan Chase got there first in spirit, acquiring The Infatuation and its Zagat brand in 2021
- Capital One bought luxury concierge app Velocity Black in 2023
- The asset is valuable enough that non-banks are bidding too. DoorDash paid $1.2 billion for reservation platform SevenRooms
- Dining Pattern: you can’t offer a $400 dining credit at scale unless you control the dining rails. Once you own the rails, merchants help fund the credit
The Shopping Funnel
- PayPal spent roughly $4 billion on Honey in 2019, the largest acquisition in its history
- Capital One ran a smaller version of the same play, buying Wikibuy in 2018 and rebranding it Capital One Shopping
- Shopping Pattern: both moves put the issuer in the moment a consumer decides what to buy, not just how to pay. Both companies also get to see the entire cart
The Money-management Hook
- Rocket Companies bought budgeting app Truebill for $1.275 billion in 2021 and rebranded it Rocket Money
- People use it daily, and it sees a member’s whole financial life, including competitors’ products
- That engagement funnels users toward Rocket mortgages and personal loans
- Money-Management Pattern: engagement comes first and cross-sell comes second
Catching Them Before They’re Customers
- Sallie Mae bought scholarship-search tools Nitro (2022) and Scholly (2023)
- Chase bought student financial-aid platform Frank in 2021
- Get in at the FAFSA stage and you own the customer before they have a bank
- Student Pattern: the prospect relationship starts years before the first credit pull
What They’re Really Buying
- Frequency. A card is a low-frequency relationship. You swipe it, but you don’t visit it. Dining, deals, and budgeting apps put the issuer in the customer’s hand every day
- Data. Honey and Wikibuy see the cart. Resy and The Infatuation see where you eat and how often. Rocket Money sees everything. That data feeds targeting, underwriting, and cross-sell
- Membership. Amex, Chase, and Capital One are all chasing the same affluent “transactor”: a heavy spender and low revolver who rarely churns. The card is becoming a membership, and as we said in May, the winner is whoever makes it hardest to leave
- Timing. Frank, Scholly, and Nitro were bets on Gen Z. They reach customers before any financial relationship exists
- Acquisition is shifting from buying a response to owning attention
The Catch
- A side gig becomes a liability when the core business doesn’t understand what it bought
- Frank is the loud example:
- Chase paid $175 million
- The deal collapsed into a fraud case, and the founder was convicted in 2025 and sentenced to roughly seven years
- It is now a textbook diligence cautionary tale
- Honey is the subtler one:
- After the acquisition it drew creator backlash and lawsuits alleging it diverted affiliate commissions
- An engagement asset built on trust can erode the brand it was meant to enhance
- The thesis is sound, even when the execution isn’t
The Bottom Line
- The customer journey no longer starts at the application. It starts at:
- “Where should we eat?”
- “Is this the best price?”
- “Where is my money going?”
- Issuers are buying their way to the front of that journey, and we expect the gap to keep widening
- Most marketers can’t write a $400 million check. You don’t need to own the reservation book to show up in those moments. Merchant partnerships, life-event triggers, and smarter timing on prescreened mail can get you there at a fraction of the cost
- If your acquisition strategy still begins at the offer, you’re already a step behind
Six Years After Covid, Mail Has One Clear Winner
- We launched The Epic Report on March 21, 2020 as Covid began sweeping the country
- Foreseeing a seismic impact on consumer banking, many of our industry colleagues were asking themselves “what’s going to happen”
- Mail volume and other marketing activities plunged as economic fears caused lenders to pause extending new credit to consumers amid an expected spike in unemployment
- The collapse was fast — card mail hit 74M pieces in May 2020, 79% below May 2019 and the lowest on record, and by August 2020, volume had rebounded to 152M — still only about half of pre-Covid levels
- Six and a half years later, overall mail volume has rebounded to roughly 90% of 2019, the last pre-Covid year
- By mid-2022, card, personal loans, education refi and in-school lending were all running above 2019, but only card – up 4% from 2019 – has stayed there
- Everything else is smaller — total volume is down 11%, from 6.2B pieces (Jan–Aug 2019) to 5.5B in 2026
- Personal loans are down 23%, while savings (‑62%), education refi (‑57%), and in-school lending (‑34%) have pulled back even further
- HELOC / home equity sits only 13% below 2019 — and August volume beat August 2019
- Higher interest rates explain much of the softness — personal loan rates are up 200 – 400bp and HELOC rates up 200bp from 2019 while credit cards are historically less interest rate sensitive
- Capital One + Discover still leads cards but mails 28% less — 945M to 683M — as its share slips from ~36% to ~25%, while everyone else more than made up the difference
- Chase has replaced Bank of America in the top three, while Citi is flat at 316M
- SoFi has taken LendingClub’s top spot in personal loans, with Upstart now #2
- Goldman Sachs exited personal loans in 2023
- OneMain is down 41%
- In 2019, home equity was Figure’s market — 145M, more than 3x the next mailer
- Aven, Citizens, and Point now lead a far more fragmented field, and the #1 mailer sends less than half of Figure’s 2019 volume
- Discover shut down its home equity business after the Capital One deal
Personal Loan Balances Have Doubled on Less Mail
- Personal loan balances hit $281B in Q2 2026, up 9.6% year-over-year, per TransUnion — about double the $138B at the end of 2018
- Mail volume and loan growth have decoupled — personal lenders are growing on far fewer pieces than in 2019
- Part of the answer is digital — top financial advertisers cut direct mail about 15% and grew paid social 89%
- Why this matters: card is the only large category where mail is back above pre-Covid levels — card issuers are fighting for attention in a more crowded mailbox and need a sharper offer to stand out, while lenders face less competition than in 2019
- What happens next: the categories furthest below 2019 — education refi and savings — are where a lender’s return to mail would stand out most, and home equity’s August rebound suggests momentum is already building
- A recent study by Curinos found 75% of bank deposit growth comes from existing customers, not new acquisition
- Most banks still reach for the rate tables first for growth, which attracts "hot money" customers chasing rate
- However, that strategy is expensive with the study finding it costs roughly 20 basis points of cost of funds for new existing-customer balances versus 250 basis points on the open market
- Two-thirds of new checking accounts come from Millennials and Gen Z according to a new study by JD Power, with fintechs opening a disproportionate share
- The study also found that premium, relationship and rewards-based accounts rank among the highest in customer satisfaction, with seven of the 10 highest-scoring accounts
Thank you for reading.
Jim Stewart and Ben Brake
www.epicresearch.net
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