6 ms·

Most popular bank in Sweden. Keep in mind that you don't use cash in Sweden.

saiya-jin 4y ago
Most popular tends to go in opposite direction of quality - people look at the fees heavily and tend to go to cheapest solutions. Now it can be claimed that cheap != low quality and there are certainly some exceptions out there, but generally you get what you par for.
- patall 4y ago
  What's a good bank in Sweden, if I may ask? My personal experience is several hours (literally) wasted with Nordea, each time ending with something trivial not working (as someone new in Sweden, i.e only setting up bankID). So far, my personal experience with banking here is several orders of magnitude worse than in Germany, even (or because) everyone is proud on it being soo much more digitalized.
  - hypostase 4y ago
    We went with Handelsbanken, because they were the first that let us sign up. So far seems OK. but I've not really done a detailed comparison.
  - dcminter 4y ago
    I'm reasonably happy with SEB so far. I originally tried to get an account with SwedBank but they weren't interested until I had a personnummer (legally they're not supposed to refuse on this basis!) SEB were a lot more cooperative and set me up with a basic account (deposit for salary checks plus an ATM card) quickly. Most things seem to be fine through the website. The one time I had to do some non-standard stuff they were pretty slow and a little disorganised, but it still seemed better than the UK banks I've used previously.
    - Phurist 4y ago
      SEB is also quite a boomer bank? Still stuck with legacy numeric "usernames", manual limit changes from the office etc..
      - cjg_ 4y ago
        Username is your national id number, not really something strange in Sweden for banking.
        sigio 4y ago
        OpenBank (part of Santander) also does this.... together with a 4 digit (only) password for internet-banking. Didn't know how fast I wanted to cancel that account after requesting it.
  - dagw 4y ago
    I've been very happy with SEB and have found their customer service pretty great, even with pretty complex requests. The being said, living in Sweden before you get your digital ID set up and everything sorted out in all the right databases seems to be a massive pain. All my non-Swedish colleagues at work have bureaucratic horror stories of their first months in the country.
aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
You do, today....
- makeitdouble 4y ago
  Irregular events can’t be a barometer though. On the other side of the fence, India also rendered 80+% of its cash unusable overnight.
alophawen 4y ago
Maybe popular, but from the several scandals surrounding that bank in the last few years, you should have changed bank long ago. (Most recently laundering Russian oligarch money iirc)
- mschuster91 4y ago
  Deutsche Bank still is going strong, despite being involved in virtually every scandal of the last decades - hell their offices got raided again just an hour ago [1]. Ordinary consumers don't give a damn about shady dealings of their banks, mostly because unlike phone numbers bank account numbers are not portable. Yes there exist regulations that banks have to assist with direct debit and automated order migration, but it's nevertheless a hassle to switch banks. [1] https://www.t-online.de/finanzen/news/unternehmen-verbraucher/id_92098794/razzia-bei-der-deutschen-bank-geldwaescheverdacht.html https://www.t-online.de/finanzen/news/unternehmen-verbrauche...
  - fest 4y ago
    My Swedbank mortgage agreement even goes as far as to require that I use my account with them as the primary salary account.
    - nollbit 4y ago
      Why would you ever sign that?
      - dagw 4y ago
        You get a lower interest rate. Banks generally can't require you to have an account there to get a mortgage, however they can give 'discounts' to customers that also have their accounts at the bank. Close your account and you are no longer a customer and lose the discount.
        fest 4y ago
        Banks frame it as "it's one of the factors used by our opaque black box algorithm to determine your rate". To find out the exact weight of every factor beforehand, I would have to submit N applications, processing of which is on the order of a week or so.
johnywalks 4y ago
I wouldn't say that. SEB is probably the most popular.
sgt 4y ago
Not at all? Even in Norway, cash is still used to a small degree.
- marginalia_nu 4y ago
  I haven't handled physical cash for probably ten years. They redesigned the bills around 2015 and to be honest I'm not even sure how they look anymore.
  - moogly 4y ago
    Same, except I never knew how they looked...
  - sgt 4y ago
    I spent some cash in both Norway and in Amsterdam only last month. Last two times for chocolates, believe it or not.
- ACS_Solver 4y ago
  Sweden's probably even more cashless than Norway. Even if you have cash, which most people don't, it's hard to spend. Grocery stores still take it so it would actually be useful in this situation, but other than grocery stores I struggle to think of any places in my city that accept cash. Maybe some bigger outlets do, not sure, but restaurants, cafes, takeaway places, small specialty stores and the like certainly do not take cash.
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Visiting Malmö I see restaurants with "card only" signs on the door and in the menu. Denmark has taken measures to require most businesses to accept cash, but Sweden doesn't seem to have done that. I keep ~1000DKK at home for emergencies, but I haven't purchased anything with cash for... um... a long time. Perhaps once in the last year.
- jdmoreira 4y ago
  I've been living in Sweden for 6 years. Never touched any Swedish cash. I don't even know what it looks like.

