The news: Credit card issuers can cement top-of-wallet status by personalization and perks, especially for millennials and Gen Zers, per a PYMNTS Intelligence and i2c joint report.

Card portfolio: Gen Zers and millennials keep slimmer card portfolios, with only 49% of millennials and 29% of Gen Zers owning three or more cards, compared with 57% for boomers. 

Spending habits: Just 34% of Gen Zers reach for their primary card for everyday purchases, versus 45% for baby boomers—even though Gen Zers tend to use a much larger share of their primary card’s credit limit, at 30% and 16%, respectively.

• That’s because Gen Zers—with their slimmer credit profiles—are more likely to use entry-level cards with lower credit limits. 
• Boomers and other generations aren’t typically as constrained by the lack of credit history to qualify for more elite cards—and can spread that spend across a range of favorable credit cards for points and perks. 

Issuers could snatch more of Gen Zers’ spend if they offered credit line increases: 35.7% of Gen Z cardholders said they would use their primary card more often if they had higher credit limits. 

Other winning strategies: 47.7% of Gen Z consumers want more control over their payments. One in 4 Gen Zers want the power to select different financing options—debit, credit, or card-linked installments—at the time of transaction instead of going back retroactively after the charge has posted. 

Young consumers also said spending insight tools (16.6%) and pre-set spending limits (13.5%) would get them to use their primary card more often. 

Our take: To meet young consumers’ needs, issuers need to play up the non-rewards features that cardholders crave—higher credit limits coupled with tools to help cardholders make smart spending decisions. 

As this demographic ages, issuers should also advertise a clear upgrade path as young consumers develop richer credit histories and gain more spending power—ensuring that Gen Zers upgrade within their card portfolio rather than switching to a rival issuer.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.