Card payments soar 125 percent in August

ISTANBUL

Spending with credit, prepaid and debit cards soared by 125 percent in August from a year ago to reach 346 billion Turkish Liras ($18 billion), according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

Credit cards accounted for 273 billion liras of all payments, while the share of debit cards was 6.1 billion liras. Prepaid cards were used in 6.1 billion worth of payments.

Credit card payments exhibited a 118 percent increase last month compared to August 2021, while payments by debit cards and prepaid cards increased 155 percent and 172 percent, respectively.

The number of credit cards in Türkiye rose by 16 percent year-on-year to 93.8 million, and debit cards increased 13 percent to 161.8 million. There were 66.4 million prepaid cards in August, up 28 percent from a year ago.
The number of total cards increased by 16 percent to reach 322 million, according to data from BKM.

In August, payments with cards in the airline industry amounted to 11.2 billion, up 294 percent increase, which was the largest annual growth recorded among all industries, followed by payments at gas stations, accommodation, food and clothing.

Data also showed that the number of business credit cards reached 8.7 million, with payments with those cards rising 134 percent from a year ago to 88.3 billion. The share of business credit cards in total card payments increased to 32 percent.