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September 11, 2026
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app-publishers
Nearly every bank and credit card issuer today has some version of a loyalty program: points, cashbacks, travel perks, referral bonuses. In fact, according to the Consumer Banker Association, across the over 4,000 credit card issuers in the United States, 70% of them have a loyalty program1.
But having a loyalty program and having one that actually keeps customers engaged are two very different things. As competition intensifies between traditional banks, neobanks, and fintech apps, publishers are learning that rewards alone aren't enough to earn lasting loyalty.
In this article, we analyze the state of banks and credit card loyalty programs today and explore how financial institutions can differentiate their programs to stand out from the competition.
👀 Looking for a new way to boost your app engagement? Read more on How gamification can turn your fintech app into a daily app
Until a few years ago, a bank was simply a financial institution where people could deposit their savings, request a loan, or make investments. With the rise of digitalization and digital banking, the picture has changed: besides still being financial institutions with the same goals, banks today also live in the digital world, one where success doesn’t just mean accounts opened but is also measured by app engagement, retention, and monthly active users.
That is why loyalty programs have become a default feature of banking, not a differentiator. As mentioned above, roughly 70% of credit card issuers have a loyalty program, and given that the average consumer in the US has 3.8 credit cards, these companies face strong competition even after acquiring a new customer.
The result is a landscape where nearly every financial institution offers some version of points, cashback, or perks – so having a loyalty program isn’t a differentiator anymore. At the same time, customers expect rewards and are more inclined to choose a bank or credit card issuer that rewards them for their loyalty.
To give you a better idea of how loyalty programs impact customer satisfaction in banking, just know that:
Try taking a look at online communities, such as the subreddit r/CreditCards: you’ll find plenty of people comparing loyalty programs and rewards, giving suggestions to pick out the right one.
As Marc Bearman, GM of LoyaltyPlay, put it in our previous look at gaming and rewards: "The days of free loyalty are over; it's equitable loyalty now." Publishers have to give their customers something of value to keep them, and in banking specifically, that bar keeps rising every year.
As you can see, having a loyalty program in the finance and fintech industry has become the standard. And the benefits aren’t just on the consumer side, but also on the business side. Let’s take a closer look.
For an established bank or credit card company, a loyalty program is first of all a retention tool. And for a good reason: it's far cheaper to keep an existing customer engaged than to acquire a new one, and a well-designed loyalty program gives customers a reason to stay.
Second, a loyalty program can also function as a cross-sell lever. According to Forbes, existing customers are 50% more likely to try new products3. In fact, a customer who's actively engaging with rewards is a customer the bank can introduce to a new product, rather than leaving them to find those services somewhere else.
A great example of a bank loyalty program that fosters customer loyalty as a retention tool is BofA Rewards, the loyalty program of Bank of America. Recently, Bank of America moved away from their original system4 – where clients needed at least $20,000 in their account to enroll – to allow for 30 million more clients to join.
All members get cash back deals from over 15,000 brands, credit card rewards, dark web monitoring, Social Security number monitoring and more5. Moreover, the higher the balance, the more exclusive the rewards get. According to CXDive, Bank of America’s existing rewards program counted 11 million members and an impressive 99% retention.
Neobanks and fintechs don't have decades of brand trust to lean on, and the core products they offer are often easy for a competitor to replicate. For these publishers, fintech loyalty programs are often the primary mechanism for building the trust and stickiness that traditional banks have built over the years.
Let’s take Chime as an example. Chime is the most popular US-based neobank, and today it counts over 8.6 million active customers. Of these, 67% use it as their primary bank6. To deepen this customer loyalty and strengthen their positioning as a go-to financial partner, they recently launched a new Chime Card, which rewards customers who make it their primary bank with 1.5% cashback7.
Most bank and credit card loyalty programs fall into a handful of recognizable models, but there are also some new approaches that aim to increase app engagement and retention, like game-linked rewards.
Customers earn points for everyday activity, and these points are usually redeemable for cash back, travel, merchandise, or gift cards.
Example 👉 American Express Membership Rewards. Customers earn points on card spend, and they can redeem them for travel, gift cards, or statement credits. There’s also an extensive airline/hotel transfer partner network.
Customers unlock higher levels of benefits based on spend, balance, or account activity. Tiered structures work well for institutions with a wide customer base, since they let a bank reward its highest-value relationships more richly without changing the program for everyone else.
Example 👉 BofA Rewards. Bank of America uses a tiered system based on a client’s three-month average account balance. All customers get the same benefits to start with, such as cash backs from over 15,000 brands, credit card rewards, mortgage discounts, and more. However, the higher the balance, the more exclusive the benefits. For example, customers in the first tier are eligible for 10% credit card rewards, while going up to the fourth tier unlocks 75% credit card rewards.
A percentage of spend is returned directly to the customer, often as a credit. Cashback is the easiest model for customers to understand value immediately.
Example 👉 Discover it Cash Back. Discover it offers a 5% cash back on rotating quarterly categories, 1% on everything else, plus a first-year Cashback Match that doubles everything earned.
More common on premium credit cards, these programs let customers redeem points for flights, hotels, or lifestyle categories.
Example 👉 Chase Sapphire Reserve. This premium credit card by Chase offers 8x points on Chase Travel purchases, 4x on directly booked flights/hotels, 3x on dining, plus lounge access and an annual travel credit.
Customers earn in-app rewards by interacting with a gaming layer directly inside the app. They can later redeem them for real-life rewards, like cash back or gift cards.
Example 👉 Klink Finance. Thanks to the integration of LoyaltyPlay, Mistplay’s rewarded gaming hub, customers can earn additional rewards by playing mobile games.
👀 Ready to build your loyalty program? Start here: From ideas to implementation: How to create a successful loyalty program
As you know, competition is one of the biggest challenges for financial institutions today, and a loyalty program alone isn’t always enough. Moreover, finance and fintech apps also face another problem: even if their customers are loyal, they don’t interact with the app often.
The thing is, these apps are inherently transactional, and people only use them when they need them. According to Accenture, the average fintech user makes only 150 interactions a year, and the most popular activities are checking their balance (45%) and transferring money (31%).
So, managing a program well over time comes down to three things:
So the goal changes: a bank loyalty program shouldn’t just reward simple transactions, but it should aim to create sustained engagement, turning a transactional app into a daily app.
Rewards are the hook that keeps customers coming back more often, but how do you use them as an effective differentiator for your loyalty program?
This is where gaming rewards come in. Instead of waiting for a customer to check a balance or make a payment to reward them, you can bring a rewarded layer inside your app and reward customers for playing games.
This approach is one of the best loyalty solutions for financial institutions, since it gives your customers a reason to open it on days they weren't planning to do it at all. Members discover and play mobile games directly inside the app, and in return, earn rewards that deposit straight into their existing balance.
What does this mean for you, in practice?
👀 Klink Finance achieved +35% incremental revenue with gaming rewards. See how they did it.
If you're curious to try game-linked rewards in your app, LoyaltyPlay is the place to start. It's Mistplay's gaming reward hub that sits within your app, presenting your customers with a selection of mobile games they can play to earn rewards.
Your budget stays untouched – since Mistplay funds every reward – and you can generate CPI revenue from each game install. This allows you to reinvest directly into your program, in a self-funding loop that deepens loyalty without adding cost.
As the credit card and banking landscape continues to saturate, the institutions that stand out will be the ones that give members a new way to earn. Reach out to us today to learn how LoyaltyPlay can give your program the differentiation it needs to stand out from the competition.
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