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Your Next Credit Card Might Be Metal With Flashing LED Lights
By Adam Hardy MONEY RESEARCH COLLECTIVE
According to a new study, the design of a credit card — including the material and custom features like colored edges — is increasingly important for U.S. consumers.
When it comes to credit cards, interest rates, annual fees and sweet perks like cash back are certainly important. But does the card turn heads when you whip it out to pay for your morning cold brew?
For many Americans, this is actually a major consideration. According to a new study by the biometrics and payments firm IDEMIA, the design of a credit card — whether it’s the material of the card itself or custom features like LED lights — is an increasingly important factor for U.S. consumers.
IDEMIA shared the results of a global study exclusively with Money. The findings suggest a trend: Americans don’t want just a credit card. They want a statement piece.
Credit card features that make you ‘feel special’
The year is 2024. By this point, most Americans (60%) have adopted digital cards and payment methods like Apple Pay, Google Pay or a banking app, according to the survey.
It’s convenient, “but at the end of the day, people still want and expect a [physical] card,” says James Sufrin, a senior vice president of IDEMIA’s North American payment’s division.
For early adopters of digital cards, paying with a mobile phone at the checkout counter was a real conversation starter, he says. He knows because he was one of them. In fact, before digital cards came on the market, he affixed a sticker to the back of his phone that was synced to his card, so it would appear he was paying with his cell phone when he waved it over the payment terminal.
“The person behind me would say, ‘wow, that’s kind of cool,’” Sufrin recalls.
These days, much of that “wow factor” of mobile payments has worn off, he says, so now folks are turning back to physical cards with fancy customizations to scratch that same itch.
Metal credit cards are especially in vogue, with IDEMIA finding that 8 in 10 respondents say they’re interested in getting one. Although there are a variety of explanations for why people gravitate towards metal credit cards, “the biggest reason is always ‘I want to feel special,’” Sufrin says.
Surprisingly, he says, it’s younger folks — Gen Zers and millennials — behind the metallic movement. In many cases, they’re even willing to pay a premium for the metal card.
Several card providers are already jumping on the trend, offering metal versions of certain annual-fee rewards cards such as Capital One SavorOne ($95 per year) and Chase Sapphire Preferred (also $95 per year). The pickings are much slimmer for annual-fee-free metal cards; one notable exception is the titanium Apple Card.
Aside from metal material, several other card design features are particularly in demand. The most popular one? Colored edges, so the card stands out when stacked in a wallet. (Discover It is one popular no-annual-fee option.)
Cardholders are also highly interested in numberless cards (where the number is accessible via app), the ability to customize the card’s artwork, vertical orientation and an LED light that flashes when paying at a terminal.
The future of payments in the palm of your hand
For now, at least in the U.S., people seemingly want a physical card — maybe a heavy-weight metal card with flashing lights and custom artwork — to make a statement during in-person purchases.
But what could be next when even that loses its luster?
“Personally, I believe that biometric payments is sort of the panacea, or the be-all end-all,” Sufrin says.
Right now, Americans seem to be more reluctant than other countries to adopt biometric payment methods, as in paying with their eyes, face or fingerprint.
Other countries are forging ahead. In Europe, Mastercard is partnering with Polish fintechs to roll out iris-scanning payment methods. Meanwhile, China-based AliPay has been expanding its facial payment technology across Asia.
Back in the U.S., though, Sufrin says there’s a little more “paranoia, if that’s the right word,” about the government or private companies gathering our biometric data.
But that’s starting to wane as folks become more accustomed to it. Many smartphones already have fingerprint and facial recognition tech used to unlock the phone or control it in hands-free mode. And recently, Amazon One’s Palm Payment has rolled out to all Whole Foods stores.
While Sufrin says the full transition could be “years, if not decades, away,” biometric payments are coming.
“Customer convenience at the end of the day is going to win out,” he says. “And I can’t think of a more convenient way to pay than with my fingerprint, my palm or perhaps my retina.”
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Adam Hardy is Money's lead data journalist. He writes news and feature stories aimed at helping everyday people manage their finances. He joined Money full-time in 2021 but has covered personal finance and economic topics since 2018. Previously, he worked for Forbes Advisor, The Penny Hoarder and Creative Loafing. In addition to those outlets, Adam’s work has been featured in a variety of local, national and international publications, including the Asia Times, Business Insider, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Yahoo! Finance, Nasdaq and several others. Adam graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Florida, where he studied magazine journalism and sociology. As a first-generation college graduate from a low-income, single-parent household, Adam understands firsthand the financial barriers that plague low-income Americans. His reporting aims to illuminate these issues. Since joining Money, Adam has already written over 300 articles, including a cover story on financial surveillance, a profile of Director Rohit Chopra of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and an investigation into flexible spending accounts, which found that workers forfeit billions of dollars annually through the workplace plans. He has also led data analysis on some of Money’s marquee rankings, including Best Places to Live, Best Places to Travel and Best Hospitals. He regularly contributes data reporting for Best Colleges, Best Banks and other lists as well. Adam also holds a multimedia storytelling certificate from Poynter’s News University and a data journalism certificate from the Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) at the University of Missouri. In 2017, he received an English teaching certification from the University of Cambridge, which he utilized during his time in Seoul, South Korea. There, he taught students of all ages, from 5 to 65, and worked with North Korean refugees who were resettling in the area. Now, Adam lives in Saint Petersburg, Florida, with his pup Bambi. He is a card-carrying shuffleboard club member.