Bulgarians made 386.6m card payments worth €15.1bn in the first half of 2026, payment firm MyPOS said.
A year earlier there were 323.9m transactions worth €12.1bn. The value rose 24.8% and the number 19.4%.
Remote payments, including online ones, grew faster. In the first half they came to 101.4m transactions worth €6.6bn, up from 75.4m transactions worth €4.8bn a year earlier. That is a rise of 37.5% in value and 34.5% in number.
MyPOS's own platform in Bulgaria also posted double-digit growth. Year on year, the value of payments through it rose 41.70% in the first quarter and 41.42% in the second. Transactions rose 42.95% and 39.39%. The number of merchants using it was 20.10% higher in the first quarter and 18.18% higher in the second.
Online payments through the platform grew 18.11% in value in the first quarter and 18.61% in the second. The number of transactions rose 33.68% and 25.57%, and the number of merchants taking online payments was 27.49% and 19.31% higher.
Online payments made up 6.08% of the total value of payments through the platform in the first quarter and 6.02% in the second. The average value of one online transaction was 11.65% lower in the first quarter and 5.55% lower in the second, year on year.
Polina Toskova, MyPOS country manager for Bulgaria, said the payments market is moving fast and merchants' needs are changing with it. "Businesses need more flexibility in how they sell, take payments and manage their money," she said. She said this holds whether a business works online, in a physical shop or in several places.
The company offers online payment services, payment acceptance and financing for merchants, aimed at the everyday needs of business.