Visa Survey: How Greeks use cards when travelling abroad

The most widespread means of payment for Greeks when travelling both to Greece and abroad, payments have been made with , as highlighted in news from INEMY-ESEE on behalf of Visa. The investigation focused both on the transactions carried out before the journey and related to transport and accommodation, as well as payments made at the destination. In detail, 8 out of 10 choose to pay by card for the expenses they make before the trip (for a stay), while nearly 7 out of 10 choose the cards for the costs they make at their destination. More than one in two choose debit cards for their transportation and stay, while two in ten prefer credit cards. Regardless of the cost category, Greeks prefer to use their card (debit, credit or prepaid) against the other payment methods. Specifically, 75% pays with cards in retail shops with entertainment (69%) and focus (69%) to follow. For city travel, 65% chooses card versus 35% who chooses cash. As a predominant reason for using the card with 48% appears to be the “easy and speed of transactions”. The following is 27% transaction security, 12% states that “this is the way he usually pays” and finally an 8% states that he prefers this method of payment because that is how he best manages his money. Of those who use the card as their main payment method in their transactions abroad, 75% prefer it in its physical form, while 25% prefers to have it stored in the digital wallet or smart devices, e.g. smartwatch. In age group 65+, 9 out of 10 use the card in its physical form. In the remaining age groups, the use of digital wallets ranges between 21% and 30%. In relation to destinations, 78% of the survey sample usually travels to Eurozone countries, 15% to European countries that have their own currency and 4% to America. Regarding travel reasons, 73% states that it travels mostly for recreation, 14% to visit a relative or friendly person and 11% for professional reasons. On their most recent foreign trip most seem to have visited Italy, Germany and France, with 52% making 4 to 7 nights. It is noted that more than half of them (55%) book the trip exclusively via the internet, while more than half of the Greeks who travelled abroad over the last two years have made more than one trip. Investigating the case of fraud before or during travel abroad, the majority appear to have never been deceived (96%), while the individual cases found concerned mainly unjustified or unexplained charges (46%), overcharge of the account from a transaction (35%) and tracking transactions after theft or loss of card (20%). To the question whether “someone has attempted to deceive you or intercept your data to carry out a digital transaction” 17% responded positively. Of these 41% reported attempted fraud via email, 35% via a message on the mobile or in some application and 23% via telephone call, while 79% responded that they have not attempted to cheat them.