Istanbul (Turkiye) - payment methods

RKO1

Hey everyone,

I hope you've had a great week so far.

I'm heading to Istanbul next week, and I have a question about payments.

Do most places, like restaurants, bars, and tourist spots, accept contactless payments in Turkish lira with a Revolut card? Also, do they charge any extra fees for using contactless payments?

Are there any places where card payments are not accepted?

Thanks!

Brie

No idea as never been there.  But I do know that if they are accepting any card always say the payment is in the local currency so it's your banks best rate rather than something the shop/restaurant makes up for the foreign exchange.  

Voyager2002

Brie said:

No idea as never been there.  But I do know that if they are accepting any card always say the payment is in the local currency so it's your banks best rate rather than something the shop/restaurant makes up for the foreign exchange.  

This. 

However, they will not understand and apply Dynamic Currency Conversion anyway. If you notice and insist, they will say they don't know how to change the settings on the card machine. 

And watch out for another scam: they tell you that the payment did not go through and ask you to pay in cash, so you end up paying twice. This happened to me when the card machine bleeped but ran out of paper. I had to insist many times and eventually become aggressive in order to get a receipt for the cash payment. Later, when I attempted a charge-back on the card payment, the card provider apparently asked the merchant to agree to it and he did not, so I was left out of pocket. 

Even outside the main tourist areas (on the Asian side), one restaurant decided to charge me double the prices shown on the menu, because of inflation!

Ballard

I had five days in Istanbul earlier this year and didn’t encounter the issues that others suffered. I withdrew some cash but used the card quite a lot too. Obviously, take note of the warnings that have been made, but your card will be accepted in quite a few places. 

If you’re getting public transport, you’ll need an Istanbulkart which, from memory, can be purchased by card and does cover transport to and from either airport. One card can be used by multiple people (you just tap in and hand it to the next person).