Garanti BBVA Report Shows Robust Growth in Card Payments in Türkiye
Garanti BBVA Payment Systems (GÖSAŞ) recently released the report ‘2025 Card Payments in Türkiye.’ The study, which analyzes trends in card spending, bank and credit card ownership and e-commerce growth, revealed rising credit and debit card spending volumes, increased contactless use, and a growing preference for upfront transactions. The study was based on data from the Interbank Card Center (BKM).
The report found that total consumer spending on cards continues to increase, reaching over TL 24.62 trillion, up 51.9 percent. Of this amount, TL 20.43 trillion came from credit cards and TL 3.64 trillion from debit cards. The number of debit and credit cards is also rising and is expected to grow by 5.8 percent over the previous year, reaching 460 million (142 million credit cards and 318 million debit cards). This demonstrates continued growth in both card ownership and consumer preferences.
In 2025, consumers continued to prefer upfront payments over installments for their credit card purchases. In fact, 80.5 percent of credit card purchases were paid upfront, while 19.5 percent were paid in installments.
However, installment payments increased in the e-commerce sector. Throughout the year, total e-commerce spending reached TL 6.71 trillion, with 65.6 percent of the credit card purchases paid upfront and 34.4 percent paid in installments. Furthermore, installment payments represented 57.8 percent of all e-commerce purchases in 2025, up from 55.5 percent in 2024.
The study also showed that e-commerce has increased steadily over the past five years. In 2025, e-commerce accounted for 32.8 percent of all card transactions, reaching TL 6.71 trillion. The share of online purchases was the greatest in the travel industry (57 percent of all purchases made online), the electronics and computers sector (51 percent) and in construction materials (46 percent), with the fastest growth in health and personal care products (86 percent), groceries (85 percent) and construction materials (69 percent).
Finally, the study also revealed that contactless payments are on the rise. In 2025, the total number of contactless transactions reached 7.96 billion, accounting for 68 percent of all card payments. In 2021, just 47 percent of card transactions were contactless, reaching 57 percent in 2022, 63 percent in 2023 and 67 percent in 2024. These findings demonstrate that contactless payments have become a habit for consumers due to their speed and convenience.