How to Make Your Card Top-of-Wallet and Stay There

The way consumers pay has fundamentally changed. All they need is a smartphone. 

Physical cards are taking a backseat as customers embrace digital wallets for faster, more seamless transactions. In 2023 alone, there were 3.7 billion global digital wallet users – 46% of the entire population – with Apple Pay leading the charge. In fact, mobile wallets now account for half of all global online purchases. 

But the shift doesn’t stop there. Subscription services like Netflix, Amazon, and countless online retailers have locked in "card-on-file" transactions, making checkout effortless. If your card isn’t saved or set as default, you’re missing out on a massive share of spend. 

The truth is, habits are hard to break. Once a customer picks their go-to card, they rarely change it. So, how do you break the cycle and become their new favourite card? You need to give them a reason to. 

Banks love to talk about interest rates, features, and security. Customers don’t.

They care about what you can give them.

For most cardholders, rewards are the #1 reason they stay loyal to their go-to card. According to CreditCards.com, 67% of those consumers prefer cashback over points or air miles. 

However, with 1 in 4 of those cardholders switching their primary card every year, rewards may get them through the door but they’re not keeping them. Without a strategy to build lasting loyalty, engagement remains low, and your card will be back of wallet again. 

Here’s where it gets interesting: the higher the income, the less appealing cashback becomes. As consumers grow older and accumulate more cards, they expect more from their rewards – experiences, exclusive perks and tailored benefits that go beyond cash.

In the past, customers simply expected you to grow their savings; now, they want exclusive perks on top of banking services. The strongest brands know their reputation is built on the value they provide to customers, not just the products they offer. 

So, what can you leverage from your brand to go beyond Financial Services and make your customers’ lives better? To help them realise their ambitions and be there for important life moments that align with their savings and debts? 

Once your brand has caught their attention, how you do make them feel it, too? You need to move beyond a rational connection to create an emotional one. That means going further than simply messaging about your brand, products, services, and pricing, to offering genuine experiences that bring your story and values to life for them. 

Most brands start by optimising their digital UX, ensuring customers can manage finances and make payments securely and efficiently. Effective Financial Services, advice and products can also enable life-changing moments that spark real emotions. However, while this approach meets expectations and delivers customer satisfaction, it only goes so far – because seamless functionality is now the bare minimum of what customers expect from their bank. 

A real emotional connection goes deeper and feels personal to each and every customer. Financial Services brands that successfully achieve this go beyond expectations to offer customers attention, tailored benefits and services that feel unique to them. Surprise and delight strategies are particularly powerful here, especially when linked to personal milestones like birthdays, offering perks that resonate with customers’ interests. 

Another way to connect with your customers is by incorporating experiences within a loyalty program or as a purchase incentive. Why? Because experiences create meaningful moments and memories, like a hotel stay in a new city, an unforgettable meal, or a family day out at the zoo. 

One of the best ways to leverage your unique brand positioning is to offer customer benefits that embody it. If your brand is about ‘unlocking more from life’, offer rewards tied to their passions and ambitions – like travel, entertainment, wellbeing, or education. Not only will your brand resonate better with your target customers, but these personalised benefits will foster stronger emotional connections and ultimately deepen long-term loyalty. 

TLC is redefining the way Financial Services brands think about their marketing strategies – helping brands deliver unique customer benefits that represent their brand and what it stands for. Our pioneering solution offers over 100,000 experiences worldwide, ensuring customers get personalised perks that match their passions and life stage – without breaking the bank. Thanks to TLC’s Reward Value-Cost Paradox, our clients can afford to gift rewards at scale, more often and more generously. 

Another seismic shift in the banking world is your customers don’t just expect you to know them – they demand it.

A study by Epsilon revealed that 80% of consumers are more likely to engage with brands that offer personalised experiences, yet only 38% of Financial Services brands currently use real-time data to personalise their incentive offerings.

Personalisation is no longer an option – it’s a necessity. Many brands are still stuck relying on generic offers that fail to create meaningful engagement. Forrester research found that strategies relying purely on points and discounts miss an opportunity to drive deeper engagement through ‘emotional loyalty’.  

Generic offers might be effective in the short-term but lack long-term strategy. 

Think about it: 

• A frequent traveller doesn’t care about supermarket cashback. 
• A student doesn’t need business-class upgrades. 
• A high spender doesn’t want discounts on budget brands.

If your card doesn’t feel like it was made for them, they won’t make it their go-to. 

As a card issuer, you already hold the key to personalisation – data. From their spending habits to interests and life stage, you know exactly what matters to your customers. All you need to do is use it. Tailor benefits to feel personal, relevant, and impossible to ignore.

Consumers now expect digital experiences to be catered to them, whether they realise it or not. The surge in online shopping since the pandemic has set a new standard, making personalisation the norm, not a nice-to-have. 

