Credit card spending surged 120 percent in April

ISTANBUL

Credit card spending increased by 120 percent in April compared with the same month last year to hit 930.4 billion Turkish Liras ($28.9 billion), according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

The number of credit cards in use in Türkiye rose by 15 percent year-on-year last month to reach a total of 122.1 million.

Some 824 credit card transactions took place in April, pointing to an annual increase of 28 percent.

The data from the BKM showed that total spending with credit cards, prepaid and debit cards surged 120 percent year-on-year to 1.13 trillion liras.

Payments with debit cards rose 56 percent to 176 billion liras, while the annual increase for prepaid cards was 130 percent to 21.6 billion liras.

The number of debit cards increased by 8 percent to 191 million as of April.

Online payments with cards amounted to 305.5 billion liras, pointing to a 106 percent rise from April last year. The share of cards in total online payments was 27 percent.

Some 203 million online payments were made with cards, a 14 percent year-on-year increase.

The number of contactless payments showed a 40 percent annual increase to more than 945 million, amounting to 356 billion liras, said BKM.