45 percent increase in card payments in January

The Interbank Card Center (BKM) has published its card payment statistics for January. According to the data, a total of 1.7 billion transactions amounting to 2.3 trillion TL were carried out with cards in the first month of the year. Contactless usage stood out in in-store payments; 4 out of every 5 transactions were made using contactless methods. Online card expenditures increased by 42 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 687.4 billion TL.

LATEST STATUS OF CARD NUMBERS IN TURKEY

As of January, the number of credit cards rose to 143.4 million, the number of debit cards to 210.9 million, and the number of prepaid cards to 110.6 million.

Compared to the same period last year, the number of credit cards increased by 10 percent and the number of debit cards by 8 percent, while a 2 percent decrease was recorded in the number of prepaid cards. The total number of cards reached 464.9 million, an annual increase of 6 percent.

EXPENDITURE AMOUNTS BY CARD TYPE

The total payment amount made with cards in January was 2 trillion 325.8 billion TL, an increase of 45 percent compared to the same month of the previous year. Of this amount, 1 trillion 995.5 billion TL was carried out with credit cards, 322.8 billion TL with debit cards, and 7.5 billion TL with prepaid cards.

On an annual basis, credit card expenditures increased by 46 percent and debit card expenditures by 55 percent, while a 77 percent decrease was observed in prepaid card expenditures.

CARD DISTRIBUTION BY TRANSACTION VOLUME

The total number of card payments in January increased by 8 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching 1.7 billion. 1 billion 9.6 million of the transactions were made with credit cards, 664.7 million with debit cards, and 31.8 million with prepaid cards.

While the number of credit card transactions increased by 11 percent and debit card transactions by 24 percent, the number of transactions with prepaid cards decreased by 75 percent.

CARD PAYMENT VOLUME IN E-COMMERCE

The amount of online card payments increased by 42 percent on an annual basis to 687.4 billion TL. The share of these transactions in total card payments was calculated as 30 percent.

ONLINE TRANSACTIONS

The number of online card payments increased by 7 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 245.9 million. The share of online transactions in the total was 15 percent.

INCREASE IN CONTACTLESS PAYMENTS

The number of contactless payments made with cards increased by 9 percent to 1 billion 124.6 million. The contactless payment amount reached 751.8 billion TL, a 49 percent increase. In January, the majority of in-store card transactions were made using contactless methods.