Card payments soar 109 percent in July

ISTANBUL

Payments with credit, prepaid and debit cards increased by 109 percent in July on an annual basis to amount to 316.9 billion Turkish Liras, according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

Payments with credit cards increased 103 percent to 249 billion liras, while debit cards made up 62.3 billion liras of the total sum, rising 132 percent from a year ago.

Payments with prepaid cards grew 164 percent in July year-on-year to 5.9 billion liras.

Payments made with foreign cards in Türkiye amounted to 44 billion liras in July, marking a 184 percent increase from the same month of 2021.

The payment per transaction with foreign cards on average also increased from 965 liras in July last year to 1,638 liras.

The BKM said tax payments with cards amounted to 13.9 billion liras, rising 82 percent from a year ago, while the average tax payment transaction was 915 liras, up from 635 liras in July 2021.

Some 66 percent of tax payments with cards were made online, the authority added.

There was a total of 316.1 million credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards in Türkiye as of the end of July, up from 273.8 million cards a year ago.

The number of credit cards increased by 15 percent from July 2021 to reach 92.1 million, while the annual increase for debit cards was 11 percent to 158.6 million. The number of prepaid cards also grew 28 percent year-on-year to 65.4 million, the BKM said.