There’s a telling statistic buried in Capgemini’s latest retail banking report: three-quarters of banking customers are indifferent or dissatisfied with their card experience. Despite the card being the most used financial product most people own, satisfaction remains stubbornly low. The industry has known about this problem for a long time, and for years, the response has been the same: better rewards, lower fees, marginally improved cashback tiers. Meanwhile, the card itself, the physical object, has barely changed.
The hygiene factor problem
For decades, the payment card was treated as a commodity. It came in a plain envelope when you opened an account, activated with a phone call, and disappeared into a wallet alongside five others that looked almost identical. Banks didn’t invest in the card because they didn’t think it was the product. The account was the product. The card was merely the access mechanism.
However, that logic collapses the moment you ask a simple question: what does your customer actually interact with every single day? Not the app. Not the website. The card.
What younger customers are telling us
The data from the report is striking but unsurprising to anyone paying attention. 64% of Gen Z and 68% of Millennials say the look of the card influences their perception of their bank — not marginal numbers, but clear majorities. Furthermore, this connects to something broader: Gen Z is steering away from purely digital experiences and rediscovering the physical, craving interactions that engage multiple senses in a way digital transactions never can. As a result, the card that lands in their wallet isn’t just a payment tool. It’s a first impression, a daily reminder, and a physical expression of a brand relationship.
Beyond premium design
The industry conversation has started to catch up on design and materials. Metal cards are no longer exclusive to Amex Platinum or private banking clients — regional banks, credit unions, and fintechs are all embracing them. Nevertheless, there’s a dimension the conversation hasn’t fully addressed yet: what’s printed on the card. Or more precisely, what isn’t.
A premium metal card with a beautifully crafted design still exposes your full card number, name, expiry date and CVV to anyone who handles it — at a restaurant, at a checkout, to a camera, to a skimmer. In other words, the physical upgrade is real, but the security model underneath it is still from 1985.
How tokenization changes everything
At Tapeeze, we started from a different premise. Rather than asking “how do we make a better-looking card”, we asked “what should a card actually be in 2026?” Consequently, we arrived at an answer: a card designed from the surface in. Metal that catches the light differently at every angle. Ceramic that feels cool and precise. Wood that carries warmth and texture. LED that glows at the moment of payment.
Because the card is tokenized — payment credentials stored securely in the chip, provisioned through the app in 60 seconds — the entire surface is free. There’s no printed card number dictating where the design can go, no CVV carved into the corner, no name embossed across the front. Just the brand, expressed without compromise.
From hygiene factor to hero product
The Paypers article is right that the card deserves a second look. We’d go further: it deserves a complete rethink. Not just the material, not just the design, but the entire philosophy of what a card is and what it carries.
A card that feels premium in the hand. That activates in 60 seconds without factory personalization. That works globally from day one and can be live in two weeks — without a new card program, without a banking license. That’s not a hygiene factor. That’s a hero product.
The banks and fintechs that figure this out first won’t just win top of wallet. They’ll win the relationship.
