Cash is still king for Turks

Published 29 Jul,2021 via Hürriyet Daily News - Most Turks still prefer making payments in cash over other means of transactions, a recent study by the Central Bank has found.

In terms of payment methods, nearly 62 percent of participants of the bank survey identified themselves as “cash users” and 9 percent as “card users.” Some 30 percent said they go in between.

People carry in their wallets on average 235 Turkish Liras, but the amount is higher among individuals aged between 40 and 50, self-employed, people with higher education and higher income groups.

The study showed that people with higher financial literacy keep smaller amount of cash in their wallets.

The average amount of cash people withdraw from ATMs in a single transaction is 952 liras.

Pensioners, people aged between 55 and 64, people in the highest income group and people with higher financial literacy withdraw more money from ATMs.

A little more than 32 percent of those, who participated in the survey said they receive their income in cash, while 30.3 percent through bank accounts.

Some 23 percent said they receive most parts of their income in cash and some of it through bank accounts.

As part of the study, participants were asked to keep a diary to record their all transactions for four days.

The results showed that in terms of the number of transactions, cash payments accounted for 89.5 percent of all transactions, while in terms of amount, they corresponded to 76 percent of payments made.

People said they prefer cash because of habits, secrecy, the ease in keeping track of expenditure and lower cost and security.

The survey also showed that 18.3 percent of participants do not have a bank account and 19.1 of those, who are actively working, are not registered with a social security institution. People in those two groups mostly identify themselves as cash users.

The number of participants who said that they will use cash more in the next 12 months was higher than those who said they will use less cash in transactions. “This suggests that the use of cash will not decline in the period ahead,” the Central Bank study concluded.

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