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Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

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Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is quite liberating. My family went cash only a couple of years ago. We spend less and tbh there isn’t much downside.

I have some friends who find that they budget much more successfully when they use only cash... they can see exactly what they have left this week or month.

Really? I find it to be the exact opposite. I budget much better when I can see what I'm spending money on rather than how much cash I have on-hand.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#402
post #309
post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Plus a wired landline phone is always charged, with excellent reception.

Nitpick: typically they have excellent reception. _However,_ with many copper lines not being maintained and especially in some rural areas, reception can be awful to unusable.

The backbone is increasingly digital or wireless.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#403
post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The best payment experience I’ve had is cash. I pay for what I need and when I leave the festival I can still use my “credits” hassle free anywhere I like.

The best payment experience I've had is a credit card. It's harder to get robbed, I can pay everywhere with just a tap, I never need to remember to take out cash, tips are computed for me at my request, when I travel to many other countries I don't even need to get local currency, conversion happens automatically, and I'm not stuck with unused local currency when I leave.

Credit cards can be used virtually. It is easier to get robbed.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#404
post #330
post #111

This is huge systemic risk (the possibility that an event at the company level could trigger severe instability or collapse an entire industry or economy). When the systems in major Nordic bank (Nordea, Danske Bank) or payment system (Visa, MasterCard) goes down, people can't do anything until it's fixed. These things are rare but they happen. Usually it's just few hours, but if the condition persists even few days i…

> if the condition persists even few days it becomes a major problem How much cash does a person keep handy? If the condition persists a few days, cash would also become a major problem.

At least you can still pay and be payed. Sure you lose access to the bulk of your savings, but there can still be economy.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#405

I'm a Norwegian who went to a Swedish music festival last summer. I couldn't pay for a lot of things there, since the booths only accepted Swish (the only relevant Swedish mobile payment solution, it's a de facto monopoly). I couldn't sign up and use Swish on my phone, since it only accepts Swedish bank accounts. I couldn't borrow money from my Swedish friends either, since they didn't have cash (and it mostly wasn't…

Anglophones, please, please, excuse me for replying in my native tounge. The cashless society engages my aversion such that it is hard to say in my second language. Så jävla enig alltså! Fy fan för detta inskränkta, ofria land! Jag avundas norrmän, daner, och finnar för att de slipper Rosenbad. Du, och alla andra skandinaver vet att genomsnittssvensken... har sina svårigheter. Ser fram mot min årliga skridskosemester…

... huh? Or I guess this is sarcasm? This response hardly seems warranted, given it’s just a festival exclusively accepting swish. I never use swish except for sending money to friends, so I don’t think it’s widespread for businesses. Contact less credit card is easier than everything, including cash.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#406
post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anti-fraud may been the reason on that day, but who knows what will be the reason tomorrow (eg Capital Controls as it happened in Greece). The main point is that I still had to get permission. It's kind of like when I was a kid, I wasn't allowed to go outside the house unless I informed my parents, which was like getting permission implicitly. When using cash, you do not have to inform the bank anything.

No you have to visit a money exchanger in advance, exchange some money into local currency, then go to your destination. Which...is the same thing you need to do anyway to use your card in China.

If you're in the US or Europe, you'll probably get a better rate by exchanging cash into local currency at your destination.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#407
post #245

The propriety solutions and its near monopoly in both Sweden & Norway (and perhaps other countries) are also due to the slow expansion and adoption of Apple Pay and Google/Android Pay into those countries. Apple Pay was only launched in Norway earlier this year and Google Pay only a few weeks ago. So the propriety solutions have had a lot of time to establish their monopoly. Also, Apple/Google pay uses the Visa/Maste…

Call me crazy but letting Apple and Google do what VISA and MasterCard do hardly seems like a win. In fact it seems like a huge loss, especially for Google — cc tx info would be real juicy stuff for their algos.

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#408
post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"either use Swish or go without food/water/travel/etc" is coercion by any definition

Food is payed with VISA och Mastercard. Water is payed through the online banking service. Travel with VISA/Mastercard (even local buses accept credit cards). "Etc" is also payed with VISA or Mastercard. Swish is a mere conveniency for transferring money without having to log onto your online banking service. I use it once a month tops.

What happens if you don't have visa/mastercard or even a bank account?

Re: Sweden's cashless society is no longer a utopia

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've noticed this with mature technology. There comes a point where a product is perfect, no need to add anymore features. But the manufacturer still wants to continue adding new features so that they can use those as new selling points. Unfortunately the new features end up making the product worse.

2015 MacBook Pro was the peak for laptops.

Except for the fact that you can't easily upgrade the ram or ssd? :P
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