The Interbank Card Center (BKM) has released its card payment data for July 2025. According to the report, card payments in Turkey increased by 52% compared to the same period last year, reaching 2.163 trillion Turkish Lira. The total number of transactions was recorded at 1.8 billion.

The Number of Cards Continues to Increase

As of the end of July, the total number of cards in Turkey reached 456.7 million, an 11% increase compared to the same period in 2024. By card type, the number of credit cards increased by 9% to 136.7 million, the number of debit cards by 13% to 215.5 million, and the number of prepaid cards by 8% to 104.5 million.

Of the total card payments of 2.163.6 billion Turkish Lira in July, 1.844 billion Turkish Lira were made with credit cards. Payments made with debit cards reached 306.0 billion TL, while prepaid card payments reached 12.8 billion TL. Credit card payments grew by 54% compared to the same period last year, and debit card payments by 59%.

The decrease in the amount of payments made with prepaid cards and the number of transactions was noteworthy. BKM stated that this was due to a regulation in a member’s notifications, which changed the category of some prepaid cards to debit cards as of April 2025.

The amount of online card payments increased by 61% compared to the same period last year, reaching 678.4 billion TL. This figure constituted 31% of total card payments. The number of transactions increased by 5%, reaching 233 million.

The increase in contactless payments also continued. In July, the number of contactless payments increased by 15% compared to the previous year, reaching 1.22 billion.9 million. The total amount of contactless payments increased by 61% to 704 billion Turkish Lira. The fact that four out of every five in-store card payments were made contactless demonstrates the widespread adoption of this payment method.