Bulgaria use of Visa cards for online payments abroad up 126% in '05.
2007-09-19 10:00:00
The value of Internet payments made by Bulgarians using Visa credit cards zoomed up by over 100% in 2005, shows data of the international credit card company released on Wednesday, March 15. The value of electronic payments to non-native vendors topped $14.3 mln, up 126.7% over 2004, while their number posted an year-on-year gain of 195% to 155,000. In the Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, Bulgaria trailed only Romania in terms of the value of electronic Visa payments in 2005. Romania also came tops in the ranking for the highest year-on-year growth in the value of online Visa payments with 160.8%, followed by Serbia and Montenegro with 149.7%, Bulgaria and Croatia with 84%. Internet users in Bulgaria last year were estimated at 2.2 mln from a population of 8 mln. The number of Visa credit cards issued in Bulgaria was reported at 584,000 at the end of 2005. Bulgarians used bank cards to pay online for goods and services worth 42 mln levs, according to data of national card operator BORICA. The company does not track online transaction initiated with cards issued by United Bulgarian Bank and DZI Bank which have stand-alone ATM networks. Most online payers use ePay.bg. BORICA said the portal registered 645,000 payments in 2005. The value of the average transaction via ePay.bg was 38 levs. The overall number of online payments with bank cards rose by 102.3% in 2005 while their value was up 115.6%.

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