Credit’s New Reality: Seven Numbers Reshaping the Card Economy

PYMNTS Intelligence, in collaboration with i2c, fielded a nationally representative survey of U.S. adult consumers that produced 2,049 complete responses between June 3, 2025, and June 26, 2025. What emerges is a picture of a credit economy marked by access anxiety, divergent use cases across generations and risk tiers, along with a clear willingness to pay for products that deliver control, flexibility and tangible credit score gains.¹ The seven datapoints below spotlight where issuers, networks and FinTechs can win in the next cycle of card growth.

Seven Data Points on Credit

Approval Anxiety

More than four in 10, or 42%, of consumers doubt they’d be approved for a new credit card (24.6% are unsure + 17.6% expect to be denied). Confidence is even lower for “easier” alternatives like secured cards and buy now, pay later (BNPL), evidence of a perception wall that suppresses applications despite active needs and better-than-realized approval rates.

Denial Reality

Perception overshoots reality: Only 15% of consumers without a credit card report ever having been denied when applying for one. This gap between expected and actual outcomes points to a messaging opportunity around pre-qualification and approval odds.

Credit Planning Gap

Consumers are mostly intentional—53% plan most of their credit-backed purchases, while just 17% act mainly on impulse. Generation Z is the outlier: Only 37% plan their credit usage, 42% below the average. This underscores the need for embedded guidance and spend alerts to shape consumption behavior earlier.

Essential Tilt

Consumers use credit to cover necessities first. Among subprime consumers, there’s a 16% gap between essential and discretionary purchases made with credit. Super prime usage is roughly balanced, implicating working capital features (installments on everyday spend, payment smoothing) as levers.

Consumer Motives

Credit building is the number one reason consumers want a new credit card (26%). It remains a top motivation across products (e.g., payday loans: 10%; BNPL: 16%), even as interest in mortgages skews to a specific planned purchase (29%). Cards and apps that convert everyday spend into measurable credit score gains will resonate.

Premium Credit Features

Consumers will pay for control. On average, they are willing to pay a $99 one-time fee for a card that bundles multiple premium features. Zero-interest installments and richer rewards lead to the highest willingness to pay, while flexible payment timing and exclusive experiences place lower.

Flex Demand

Dynamic beats static. Nearly 60% of consumers want flexible rewards and payment structures that adapt to their spending patterns—rising to 70% among bridge millennials—putting algorithmic rewards, category “shapeshifting” and episodic installments squarely on the product roadmap.

^{1. PYMNTS Intelligence uses the following birth dates and approximate age ranges in 2025 for generational cohorts: baby boomers: born in 1964 or earlier and now aged 61 or older; Generation X: born between 1965 and 1980 and now aged 45–60; millennials: born between 1981 and 1996 and now aged 28–44; bridge millennials: born between 1978 and 1988 and now aged 37–47; zillennials: born between 1991 and 1999 and now aged 25–34; and Generation Z: born in 1997 or later and now aged 28 or younger.↩}