Card payments approach 1.2 trillion lira

According to data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM), as of March, the number of credit cards in Turkey was determined to be 121.4 million, the number of debit cards 192 million, and the number of prepaid cards 93.3 million.

Compared to March 2023, there was an increase of 17 percent in the number of credit cards, 10 percent in the number of debit cards, and 23 percent in the number of prepaid cards.

The total number of cards reached 406.7 million, an increase of 15 percent on an annual basis.

INCREASED BY 126 PERCENT

The total amount of payments made with credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards in March increased by 126 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 1 trillion 181.4 billion lira.

Of the card payments, 991.8 billion lira were made with credit cards, 167.8 billion lira with debit cards, and 21.8 billion lira with prepaid cards.

On an annual basis, there was an increase of 138 percent in payments with credit cards, 71 percent in payments with debit cards, and 157 percent in payments with prepaid cards.

The total number of payments made with credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards in March increased by 25 percent compared to the same month last year, reaching 1.45 billion.

In terms of volume, 817.7 million of the card payments were made with credit cards, while debit cards were used for 518.2 million payments and prepaid cards for 116.9 million payments.

There was an increase of 27 percent in the number of payments made with credit cards, 15 percent in the number of payments with debit cards, and 59 percent in the number of payments made with prepaid cards.

The amount of payments made with cards online increased by 135 percent in March compared to the same month last year, rising to 355 billion lira. In terms of amount, the share of online card payments in the total was 30 percent.

The number of online card payments increased by 20 percent compared to the same month last year, rising to 219.6 million. The share of the number of online card payments in the total number of payments was recorded as 16 percent.

4 OUT OF 5 CARD PAYMENTS ARE CONTACTLESS

The number of contactless payments made with cards increased by 38 percent on an annual basis to 916 million. The contactless payment amount was calculated as 327.2 billion lira, an increase of 155 percent compared to the same month last year. In March, approximately 4 out of every 5 in-store card payments were made contactlessly.