Payment cards increasingly popular with Czechs
It took a while for the trend to catch on but today Czechs are increasingly using payment or debit cards on a daily basis. According to data released by the Bank Card Association, nearly every Czech owns a payment card. Their number increased by nearly 950,000 in the third quarter of this year to 9.8 million, a figure that comes close to the country’s population. I asked Ivo Měšťánek, of the CSOB bank, about the trend:
“When we compare the numbers in CSOB and Poštovní spořitelna, we see a year on year increase, which is around 10 or 12 percent.”
Why do you think the number has grown? Is it because there are more shops offering the possibility to pay by card?
“There are actually more reasons why Czechs use payment cards - debit cards or even credit cards - more frequently. The first is that they have simply got used to it. They have found that it is more flexible to pay by card or draw money from an ATM than to have an account without this possibility. The second reason is that there are more and more shops that offer the possibility to pay by card and people know that there is no fee for this kind of payment.”
What kind of cards predominate on the Czech market? Credit cards or debit cards?
“At this moment, payment cards largely predominate, but it differs from bank to bank. If we talk about CSOB, than the standard payment cards still largely prevail.”
“It is very hard to say. But if you look at the development of the market, we could say that the British market, or the western market as a whole, has a longer tradition of using cards. And secondly, there is probably a psychological reason. Czechs, in comparison to western Europeans, are using loans to finance things like houses, flats, cars – things with a longer utility than consumer products, which a credit card mostly is for.”
Would you say that young people are more willing to pay by card than the older generation?
“Younger people almost always have current accounts with better conditions, and a credit card is usually a standard part of the account. Younger people are generally more willing to use their cards when travelling abroad. But we also see that older people are gradually learning to use the advantages that credit cards give them.”
