Half of Kazakhstan's salons don't take cards

Showed up for a manicure with one card and no phone? Your odds of paying on the spot are about a coin flip. Cash works at 99% of salons, clinics, and independent masters. A card through a terminal works at only 48%. These are the payment methods listed by 48,896 businesses

How do people pay at Kazakhstan's salons?

method	businesses	share
Cash	48,185	99%
QR code	34,379	70%
Card via terminal	23,599	48%
Card-to-card transfer	21,808	45%
Bank payment	15,395	31%
App payment	582	1%

QR beats the terminal by half again as much. The reason is simple. A terminal costs money and takes a cut of every sale. A QR code just gets printed out and taped to the wall

45% of businesses listed card-to-card transfer. That's the familiar "send it to this number" arrangement, and this kind of payment usually leaves no paper trail

Does the payment method differ by city?

city	businesses	accept cashless payment
Astana	9,118	96%
Shymkent	5,163	95%
Almaty	11,000	94%
Aktobe	1,740	93%
Kostanay	1,694	90%
Aktau	1,518	90%
Pavlodar	1,607	89%
Karaganda	3,879	83%

Karaganda trails the rest by a visible margin. One business in six there takes cash only

What this means for you

Ask about payment ahead of time. One question in a chat saves a trip to the ATM
Keep your phone charged. QR codes are accepted more often than cards
"Send a transfer" is common practice, but you won't get a receipt for it. If you need one, ask before the appointment

What this means for an owner

Every second business loses customers who show up with a card and no cash. A terminal doesn't pay for itself in every salon. A QR code is free, and a third of businesses in the country still don't have one

Where the numbers come from

The open 2GIS directory, August 2026. Out of 51,004 active businesses in Kazakhstan's beauty and health categories, 48,896 listed a payment method. A business can accept several methods at once, so the shares add up to more than 100