Credit card payments hit 1.8 trillion Turkish Liras in August

ISTANBUL

Credit card payments in Türkiye climbed to 1.81 trillion Turkish Liras ($43.6 billion) in August, a 52 percent increase compared with the same month last year, according to data released by the Interbank Card Center (BKM).

In total, payments made with credit cards, debit cards and prepaid cards reached 2.15 trillion liras in August, up 51 percent year-on-year. Of this amount, 319.2 billion liras came from debit cards and 13.1 billion liras from prepaid cards. Debit card payments rose 59 percent compared with August 2024, while prepaid card payments fell sharply by 53 percent.

The number of credit card transactions also grew strongly, reaching 1.05 billion in August, a 13 percent increase from a year earlier. Overall, the total number of card payments rose 12 percent year-on-year to 1.8 billion.

As of August, Türkiye had 138 million credit cards in circulation, alongside 216.6 million debit cards and 105.5 million prepaid cards. Compared with the same month last year, the number of credit cards increased by 10 percent, debit cards by 13 percent and prepaid cards by 4 percent.

Online card payments also showed robust growth. Internet-based transactions amounted to 654.3 billion liras in August, up 58 percent from a year earlier.

Online payments accounted for 30 percent of total card spending, with 226.6 million transactions recorded, representing 13 percent of all payments.