Credit card

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’ announcement for a referendum that puts international creditors’ proposals to voters on July 5 immediately had an impact on transactions taking place on the islands.

Greek resort manager Costas Dimitrokallis?s customers have started asking in recent weeks about an amenity often ignored in an age of online and credit card payments: reliable hotel safes to stash their money.

The first ATM using face-recognition technology was presented by China. The novelty ATM aims to combat cases of theft and fraud, according to its designers.

A total of 43 tech retail stores have closed down in the last seven months in Turkey, mainly due to restrictions on the use of credit cards to purchase mobile phones, while also increasing revenues as they cut costs, figures have shown. 

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis confirmed a report by Proto Thema on April 20 stating that people will be offered incentives for cash card purchases.

VAT contributions worth 6.5%, 9.5%, 15% and 18% with the average tax rate beneath 15% even if there is a change to the 30% discount on islands with the possibility of VAT on food item charges changing from 13% to 6.5% and 9.5%.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

The government is planning to offer a cash return incentive for Greeks who as of July 1 use debit or credit cards on certain islands for purchases above a threshold of 50 or 70 euros.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

Lotteries with rewards for receipts collection by taxpayers, which could even include cash prizes, as well as free drinks and tickets to events and museums for tourists visiting Greece are among the incentives proposed by the General Secretariat for Public Revenues to combat tax evasion by promoting the use of electronic transactions.

According to newspaper “Ta Nea” a team of Greek government officials is considering the possibility where consumers will only be able to pay for transactions with a Debit card –not a credit card-, connected with the salary or payments of each consumer.

By Alekos Lidorikis

Banks are making plans for a significant increase in credit in 2015, following a year that saw just 650 million euros issued in housing and consumer loans.

By Evgenia Tzortzi

Teiresias, the electronic database for insolvent borrowers, is to start monitoring letters of guarantee in a bid by the Finance Ministry to keep track of their daily volume and crack down on fraud.