Most popular tends to go in opposite direction of quality - people look at the fees heavily and tend to go to cheapest solutions. Now it can be claimed that cheap != low quality and there are certainly some exceptions out there, but generally you get what you par for.

patall 4y ago
What's a good bank in Sweden, if I may ask? My personal experience is several hours (literally) wasted with Nordea, each time ending with something trivial not working (as someone new in Sweden, i.e only setting up bankID). So far, my personal experience with banking here is several orders of magnitude worse than in Germany, even (or because) everyone is proud on it being soo much more digitalized.
- hypostase 4y ago
  We went with Handelsbanken, because they were the first that let us sign up. So far seems OK. but I've not really done a detailed comparison.
- dcminter 4y ago
  I'm reasonably happy with SEB so far. I originally tried to get an account with SwedBank but they weren't interested until I had a personnummer (legally they're not supposed to refuse on this basis!) SEB were a lot more cooperative and set me up with a basic account (deposit for salary checks plus an ATM card) quickly. Most things seem to be fine through the website. The one time I had to do some non-standard stuff they were pretty slow and a little disorganised, but it still seemed better than the UK banks I've used previously.
  - Phurist 4y ago
    SEB is also quite a boomer bank? Still stuck with legacy numeric "usernames", manual limit changes from the office etc..
    - cjg_ 4y ago
      Username is your national id number, not really something strange in Sweden for banking.
      - sigio 4y ago
        OpenBank (part of Santander) also does this.... together with a 4 digit (only) password for internet-banking. Didn't know how fast I wanted to cancel that account after requesting it.
- dagw 4y ago
  I've been very happy with SEB and have found their customer service pretty great, even with pretty complex requests. The being said, living in Sweden before you get your digital ID set up and everything sorted out in all the right databases seems to be a massive pain. All my non-Swedish colleagues at work have bureaucratic horror stories of their first months in the country.

aaaaaaaaata 4y ago

You do, today....

makeitdouble 4y ago
Irregular events can’t be a barometer though. On the other side of the fence, India also rendered 80+% of its cash unusable overnight.

alophawen 4y ago

Maybe popular, but from the several scandals surrounding that bank in the last few years, you should have changed bank long ago. (Most recently laundering Russian oligarch money iirc)

mschuster91 4y ago
Deutsche Bank still is going strong, despite being involved in virtually every scandal of the last decades - hell their offices got raided again just an hour ago [1]. Ordinary consumers don't give a damn about shady dealings of their banks, mostly because unlike phone numbers bank account numbers are not portable. Yes there exist regulations that banks have to assist with direct debit and automated order migration, but it's nevertheless a hassle to switch banks. [1] https://www.t-online.de/finanzen/news/unternehmen-verbraucher/id_92098794/razzia-bei-der-deutschen-bank-geldwaescheverdacht.html https://www.t-online.de/finanzen/news/unternehmen-verbrauche...
- fest 4y ago
  My Swedbank mortgage agreement even goes as far as to require that I use my account with them as the primary salary account.
  - nollbit 4y ago
    Why would you ever sign that?
    - dagw 4y ago
      You get a lower interest rate. Banks generally can't require you to have an account there to get a mortgage, however they can give 'discounts' to customers that also have their accounts at the bank. Close your account and you are no longer a customer and lose the discount.
      - fest 4y ago
        Banks frame it as "it's one of the factors used by our opaque black box algorithm to determine your rate". To find out the exact weight of every factor beforehand, I would have to submit N applications, processing of which is on the order of a week or so.

johnywalks 4y ago

I wouldn't say that. SEB is probably the most popular.

sgt 4y ago

Not at all? Even in Norway, cash is still used to a small degree.

marginalia_nu 4y ago
I haven't handled physical cash for probably ten years. They redesigned the bills around 2015 and to be honest I'm not even sure how they look anymore.
- moogly 4y ago
  Same, except I never knew how they looked...
- sgt 4y ago
  I spent some cash in both Norway and in Amsterdam only last month. Last two times for chocolates, believe it or not.
ACS_Solver 4y ago
Sweden's probably even more cashless than Norway. Even if you have cash, which most people don't, it's hard to spend. Grocery stores still take it so it would actually be useful in this situation, but other than grocery stores I struggle to think of any places in my city that accept cash. Maybe some bigger outlets do, not sure, but restaurants, cafes, takeaway places, small specialty stores and the like certainly do not take cash.
Symbiote 4y ago
Visiting Malmö I see restaurants with "card only" signs on the door and in the menu. Denmark has taken measures to require most businesses to accept cash, but Sweden doesn't seem to have done that. I keep ~1000DKK at home for emergencies, but I haven't purchased anything with cash for... um... a long time. Perhaps once in the last year.
jdmoreira 4y ago
I've been living in Sweden for 6 years. Never touched any Swedish cash. I don't even know what it looks like.