Credit card

Turks’ soaring debt levels are beginning to set off alarm bells, with the number of consumers having difficulty paying credit card debts jumping by more than 30 percent in June compared to the same month last year.

According to figures compiled by the Turkish Banks Association (TBB) Risk Center, nearly 186,000 Turks did not pay their loan or credit card debts to banks in June.

Three prominent Turkish banks’ second-quarter financial outlooks reveal that problems in the sector remain, but the recent rise in rates has helped to ease some of their losses Despite a slight recovery in the second quarter, Turkish lenders have recorded falling profits for the first half of the year due to an increase in interest rates, as well as limitations on credit card and loan

Summer sales in the Greek retail sector will begin on Monday, July 14, and run through Sunday, August 31, in a bid to boost activity in the sluggish sector.

Consumer watchdog EKPOIZO on Tuesday issued a series of tips for consumers to ensure the best buys.

Officers from the police’s cybercrime squad have traced a 52-year-old Greek man and a 26-year-old Romanian national who are alleged to have made a series of online purchases using stolen credit card details, sources indicated on Tuesday.

The investigation was launched early this year following a tip-off implicating the two in extensive online credit card fraud.

Greeks are among those least likely to use credit cards in the European Union, according to a European Central Bank report published on Tuesday.

Greece came third last both in terms of the frequency of use and the total value of payments made by credit card, according to the ECB.

Most skimmer attackers in 2013 were from Bulgaria and are getting more technologically advanced, shows a report of Verizon, quoted by Bloomberg. 

The fees that banks charge retailers for processing shoppers' payments would be capped under new rules voted by European Parliament on Thursday.

Measures to make online payments safer, reduce costs and give users more choice were adopted by a separate vote on the same day, an official press release on the EP website states.