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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

#431

Post by cf498 »

bathory wrote: post #425
cf498 wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I gave them my Visa and V-Pay card, and only one of the patrol stations took it. Everyone else willing to take my non Netherland card were places who would also take cash, like mcdonalds. There seemed to have been a certain kind of regional card which i did not have. edit: dont take me wrong, i should have looked up the local payment procedure before going there, I was just extremely surprised as this happened to me…

V-Pay should be accepted by any shop in NL. I am not sure where the issue comes from, as there is no card, specific to the region. In NL maestro/v-pay cards are accepted 100% of the time, because those cards are issued by all banks there.

I tried it, maybe it was the language barrier but I had shops who simply send me away. I had a longer conversation with the cashier in the SPAR shop on the science center campus about it who told me my v-pay card was the wrong one and cash was not an option. It worked out in the big shopping center in Almere where people also took cash.

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

#432

Post by dmitriy_ko »

wolco wrote: post #403
tensor wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

All your fraudulent credit card transactions will be cancelled if this happens. Not so with cash.

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

#433

Post by dmitriy_ko »

Aeolun wrote: post #377
sizzle wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Until you run out of cash on hand or it gets lost or stolen....

If it does, you go to the bank and get more cash. If your card gets stolen however, you go to the bank, fill out a ton of forms, pay a fee for losing your card. Wait a few days for your new card to be delivered in the mail. And then, finally can you pay again. In the meanwhile, you are forced to pay with... cash! Which nobody accepts, because not having a debit card is socially unacceptable in our society.

I lost cards many times. Never been asked to pay a fee to get new card. No forms to fill out either. You just call them, tell them you need new card and they send it.

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

#434

Post by ptr »

jandrese wrote: post #413
o-o- wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think not having a bank account is unthinkable in a place like Sweden. Thanks to the strong social safety net and extremely restrictive immigration policy they don't have abject poor. At worst you're lower middle class and can get a bank account. It does seem to be a bad deal for tourists however. I'm surprised that companies are apparently so quick to ditch traditional credit cards.

But companies aren’t ditching credit cards, we’re just using “contact less”/Apple Pay/etc. more. When Swish is used by a company (I’ve only seen a couple), they’re either super-cheap or gimmicky.

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

#435

Post by adobeeee »

monochromatic wrote: post #197
dysan819 wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have a severe lack of imagination. You must be fun at parties. There are a myriad of ways Sweden can and probably is enforcing cashless trends through surveillance and coercion. Encouraging banks and retailers to refuse cash services, as referenced in the article, is likely done by the government. This enhances their ability to track and control all monetary transactions for any number of reasons (nefarious or ot…

> You must be fun at parties. Can we, as a society, just stop saying that?

> you're a sexless virgin

Fake quote but also something I'd like to see removed from meaningful discussions

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

#436

Post by icebraining »

fouc wrote: post #408
o-o- wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

What happens if you don't have cash? Answer: you get cash, because most shops won't barter.

Same thing here.

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

#437

Post by Symbiote »

ptr wrote: post #429
scurvy wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not being snarky, but there are homeless people in Sweden? In the US we're regaled with tales of the Scandanavian social safety nets. We're told everyone is taken care of. That's not the case?

Those that want help can get it — you can’t force help on everyone, and you need to be a legal citizen. Some are visiting from other EU countries.

And some from non EU countries.

Some men from Macedonia slept opposite my apartment in Copenhagen for a while in the summer. They get enough donations from passers by to keep them supplied with alcohol, and somehow avoid being deported (or return soon after?).

People may also beg even though they have a home.

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

#438

Post by zmk_ »

alkonaut wrote: post #189
zmk_ wrote: post #103

The article makes Sweden into something it is not. First, Swedes are not as eager to adapt new technologies as it may seem from the text. Case in point, NFC is just arriving in the country and in one of the main grocery shops, that has its own bank as well, you can only use store cards this way. A small subset of cards are also still swipe-only. In all honesty, Poland seems like a better example of this as it is effe…

NFC terminals are growing at the same rate as NFC cards, but cards have a pretty long lifespan so my old debit card which is ~5 years old is still chip and pin, while my new credit card from the same bank is both chip+NFC. I’m not going to go through the hassle (a few clicks) of replacing my card just to get NFC. The same goes for retailers, terminals get NFC on the next replacement.

Most of the terminals I see are NFC ready, but NFC payments are not enabled. In particular, ICA has Yomani terminals and does not accept cards not issued by them. In other countries NFC has been introduced years ago. In the Netherlands, most of the cards were replaced in 2013 and the full rollout of the tech was in 2014. The fact that a card is valid for longer does not mean that it cannot be replaced beforehand.

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

#439

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

mr_toad wrote: post #331
WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #235

My problem with cashless and just about everything electronic tech is: What happens when the network/power fails? What's the goto alternative? No one seems to point that out? It should not stop progress but it's important to make contingency plans in case of mass failure. I wonder if salt as money will be fashionable again? :)

If we ever have some sort of apocalypse, I’m guessing that the popular barter commodities will reflect society’s vices: cigarettes, alcohol, coffee, sugar and porn.

Porn as money? Never thought of that. Makes we wonder about the possibilities. Would porn stars be the bankers? Who would be the fed chair? Imagine the how full the economic courses would become.

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

#440

Post by adobeeee »

jeofken wrote: post #361
kristofferR wrote: post #97

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…

How did you type those knots over a? I'm on windows.
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