“Stop trying to be my main bank. Give me a reason to choose you,” says Santosh “San” Nakra-Shah, Co-Founder and Managing Partner at ChilliMint Europe Limited. In this article, she explains why having a “main bank” today doesn’t mean quite the same thing it used to.
Somewhere over the Channel this August, a few million debit cards are about to get their annual workout. You know the routine. You land, your phone finds a signal, and you reach for the card you always use abroad. Not necessarily the one your salary lands in – the other one. The one you topped up before the trip because it makes spending overseas easier and, hopefully, a little cheaper.
This summer, that routine will play out on an enormous scale. British residents made 26 million visits abroad in the second quarter of 2025 alone, and August is peak holiday season. For many of us, that means reaching almost instinctively for a card from one of the banks we once called challengers.
It’s quite an achievement. In little more than a decade, these banks have changed the way millions of people think about spending abroad. They’ve taken something that was once expensive, confusing and frankly a bit annoying, and made it simple.
But there’s something about my own behaviour that I’ve started to find interesting. The card I reach for when I travel isn’t from the bank I would tell you is my “main bank”. In fact, the default card in my digital wallet isn’t from my main bank either.
So why do I still call it my main bank?
What makes a customer primary?
I’ve spent much of my career thinking about this. Years ago, we worked with banks on their debit strategies and challenged the traditional measures of primacy. Salary credits and Direct Debits mattered, of course, but we believed there was another important signal: was your debit card top of wallet?
The thinking was fairly simple. Salary could arrive once a month and bills could leave automatically, without the customer doing very much at all. Spending was different. Every time someone took out your card and paid with it, they were actively choosing you.
That choice told us something about engagement. If customers were regularly spending with you, you were seeing more of their financial behaviour and had more opportunities to understand their needs, communicate with them and, where it made sense, introduce other products and services.
At the time, becoming top of wallet felt like a much better indication of an active banking relationship.
Fast-forward to today and even that feels less straightforward.
My salary still goes into the account I would describe as my main bank, but my spending is spread around. The card I use most isn’t necessarily from that bank. I’ll choose another card when there’s a good reason to, and I don’t necessarily keep all my money in one place either.
None of this feels particularly deliberate. I haven’t sat down and designed myself a multi-bank strategy. I’ve simply ended up using different providers for different things because, at different moments, they’ve given me a reason to. I suspect plenty of people would recognise that behaviour in themselves. And perhaps that’s where the industry’s language starts to get in the way.
Perhaps we’ve become too focused on the labels
Even “challenger bank” is an interesting label when some of those businesses have now been around for more than a decade.
Customers don’t think about primacy. We think about what works. Which provider gives me the best experience for what I’m trying to do? Who offers me value? Who makes things easy? And, importantly in banking, who do I trust? And those choices can add up to a banking relationship that looks quite different from the neat hierarchy the industry likes to put around it.
This doesn’t mean that the idea of a main bank has disappeared. I still have one. But being my main bank doesn’t automatically make you my first choice every time. Equally, being the card I use most often doesn’t necessarily mean I’m ready to move everything to you.
Banking is easy to love when everything works. The app is slick, the payment goes through and your money is exactly where you expect it to be. The more revealing moment is when something goes wrong.
If I don’t recognise a transaction, my card stops working or I can’t access my money, what happens next? Can I speak to someone? Do I feel that the bank is on my side? Does the problem get sorted quickly, or do I spend three days wishing I’d never moved my money there in the first place?
Those experiences matter because trust changes the amount of the relationship, we’re prepared to give someone. I might happily use a provider for everyday spending but trusting it with more is another decision entirely. And a bank can build confidence over years, only to damage it very quickly when a customer needs help and doesn’t get it.
Give me a reason to choose you
This is where I think the question of how not to become everyone’s second bank gets more interesting. Banks have spent years working out how much of the customer relationship they have. We measure salary, Direct Debits, spend, product holdings and engagement, all to understand whether someone sees us as their main bank.
But there is another side to that equation. If you want more of my banking, what’s the reason for me to give it to you? It’s one of the things those early travel propositions got right. They didn’t ask customers to make them their primary bank. They solved a problem and gave people a compelling reason to try them.
If I choose you for one thing and the experience is good, you’ve earned the opportunity to ask for more. But the next choice still needs a reason. Perhaps there’s better value because I have a broader relationship with you. Perhaps you recognise that relationship through preferential rates, rewards or service. Perhaps you simply make my life easier.
There is something almost club-like about the best version of this. Not a loyalty programme for the sake of having one, but a sense that the more I choose to do with you, the more I get from the relationship too.
Which brings me back to the idea of the second bank.
Perhaps we’ve been looking at it from the wrong end. Customers aren’t trying to decide which bank deserves to be first or second. They’re choosing the provider that works for them at that particular moment. So, if I’ve already chosen you for something, that’s your starting point. Understand why. Make that experience worth repeating. Build the trust that gives me confidence to do more with you.
Give me a reason to choose you. Then give me another reason to do it again. Do that consistently and perhaps it matters less whether the industry calls you my primary bank, my secondary bank or anything else. Those are our labels, not the customer’s. What matters to them is much simpler: when they have a choice, do they choose you?
About the author
Santosh “San” Nakra-Shah is the co-founder and Managing Partner of ChilliMint, a specialist consultancy and marketing agency focused on payments, fintech, retail banking and financial services.
With more than 25 years of experience across banking, payments and financial services, San is a trusted advisor to payment schemes, banks, fintechs and merchants, helping organisations strengthen their marketing strategy and positioning, engage customers more effectively and bring complex products and propositions to market through clear, compelling marketing and communications strategies.
Before co-founding ChilliMint, San spent 10 years at Barclays in a range of senior roles spanning retail banking, payments, innovation, product development, and customer experience. Her final role was Head of Payments Innovation, where she led the development of new payment propositions and emerging payment technologies. During her time at Barclays, she played a key role in launching several industry-leading initiatives, including text message banking, contactless payments, and prepaid products.
She also led the bank’s internal design agency, giving her a unique blend of expertise across product innovation, customer engagement, design and commercial delivery.
