Credit card spending surged 94 percent in July: Data

ISTANBUL

Credit card spending increased by 94 percent in July compared with the same month last year to hit 1.2 trillion Turkish Liras ($35.5 billion), according to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

The annual increase in card spending slowed from 105 percent in June and 111 percent in May.

The number of credit cards in use in Türkiye rose by 14 percent year-on-year last month to reach a total of 124.9 million.

Some 936 million credit card transactions took place in July, pointing to an annual increase of 19 percent.

The data from the BKM showed that total spending with credit cards, prepaid and debit cards surged 89 percent year-on-year to 1.4 trillion liras.

Payments with debit cards rose 58 percent to 193 billion liras, while the annual increase for prepaid cards was 124 percent to 26.9 billion liras.

The number of debit cards and prepaid cards increased by 5 percent and 19 percent to 191 million and 96.7 million, respectively.

Online payments made with cards amounted to 422 billion liras, pointing to an 85 percent rise from July last year. The share of cards in total online payments rose from 28 percent in July last year to 29 percent last month.

Some 223 million online payments were made with cards, a 12 percent year-on-year increase.