Card payments leap 122 percent last year

ISTANBUL

Payments made with cards increased by 122 percent in 2023 from the previous year to amount to 8.24 trillion Turkish Liras, according to a report by Garanti BBVA Payments Systems (GÖSAŞ). 

The number of credit and debit cards in the country rose by 17 percent last year to 397 million, including 118 million credit cards and 279 million debit cards.

Credit cards accounted for 6.7 trillion liras of the total payments, while some 25 percent of the expenditures by credit cards were made in installments.

The share of e-commerce in the payments made in installments increased from 50 percent in 2022 to 53 percent last year, according to the report.

The category where credit cards were used the most in 2023 was grocery, with 24 percent. This was followed by electronic goods/computers, building materials and fuel, with 7 percent each.

Electronic goods/computers spending with cards soared 154 percent from 2022, while the increase in restaurant expenditures was 147 percent. Consumer payments on fuel grew by 70 percent in 2023.

The number of contactless transactions increased from around 4 billion in 2022 to 5.5 billion last year, marking a 39 percent rise.

The share of e-commerce in total credit card payments was 31 percent or 2 trillion liras.

The breakdown of the e-commerce figures shows that the jewelry category recorded the highest increase with 208 percent, followed by clothing and education at 151 percent. Grocery saw a 118 percent increase in 2023 compared to 2022, according to the survey.

Electronic goods/computers had the largest share in e-commerce at 60 percent.