Credit issuing in 2026 is no longer a single-product business. It is a portfolio business, and the providers winning the next decade are the ones building credit programs on card issuing platforms that move with their customers.
66% of consumers own a credit card. 57% of cardholders carry more than one. 79% of BNPL users keep using BNPL even when they have credit card access. 96% of SMBs are intentional about which payment method they use for a given transaction, switching between them three to ten times per month.
These numbers describe a credit market that has fundamentally changed shape. Customers are no longer choosing a single credit product and staying with it. They are assembling portfolios of tools across providers and payment methods, choosing intentionally for every transaction. They are already orchestrating credit themselves, manually, because no single product serves the range of needs they have.
The 2026 State of Credit Report, based on research across 5,000 consumers and SMBs in the US and UK, documents what that shift means for card program issuers, fintechs, retailers, and non-bank providers building for the next decade of credit. It is the most comprehensive view we have published on how credit behavior has evolved and where the commercial opportunity sits.
What is the shift in credit behavior?
For decades, credit programs were designed around a linear assumption. A consumer would start with a basic product, build a history, graduate to a better card, and stay there. An SMB would secure a business credit line and use it until it outgrew the product. Programs were built for that journey.
The research tells a different story. Credit behavior in 2026 is fluid, multi-directional, and deeply contextual. Customers assemble portfolios of financial tools and move between them based on purchase context, cash flow timing, and life stage. They are not climbing a ladder. They are building a toolkit, and they expect the providers they work with to grow with them.
For SMBs, the pattern is the same but at higher intensity. 34% of SMBs have started with one credit product and moved to another as their business evolved. 66% maintain relationships with more than one financial services provider. 64% say it is important that their financial provider offers a clear path from entry-level to advanced products. The market has moved past the single-product business credit relationship, and the SMBs leading that move are exactly the ones with the highest near-term application intent.
What does the research surface?
The full report covers four dimensions of the shift in detail. A few of the findings worth highlighting now:
- Multi-product behavior is the baseline, not the exception. 59% of consumers have used both debit and credit within the past 90 days, switching based on purchase type and cash flow. 57% of cardholders carry more than one card. 39% carry additional financial products with their primary card provider. The customers most engaged with their credit programs are also the ones using the most products.
- Customers want flexibility and consolidation. 36% of consumers overall are interested in flexible credentials, single cards that switch between debit, credit, and/or BNPL at the point of purchase. That interest rises to 48% among 18 to 44 year olds and 71% among consumers who already carry multiple cards. The financial orchestrators most active today are signaling that they want their existing payment methods consolidated, not added to.
- The credit application pipeline is wide open. 22% of consumers applied for a credit card in the past year. 45% were denied at least once. 76% of denied applicants would undergo a credit check to upgrade to a revolving card when their profile is ready. The graduation signal is sitting there, waiting for a provider to act on it. Most are not.
- Trust in non-banks has reached an inflection point. 66% of SMBs are comfortable using financial services from non-banks. Among SMBs planning to apply for credit cards in the next 12 months, that comfort rises to 83%. Consumers interested in flexible credentials are 2x more comfortable with non-banks than those who are not. The customers most open to the products that define the next decade of credit are also the customers most open to getting those products from non-traditional providers.
What does this mean for card issuers?
The strategic question for every provider evaluating their 2026 credit roadmap is no longer which single product to build. It is whether their infrastructure, product portfolio, and customer experience can serve customers at the transition points where movement actually happens.
That requires a different posture than most credit programs were designed for. Graduation has to be built into the product, not the application pipeline. Customers want choice within product categories, not just between them. The same credential needs to evolve as the customer does, supporting different funding sources, payment types, and credit products through a single relationship.
Issuers who design for that compound their customer relationships across every life stage and business growth moment. Issuers who keep designing static, single-product programs will keep losing customers at exactly the moments that should have been retention wins.
More on the way
This blog is the first in a series exploring the report's strongest findings. Over the next several weeks, we will publish three deeper dives:
- The first looks at the commercial argument behind flexible credentials, and what 67% debit card substitution really means for card program issuers.
- The second examines the 18 to 44 cohort, the consumers most actively reshaping credit behavior, and what they signal about where the market is heading.
- The third explores the strategic convergence we identified in the research, where the customers most open to flexible credit are also the customers most open to non-bank providers, and what that opens up for fintechs, retailers, and embedded finance partners.
Each of these is worth its own conversation. Together they describe a credit market that looks very different from the one most programs were built to serve.
Build for the credit journey customers are already on
The data in the 2026 State of Credit Report confirms what the most forward-thinking providers have been seeing in their own customer bases for some time. Credit is no longer a single product. It is a portfolio. The companies designing for the credit journey this research describes are building what comes next, and they are building it on Marqeta. Our card issuing platform powers flexible credentials, co-brand programs, credit builder programs, and the graduation paths between them, for non-bank providers, established card issuers, and embedded finance partners alike.
The question for every issuer isn't whether the shift is real. The data confirms it. The question is whether they will be the company their customers stay with through every transition, or the company those customers leave when their needs change.
Download the full 2026 State of Credit Report for the data behind every finding. Or join us live on June 24, when Marqeta's Chief Product Officer Anthony Peculic and Rachel Huber will discuss what these findings mean for card programs, where the strategic window is opening fastest, and what to build next.
