Citizens’ Fight Against Inflation
Citizens in Turkey continue to struggle to survive in the face of inflation. The difficulty of making ends meet drives many individuals to borrow using credit cards, which results in debts being paid off with another debt. This process is causing an increase in the use of bank cards.
Interbank Card Center (BKM), released data for August and revealed the alarming level that card usage has reached. The number of cards per capita in Turkey has approached 5. According to BKM data, as of August, the number of credit cards in Turkey was 125,9 million, the number of debit cards was 191,7 million and the number of prepaid cards was 101,3 million.
41 Million New Accounts Opened
This data, when compared to the same period last year, shows a 13% increase in the number of credit cards, a 5% increase in the number of debit cards and a 22% increase in the number of prepaid cards. In August, the total number of cards reached 418,9 million, an 11% increase compared to the same period last year. Considering that the population of the Republic of Turkey is approximately 85 million, the number of cards per person is approaching 5 with this data. 41 million new cards have been put into use in the last year.
Increased Card Payments
The total amount of payments made with credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards in August increased by 78% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 1 trillion 420,6 billion lira. While 1 trillion 192,4 billion lira of card payments were made with credit cards, 200,4 billion lira were made with debit cards and 27,8 billion lira were made with prepaid cards. In August, the growth in payments made with credit cards compared to the same month of the previous year was 83%, in payments made with debit cards it was 48% and in payments made with prepaid cards it was 104%.
Increase in Card Shopping
The number of payments made with credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards in August increased by 12% compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 1,61 billion. In numerical terms, 927,4 million of the card payments were made with credit cards, 556,1 million with debit cards and 114,5 million with prepaid cards. The number of payments made with credit cards increased by 15% compared to the same period of the previous year, the number of payments made with debit cards increased by 3% and the number of payments made with prepaid cards increased by 32%.
The Rise in Online Payments
Card payments made online increased by 78% compared to the same period last year, reaching 413,3 billion lira. The share of card payments made online in the total was determined as 28%. The number of card payments made online increased by 6% compared to the same period last year, reaching 217,9 million, and the share of card payments made online in the total was 14%.
Rapid Growth in Contactless Payments
The number of contactless payments made with cards increased by 21% compared to the same period last year. The amount of contactless payments increased by 98% to 458,8 billion lira. In August, approximately 5 out of every 4 card payments made in-store were made contactless.
