Turkish banks are continuing to develop their products & services and offer practical solutions for facilitating the lives of card users thanks to the investments they make in parallel with the fast developments in technology.
Contactless cards are the most notable ones among these products. The statistics of contactless cards, which become prominent in the industry due to their features that enable fast and easy payment, have been published by BKM (Interbank Card Center of Turkey).
The Number of Contactless Cards has Exceeded 10 Million in Turkey
According to the data, announced by BKM, the contactless cards that allow faster payment without entering any PIN for transactions amounting lower than 15 Euro, are getting widespread day by day.
Dr.Soner Canko, CEO of BKM, has stated that "The number of contactless cards had reached to 6.3 million in 2011 from 3.4 million in 2010 and now it reached to 10.3 million in 2012 following 61% increase. 1.4 million of them are prepaid debit cards whereas remaining 8.9 million are credit cards. It is possible to make contactless payments with 16% of 54 million credit cards that we use today."
Shopping with Contactless Cards has Boomed in Turkey
When the number of shopping transactions, made with contactless cards, is examined, we see that there is a boom in the transactions, made either with prepaid debit or credit cards. The number of contactless shopping transactions, made with debit cards, has increased by 141% in 2012 and reached to 18.2 million from 7.5 million transactions in 2011. Similarly the number of transactions with credit cards has also increased by 122% and reached to 8.4 million transactions.
The Volume of Shopping with Contactless Cards has Tripled
Such increase in the number of transactions had a better reflection in the volume of transactions. The volume of transactions with contactless prepaid debit cards has increased by 171% and reached to 13 million Euro whereas the volume with contactless credit cards has increased by 243% and reached to 50 million Euro. Transactions with contactless cards, the total amount of which was 19 million Euro in 2011, have reached to 63 million Euro in 2012.
The Number of Transactions per Contactless POS Exceeded 400
The number of POS, which enable contactless payments, has reached to 61 thousand in 2012 from 18 thousand in 2009. In parallel with this increase, the merchants have started to have the fruits of their belief in contactless payments. The number of contactless transactions per POS, which was 88 in 2009, has increased almost by five times and reached to 435 in 2012.
Debit Cards are Replacing Coins
Average amount of contactless transactions revealed that there is a difference in the purposes of using these cards. Prepaid debit cards have replaced coins with their average transaction amount, equal to 0,7 Euro, whereas credit cards, the average transaction amount of which was 6 Euro, were preferred for higher amounts.
When all contactless transactions were taken into consideration, it is seen that the average amount of payment was 3 Euro in 2012.
Thanks to contactless payments, users are saving time while making their payments, they do not need to withdraw cash from ATMs and they do not deal with problems, such as coins and changes.
67% of Shopping has Occurred at Supermarkets
When the distribution of contactless expenditures among the industries was examined, it was found that two industries took the lead. 67% of total amount of shopping, made with contactless cards, has occurred at supermarkets, which is followed by dining payments, the ratio of which was 14%. The average amount of shopping, made with contactless cards in supermarkets was 7 Euro and this figure was 2 Euro for dining payments.
Traveling is Ahead in Number of Transactions
The service area that is expected to benefit from contactless payments to the widest extent is Mass Transportation. "Traveling" sector, which also covers Mass Transportation, was ahead of other sectors in 2012 with total number of contactless transactions, reaching 46% of all transactions, and the average amount of payment per transaction was 0,5 Euro.
Our Payment Habits are Changing and Processes are Speeding up in Cashiers
According to a recent research conducted by BKM (Interbank Card Center of Turkey), the users of contactless cards, who have quickly adapted themselves to new payment methods, are completing their shopping without losing any time. The contactless payments, for which it is enough to bring the card closer to POS machine for transactions amounting less than 15 Euro, take much less time than the payments made in cash. The research shows that cash payments are completed in 26 seconds and payments with credit or debit cards are completed in 16 seconds, but the payments made with contactless cards are completed only in 9 seconds.