From emails that greet them by name to product recommendations and exclusive offers based on past purchases, customers now assume brands know what they want before they do. And when brands miss the mark? 76% of consumers say they get frustrated, according to McKinsey. 

The message is clear: get personal or get ignored. 

But why is personalisation so powerful? Because it makes customers feel valued. When brands take the time to tailor experiences to individual preferences, they’re not just selling – they’re building a long-term relationship, not just transactions. 

Those that get it right are rewarded with something money can’t buy – loyalty. 

And the more a customer interacts with you, the more data you have to provide even more relevant experiences; something we call the Virtuous Loyalty Data Loop. 

Financial rewards and generic cash incentives are great for pulling customers in, but they rarely keep them around. Cash will always turn heads, but it’s not scalable, personal or doing anything to drive a sustainable customer relationship – which is why your consumers find it so easy to leave once a competitor offers them a better deal.

The proof? 77% of loyalty programs fail within their first two years. Because without real engagement, there’s just transactions. And transactions don’t build loyalty. 

The solution? Offering experiential and lifestyle incentives that are personalised to each customer.

As discussed above, people don’t make rational decisions first – they make emotional ones. That’s why the best brands don’t just sell products, they sell life moments.

Imagine: 

• A student booking their first holiday – your card helps them save on travel. 
• A parent juggling family life – your free day out with the kids helps take a load off. 
• A frequent traveller – your perks give them VIP lounge access or a free hotel weekend.

Using all the data you have on your customers to tailor rewards to them makes every perk feel personal. 

Selling the feeling, rather than the function, is what creates an emotional connection with your consumers.

If keeping your card top-of-wallet means they’ll keep receiving rewards they enjoy, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Memorable experiences also have the power to transform customers into brand advocates. Customers are quick to forget cash incentives, but amazing experiences are unforgettable. McKinsey found that 78% of consumers are more likely to refer family and friends to brands that personalise.

So, making the customers you already have feel special will attract more customers in return – simple.

But loyalty isn’t just about giving back – it’s about giving back differently. If you’re offering the same rewards as everyone else, why would customers choose you?

Top-of-wallet brands are there for a reason. They’re not just another card; they’re embedded in their customers’ everyday lives.

Encouraging cardholders to use your card for small, everyday purchases cements it as their go-to. The more they tap, the stronger the habit.

The secret? Understanding where and when your customers spend – and delivering rewards that truly add value. Are they buying a £4 coffee every morning? What if using your card knocked it down to just £1? It’s the little things that can have the biggest impact on loyalty. 

When payments become second nature, so does choosing your card.

Tapping into Gen Z’s desire to build a credit score also helps position your card as an everyday payment method. That’s not all – buy now, pay later (BNPL) adoption among Gen Z is projected to hit 59% by 2026. Seamlessly integrating BNPL into your offering makes your card not just an option, but the preferred choice at checkout.

Top-of-wallet brands also harness the power of personalised, experiential rewards to give customers a reason to choose them. Movie buff? Enjoy free cinema tickets every month. Foodie? Get a discount on their next meal out. Family of four? Gift theme park tickets for half term. 

So, when they create lasting memories, it’s all thanks to you.

But choosing you is not enough – you need to give your customers a reason to keep coming back. That’s where tiered benefits come into play. The more they spend, the greater the rewards. The better the perks, the longer they’ll stay. It’s a continuous cycle of engagement and retention that drives loyalty.

The best brands don’t overcomplicate things. They make rewards effortless with no hoops to jump through, just instant rewards, impressive apps and simple steps to redeem. And with  50% of digital wallet users citing convenience as the key to their top-of-wallet choice, ease isn’t just a perk – it’s a must. 

What have Netflix, Uber and Spotify all got in common? A seamless app experience.

Customers expect the same from their banking app

Neobanks have set the new standard for what digital banking can be – anything less than this is trailing behind. Being good is no longer good enough, you need to be the best.

That means: 

• If your mobile app is slow or clunky, you’re losing transactions. 
• If your rewards aren’t easy to redeem, customers won’t bother. 
• If your card isn’t optimised for digital wallets, you’re not even in the race. 

The brands that win front-of-wallet see digital as a priority. That’s why 52% of brands now consider mobile tech, including digital wallets, a core pillar of their customer loyalty strategy.

And they’re onto something. These brands know if you make spending easy, consumers will spend more. Digital wallet users spend 31% more on average than those using other payment methods with adoption highest amongst younger generations – 60% of Gen Z and 51% of millennials spend more using digital wallets.

If you’re not digital-first, you’ll be last. 

For over 30 years, TLC has worked with the world’s biggest brands to deliver high impact, personalised and unforgettable acquisition, retention and loyalty strategies that keep customers engaged. That’s 30 years’ worth of data, insights and expertise to help you transform your strategy.

Skip the guesswork. Take our quick, 5-minute assessment⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to turn your strategy into lasting results today

Any questions? Get in touch with the team to chat.