Romanians pay for EUR 4.5 billion shopping spree by card

Card payments in Romanian shops reached EUR 4.5 billion last year, up 26 percent on the year before. December was the peak month of the year, with payments in shops exceeding 16 percent of the total card payments in the country. ATM transactions still make up the bulk of operations with cards, some 80 percent, reaching EUR 23 billion in withdrawals. This was 10 percent above the level in 2010.

The average value of a card payment in shops stood at some EUR 40, which is higher than in Western European countries, where cards are habitually used for smaller payments. The average value of an ATM withdrawal exceeded EUR 100 and was slightly up compared to 2010. There was 13.3 million active cards on the Romanian market at the end of 2011, the bulk of them – 90 percent being debit cards. editor@romania-insider.com (photo source: Sxc.hu)