Nur Öztin Kurak, the country director of Visa Europe Turkey, disclosed the results of Visa Europe’s survey, conducted among those between the ages of 15 and 30 in Turkey. People usually tend to save money at the times when they have an abundance of money, Kurak asserted and criticized this attitude, saying: “Budgeting is really managing money regardless of quantity. Financial awareness starts with the need to most effectively evaluate scarce resources in one’s possession.”
According to the survey, only 6 percent of those surveyed responded with “shopping” when asked what idea bank cards evoked in their minds, whereas 60 percent immediately associated the cards with cash. The survey also showed that 56 percent of participants have at least one bank card while 26 percent have two and 17 percent have three cards.
Kurak was speaking at the opening of the “3rd Conference on Developing Consumers’ Financial Awareness,” held in İstanbul on Tuesday. The survey demonstrates that consumers are not well informed about modern payment instruments, Kurak said.
She explained the significance of using bank cards -- both debit and credit cards -- by saying that every 10 percent increase in spending via bank cards causes a 0.5 percent extra increase in the growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP).
