8 ms·

Some context might be useful here. I spent some time living Sweden not too long ago and Swedes practically don't use cash. It's usually not said out loud, but c

Some context might be useful here. I spent some time living Sweden not too long ago and Swedes practically don't use cash. It's usually not said out loud, but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal, to the point that most don't have any at all. Digital payments are very convenient and deeply integrated, so long as you have a local ID which allows you use the local payment system Swish etc. This worked nicely until the tensions in Europe lead to more cyberattacks rolling in and suddenly you have people not being able to buy food, medicine, and so forth. Not too long after, there was a government advisory urging people to keep some cash reserves in case a larger cyberattack happens, but cultural habits at large are hard to change. This is of course a coarse simplification of the context, but might help understand this incentive a bit better.

elictronic 1y ago
Physical attacks are also possible, this site focuses on software so much of the time, while acts occur in the physical world. Cyberattacks are grey areas, but based on some of the undersea cable cutting and factory fires Russia has been performing, physical attacks are very much on the table if you can obscure the source.
- timeon 1y ago
  Physical attack is localized. Cash is more decentralized. Maybe this offline card-payment will help with that but I wold not bet on it.
daneel_w 1y ago
> "It's usually not said out loud, but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal ..." Are you sure this isn't impression you've gotten from isolated reactions involving a small number of individuals, perhaps just a single individual? I can't relate to the sentiment at all, having lived here for just over three decades and experiencing the popularity shift from cash to debit card. I can, in fact, not recall a single time ever that someone has divulged the opinion that they consider cash "dirty and criminal". More than anything else the Swede's favor of debit card is the convenience. Second to that I would say is the security of not immediately losing funds if you misplace the card or it being stolen - it feels less risky carrying a debit card, in particular if you're the type who prefers having more than a few "tens" on you in case you'd need or want to buy something.
- veeti 1y ago
  Sweden has introduced civil asset forfeiture where the mere possession of cash can make you a suspect [1]. It's coming from the very top. https://archive.ph/v7TRe https://archive.ph/v7TRe
  - daneel_w 1y ago
    I fully understand why the Swedish government wants to get rid of cash. What I'm saying is that the people simply don't feel that cash is in any way dirty.
    - boringg 1y ago
      Its a way to control the population if you control the transactions. It amazed me that people don't understand what they give up by not using cash. Cash is the ultimate privacy payment.
  - dghlsakjg 1y ago
    That article does not at all make the assertion you are claiming it does: "The new law allows police to seize expensive goods even from people who are not under investigation for a crime, if they cannot prove they acquired them lawfully." I don't love the law, but having cash on its own is not grounds for seizure. Having expensive goods that you cannot explain how you managed to pay for is what they are targeting, according to your source. This is basically a law that takes your expensive shit away if you are too stupid to launder your ill-gotten cash.
    - veeti 1y ago
      You can put lipstick on a pig all you want, but if you reverse the burden of proof from "we have to prove your money is dirty" to "you have to prove your money is clean", that is a very clear cut case of "possessing cash is grounds for seizure" to me. By the way, have you ever wondered what the definition of "expensive goods" is? Of course, the powers that be want to make it all about the Rolexes and Lamborghinis, but a cursory peek at the actual law reveals [1]: > Section 4 If the property has been seized and the value of what may be confiscated does not exceed one tenth of the price base amount according to Chapter 2, Sections 6 and 7 of the Social Insurance Code, a question about confiscation of the property may be examined by 1. a police officer, or 2. another employee of the Police Authority or the Security Service appointed by the respective authority. Which effectively means that using the "price base amount" value of ~59k SEK in 2025, you are subject to asset forfeiture at the whims of any police officer once you have more than 600 bucks in your wallet or under the mattress. But I'm sure they will only use it on brown gang bangers or knife wielding foreign drunks and not law abiding citizens such as myself, so it's fine! [1] https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/lag-2024782-om-forfarandet-vid-forverkande-av_sfs-2024-782/ https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/sven...
1oooqooq 1y ago
that's the excuse. it's really visa lobbying to destroy the (somehow worse than visa) easy credit new players. they give credit like candy because being online and low value only it's easier to avoid (or swallow) fraud. forcing their hand to accept offline sales mean they can't decide on the spot, and now those 5k credit lines which they only allow transactions for sub 100 purchases at a time will be wide open for offline fraud they can't detect, and which visa already know how to handle/sustain. this will probably be lobbied elsewhere soon. i predict Netherlands is next.
Hikikomori 1y ago
Wouldn't say it's dirty or criminal, it's just convenient to use card, but if you buy a car it would be a bit weird if you insist on cash. It's mostly old people paying with cash these days.
seanalltogether 1y ago
How do kids get pocket money in Sweden? I can't imagine grandparents handing over prepaid debit cards to 8 years old to go buy candy at the neighborhood store?
- afandian 1y ago
  I don’t know the answer, but Swish is very common. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment)
- wdrw 1y ago
  In Canada there's MyDoh, which is specifically a debit card you can give to kids including in that age range. One of the major Canadian banks runs this. Can only imagine that it's more advanced in Sweden.
