Recalling that the incentive program, which allowed credit card holders to restructure their debt and repay their credit card balance in installments, was introduced in July and lasted through September, Kaya noted that according to data from the Turkish Banks Association (TBB), about 459,000 credit card holders with outstanding debt, out of a total of 875,000, applied to take advantage of the incentive and TL 1.5 billion of a total of TL 3.1 billion in credit card debt countrywide was restructured. While the portion of credit card holders who applied for the incentive was just 10 percent of all debtors toward the end of the incentive program, thanks to warnings issued by unions, this figure had risen to about 50 percent at the end, he added.
“Nearly 4 percent of the agreements signed to restructure credit card debt were breached in the very first month, which is an indicator of the coming period,” Kaya said, adding that this situation shows that the incentive has failed. The number of people who fail to make their payments will increase in the future due to the global economic crisis and unemployment, he predicted. Kaya pointed out that if the incentive had also covered those credit card holders who do not have outstanding debt but have difficulty making their payments, the program would have been much more successful. “The TL 3.1 billion of credit card debt [owed nationwide] in May 2009 increased by 30 percent and rose to TL 4 billion as of August. The government should introduce new regulations to ease the repayment of all credit card holders' debts.”
