Payment options in Greece - changes and trends with plastic and digital money

The numbers confirm that nowadays there are more than 650,000 EFTs (card payment solutions) are now almost everywhere in every corner of Greece, up from just 150,000 a few years ago: in airports, ports, railway stations, the metro, taxis and every type of business of any size from kiosks to supermarket and retail chains.
The total number of payment card transactions reached the highest levels showing a significant increase of 44% compared to 2020 when the increase was also significant. Debit cards continued to be the main substitute for cash, with a percentage share of 92% in the total number of transactions with all types of payment cards. More and more customers are using mobile payment options as well.
These are the digital wallets that, according to converging estimates that see the light of day, are used by an increasing number of consumers in our country as well. Digital wallets provide the possibility of contactless transactions using a portable device (smartphone or smartwatch), replacing even the plastic of the physical card. Eight years have passed since Alpha Bank introduced the first electronic wallet to the Greek market.
Today, according to data from Alpha Bank, which has the largest market share in this sector, in terms of demographics of wallet users, they are adopted more by the younger age groups, who have a developed relationship with digital technology and smart wearables Appliances.
It is predicted that between 2022 and 2026 the users of digital wallets will increase by 53% or even more. However, consumers are starting to use other forms of digital payments, such as IRIS Payments promoted by DIAS, with direct money transfers between consumers showing an extremely large increase.
Therefore, it is now clear that lately payment media tendency is moving towards more digital and modern, and as the years go by new modern payment ways such as the above-mentioned digital wallets and IRIS payments will be used much more frequently than some other payment methods in Greece that was long known as predominant cash country.