Credit card spending soars 138 percent in March

ISTANBUL

Credit card spending increased by 138 percent on an annual basis in March to hit 992 billion Turkish Liras ($30.4 billion), according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

The number of credit cards in use in Türkiye rose by 17 percent compared to March of last year to a total of 121.4 million.

In February, credit card spending showed an annual increase of 166 percent to 843 billion liras.

In a bid to curb credit card spending, the Central Bank recently announced that the monthly maximum interest rates to be charged for credit cards were increased from 3.66 percent to 4.25 percent by hiking the amount added to the monthly reference rate to 114 basis points from the previous 55 basis points.

Also in March, the bank raised the monthly maximum interest rate on credit card cash withdrawals from 4.42 percent to 5 percent.

The data from the BKM showed that total spending with credit cards, prepaid and debit cards surged 126 percent year-on-year in March to 1.18 trillion liras.

Payments with debit cards rose 71 percent to 168 billion liras, while the annual increase for prepaid cards was 157 percent to 21.8 billion liras.

The number of debit cards increased by 10 percent to 192 million as of March.

Online payments with cards amounted to 354.7 billion liras, pointing to a 135 percent rise from March last year.