  - johannes1234321 1y ago
    That may be practical, but many kids I observe in my family etc like to collect the money and see it and are proud of their collection and about what they saved. That goes away with a card ... and I wonder how that impacts the "feeling" for it. Counting and making likes and plans about what to buy is a big part of learning to deal with it.
    - brewdad 1y ago
      Like or not the world is a digital currency world for the most part these days. I want my kids to understand that those numbers on a computer screen have real world value. How many young adults get into trouble with their first credit card or debit card because the money isn't "real" to them? In the US it's quite a few.
      - johannes1234321 1y ago
        I don't have a final answer to this. However in m observation with different families and kids is that some start relatively early, before the kid can do arithmetics or such, they can count till a pile got enough money for the sweets or toy they want and then count the other pile to see how much is left and if they can buy the other. Doing this in a digital system requires first some computing device (be it phone or laptop or whatever) then check the account value, read it correctly, then do some arithmetics and then interpret the result. That's a year or two older.
sitharus 1y ago
We hardly use cash in New Zealand, over 85% of transactions are electronic. There’s a lot of places that don’t accept cash anymore because cash handling is annoying and risky. That said, nobody thinks of cash as dirty, just annoying. Also our payment system has always been able to work offline, because it started rolling out in the 80s.
- joshvm 1y ago
  I've visited New Zealand a few times en route to Antarctica. The only time I've ever needed to take out cash was for the Christchurch bus service. I was in MIQ on the way in, but they gave us free reign on the way out because Antarctica was considered virus-free (and according to immigration NZ, it counts as the Ross Dependency). There was obviously a lot of push for contactless payments in 2021. I get the impression that the pandemic helped really cement it, although it sounds like the UK where we've had widespread contactless for almost 20 years.
  - sitharus 1y ago
    The pandemic helped the banks push contactless which they love, because it’s not EFTPOS. EFTPOS is our national post of sale system, it has very low or no fees for any party involved. Merchants pay a fixed machine rental per month which can include unlimited transactions, or may have a per transaction fee of up to $0.20. Most individuals do not pay a fee for using EFTPOS and there’s normally no card fee, though some banks have accounts with fees that have other benefits (eg higher deposit interest rates to encourage saving). Contactless goes via the standard card network extortion. Since 2022 the interchange rate has been capped by legislation which has helped merchants a lot, but the per transaction fee over the card network is still far higher than EFTPOS. Contactless EFTPOS does exist in Australia - we share a lot of the underlying tech - but the banks won’t activate it here because they’d lose the interchange fees. Online EFTPOS is starting to gain market share though, which is nice.
- PostOnce 1y ago
  Since when does EFTPOS work offline? It works off the internet, but not "offline", if the phones are down, EFTPOS is down. It happens with relative frequency, given the weather. Or trucks hitting boxes, or diggers cutting cables. Shit happens. Regarding places not accepting cash: NZ First (political party) is proposing to protect the right to use cash and make all businesses accept cash for up to $500 items. > The Cash Transactions Protection Bill would mandate businesses in trade accept cash payment for goods valued up to $500.
DavidVoid 1y ago
> Digital payments are very convenient and deeply integrated, so long as you have a local ID which allows you use the local payment system Swish etc. Just to reiterate how ubiquitous Swish and BankID are here: 99.9% of Swedish residents age 18-67 have BankID (8.6M users), while Swish has 8.7M private users, and 93% of those users send or receive money via Swish at least once per month.
0points 1y ago
> It's usually not said out loud, but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal As a swede, your statement is outlandish and false. We use cash all of the time.
- Too 1y ago
  If your local hairdresser gives you a cheaper price when paying cash, wouldn't you assume tax evasion? (criminal). Someone selling a used bike, or other items of similar value, on second hand market and not accepting Swish would maybe not directly be considered criminal, but would for sure raise an extra eyebrow about the origins of the goods. Otherwise correct, nobody would blink if you use cash for other daily purchases like ice cream or groceries, even if unusual.
- sebra 1y ago
  That is just not true. To quote the Swedish riksbank. "The Swedish payment market is almost entirely digital" https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payments-in-sweden/payments-report-2025/ https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payments-in-swe...
- KomoD 1y ago
  As a swede, your statement is false. Most of us don't use cash all the time unless you're a kid or >60. I can't even remember the last time I used cash.
