Payment Roundup: Consumer Flexibility, Mastercard/OpenAI Partnership Reaction, and State Card Delinquency Trends
By Roy Urrico
Finopotamus aims to highlight white papers, surveys, blogs and reports that provide a glimpse as to what is taking place and/or impacting credit unions and other organizations in the financial services industry.
The status of credit card delinquency, reaction to Mastercard's partnership with OpenAI, and evolving preferences highlight a trio of reports focusing on payments.
Flexibility Is the New Name of the Payments Game
How payment preferences are evolving as consumers' expectations change is the first installment of the blog series from Velera Chief Marketing and Communications Officer Tom Pierce based on Velera's 2026 Eye on Payments consumer payments research study.
“Consumers continue to navigate economic uncertainty amid persistent inflation and elevated costs. Spending has remained resilient despite the pressure on household finances. However, this economic tension is changing how consumers approach financial decisions, from purchasing habits to their choice of payment methods and financial service providers,” said Pierce.
Pierce touched on key findings from the Eye on Payments study, such as:
Almost half (49%) of credit union members use AI at least a few times per week, notably higher than the 29% of non-credit union members.
Among the 25% of consumers who report holding or investing in cryptocurrency, the strongest participation comes from the younger generations
Stablecoin adoption is still emerging, with just 19% of consumers reporting they hold or have used stablecoins
Person-to-person (P2P) payment services like Cash App, Venmo and Zelle remain popular, with eight in 10 credit union members (80%) using a P2P account at least periodically.
The blog offered some takeaways for credit unions as well:
Be tech-forward. Give members the flexibility to engage in the ways that work best for them and ensuring those experiences connect seamlessly, not just replacing existing channels with new ones. “Explore emerging technology and focus on how the thoughtful adoption AI or digital assets adds meaningful value to your members’ experience.”
Focus on giving members choice, flexibility and control across their payment experience. Make it easy for members to manage their cards and access flexible ways to pay based on their needs, such as buy now, pay later (BNPL). Leverage payment and behavioral data to deliver more personalized rewards, offers and experiences based on how individual members prefer to pay.
Build card strategies with the digital wallet experience in mind from the start, rather than treating wallet enablement as an add-on to the physical card experience. “Pair seamless digital wallet provisioning with the features members value when deciding how to pay — including offering competitive rewards, available funds or credit, and tools that help them manage spending.”
Prevent fraud and have risk mitigation strategies in place is key. “However, response to a fraud incident is also a critical member experience moment, not just a situation to handle and fix. How a credit union communicates, supports the member and resolves a fraud incident can help protect — and even strengthen — the relationship.”
“Members increasingly expect payment experiences that are flexible, personalized and easy to navigate, while still valuing the trust, security and meaningful financial relationships that credit unions provide,” suggested Pierce. “By combining these strengths with modern payment capabilities and data-driven insights, credit unions can deepen member engagement, increase relevance and remain a trusted partner in how members pay, manage and move money.”
Reaction to Mastercard/OpenAI Partnership
Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to power agentic commerce and AI-driven shopping, during Mastercard's Q3 2026 earnings call on October 29, 2026. The partnership, he noted, brings Mastercard's Agent Pay framework into OpenAI's ecosystem, allowing AI agents to handle commerce and make purchases on behalf of users.
San Nakra-Shah, Co-founder and Managing Partner at payments consultancy ChilliMint Europe, argues that a payment can be genuine and authorized without necessarily being what the customer intended, raising questions around liability, dispute resolution and consumer protection as agentic commerce develops.
Here are his comments:
"Mastercard’s new services give banks and merchants more context about AI-initiated payments, helping them decide whether to approve them or check them further. That matters when an AI agent makes several purchases after one instruction, which could otherwise look unusual.
"But knowing that a payment is genuine and authorized doesn’t tell us whether the agent understood what the customer meant.
"Imagine I ask an AI agent to organize a trip. I authorize it to book, and the payments are genuine. But it chooses a flight or non-refundable hotel I wouldn’t have picked. No fraud has taken place, and the merchants have delivered what was booked, but I still have a problem.
"That’s the bigger industry question: when an agent is authorized to act but gets the customer’s wishes wrong, who helps put it right?
"Trust will depend not only on recognizing the agent and its payments, but on giving customers a clear way to challenge a decision that wasn’t what they meant."
States Where Credit Card Delinquency Is Increasing the Most
The rate of credit card delinquency is increasing in all the 50 states over the first two quarters of 2026, according to personal-finance company WalletHub’s report States Where Credit Card Delinquency Is Increasing the Most.
“While some credit card delinquency is always inevitable, when the rates of delinquency increase, that can indicate that the economy as a whole is struggling,” reported WalletHub. Credit card delinquency is increasing in some states far more than others, though.
“Long-term credit card delinquency can lead to large drops in your credit score, so it’s imperative to get your account current as quickly as you can. The good news is that if you manage to get current before 30 days have passed, your delinquency will not be reported to the credit bureaus,” said Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst. “If you’ve been delinquent for a significant period of time, there are other strategies you can pursue in order to get back on track, such as hardship programs, strategic budgeting, and consolidating debt.”
To highlight the states where people are having the biggest issues paying their credit card bills, as well as the areas where borrowers are more on track, WalletHub analyzed proprietary user data from the first quarter of 2026 (Q1 2026) to the second quarter 2026 (Q2 2026).
The three states with the biggest uptick, according to WalletHub:
Vermont — 21.31% credit cards delinquent in Q2 2026 a change of plus 8.52% from Q1 2026. “Vermont ranks 10th among the states where consumers are adding the most debt, highlighting that Vermonters are still taking on a considerable amount of new debt.”
Delaware — 32.00% cards delinquent in Q2 2026 with a change of plus 6.95% from Q1 2026. “Delaware’s ranking in this study may be somewhat surprising, given that the state ranks closer to the middle of the country for the amount of credit card debt residents have. Delawareans are also increasing that debt very slowly compared to people in most other states.” However, the increase in delinquency is likely tied to the fact that Delaware ranks second in the country in terms of increase in mortgage delinquency, suggesting that more residents may be struggling to keep up with their debt payments.
Virginia — 28.61% cards delinquent in Q2 2026 with a change of plus 6.78% from Q1 2026. “Virginia has among the higher median credit card debts in the country, and has the 11th-largest increase in this type of debt between the first two quarters of 2025. These figures suggest that Virginia residents are carrying relatively high credit card balances that have also been growing quickly, which could make it more difficult for some borrowers to manage their debt. “In the end, Virginia’s relatively high delinquency may stem from its relatively high credit card debt levels and rapid debt growth.”
Data used to create this ranking were collected as of October 7, 2026, from the WalletHub database.
