As card use grows, ministry considers monthly million-euro draw

Month after month the use of credit and debit cards in everyday transactions is setting a new record, as taxpayers become increasingly accustomed to using plastic money. The same trend is seen in the introduction of card terminals by enterprises and freelance professionals, just one month before the deadline set by the Finance Ministry for the compulsory installation of Points of Sales (PoS).

Data show that turnover through card terminals over the first five months increased 30 percent year-on-year, reaching 9.5 billion euros, with 7.8 billion euros of that coming from cards issued by Greek banks - i.e. not related to incoming tourism-related expenditure.

The course of the figures confirms market estimates for total turnover in excess of 20 billion euros throughout 2017, thereby covering a major part of private consumption, without even including online transactions (e...