- lbschenkel 1y ago
  I'm living in Sweden for ~20 years. I haven't used a banknote in more than 15 years. During this time I can't recall a single time I saw anyone using a banknote either. Here in Malmö where I live, especially since COVID, you'll be searching more and more to find stores that take cash (besides supermarkets and kiosks and the like). I would say more than half of them don't accept cash any longer. Speaking of restaurants or pubs, my estimation would be that 2/3 have signs that say "no cash". Maybe more. You can't do simple things as taking public transport if you want to pay by cash. You can't pay in the bus. You can't buy in the machine. It's all card or app only. You'll need to search around for an equivalent of a 7-11 kiosk to be able to buy a ticket using cash. Depending on where exactly you are when you need that, it may take as much walking than you wanted to save by taking public transport. If you took a daily trip to the Danish side (Copenhagen) and need to come back home, I'm not even sure if it's possible to get back if you need to buy a ticket and only have cash on hand. Only Skånetrafiken sells that particular ticket and only via machines that don't take cash. Handling cash became more expensive than taking card payments. It's also more complicated in terms of logistics and payments take longer. With this set of incentives, it's understandable why the shift happened. Not saying I particularly like this development. Just reporting my anecdotal experience.
jobigoud 1y ago
How do you pay for things that are just one or two euros? In my local boulangerie they don't accept cards for less than 5€, so if I just want a baguette I need to have cash.
- pas 1y ago
  I assume there's no minimum there (as I haven't encountered such a requirement in Hungary for some time, nor in Spain)
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- basisword 1y ago
  In the UK most small shops had this same 'minimum spend' requirement for card. It disappeared a few years ago (maybe during Covid) and now I haven't come across minimum spend in a long time. That was one of the last things that made me always keep some cash on hand. Now, I genuinely cannot remember the last time I used cash - it's been at least 2-3 years, probably longer.
- input_sh 1y ago
  Oh it's easy: they don't use Visa / Mastercard, but their own domestic system called Swish, which is much cheaper for businesses and of course completely free for individuals. Similar instant payment systems have really blossomed across the world, especially in recent years. One by one, countries are finally figuring out that there's no reason to rely on American brands for all of the payment processing.
  - timeon 1y ago
    > Oh it's easy Can you use it without local ID/phone and with foreign bank account?
    - KomoD 1y ago
      No because you need BankID which is issued by your bank and to get BankID you need a Swedish bank and a personnummer. You can use a foreign phone number with Swish but some banks don't allow it (or only allow some countries, e.g. finland).
vkou 1y ago
> but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal, to the point that most don't have any at all. Is it because it's considered dirty and criminal, or is it because it's a pain in the ass to deal with, and most people have no reason to bother with regularly withdrawing it, and then carrying it around?
cheema33 1y ago
> Swedes practically don't use cash It is interesting how the European cash culture is so very different between the countries. In Austria I struggled to find places that would take any kind of digital payments. Germany wasn't as bad, but was pretty bad. My experience is about 3 years old.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- EasyMark 1y ago
  Austria definitely moved up a few notches for places to visit if only for their valuing of cash money
UltraSane 1y ago
I live in the US and never use cash. I use a credit card and automatically pay the entire balance every month so I don't pay any interest but get 2% cash back. I pay rent using a app on my phone and a checking account.
xyzal 1y ago
How does one give money to the needy on the streets?
- scbrg 1y ago
  For a while it was seen as an excellent excuse not to. Not joking. These days, the needy on the streets accept our local app based payment system called Swish. Still not joking.
lawn 1y ago
It's true that cash is rarely used in Sweden but it's out of convenience not because it's "dirty and criminal".
qingcharles 1y ago
It's funny. I live in rural USA and I overheard a girl say she wouldn't date a guy who uses a card as it wasn't very manly. He needs to use cash apparently. Where I live cards are seen as controlled by "them" and allow the government to spy on you and come after you for taxes.
- Sammi 1y ago
  High trust vs low trust society differences.
catears 1y ago
To add some more context to your comment. One of the big attacks was in 2021 with the Kaseya ransomware attack that caused one of the larger grocers (coop) to essentially be unable to operate. Made national news as they had to give away product for free in some places. source in swedish: https://www.aftonbladet.se/minekonomi/a/aPrJWL/hackergruppen-bakom-coop-stangningens-krav-598-miljoner-kronor https://www.aftonbladet.se/minekonomi/a/aPrJWL/hackergruppen... And yes, we use cash so seldom that most people cannot from memory recall what the bills/coins look like!
- Findecanor 1y ago
  > And yes, we use cash so seldom that most people cannot from memory recall what the bills/coins look like! It didn't help that the Riskbank replaced all bills and coins during a relatively short time period, and did it badly. People used up/deposited their old and didn't get new. The new coins and bills have unnecessary denominations and bad design that made cash bothersome to use. They introduced an unnecessary 2 SEK coin, that is almost indistinguishable from the 1 SEK coin — especially if you are unused to them. They also introduced an unnecessary 200 SEK bill, that was just too big to be useful for small purchases. Several times I've seen people at ATMs withdrawing 100 SEK over and over again, just because they wanted the more useful 100 SEK bills.
swiftcoder 1y ago
It's funny how these attitudes vary across the EU. Here in Spain the government is trying to move everyone to digital payments so they can keep an eye on the flow of money, but normal folks are transacting as much as possible in cash to hide from the tax man...
- EasyMark 1y ago
  Hopefully they vote to keep cash an option for all financial transactions. Every little freedom they take away is one we won't get back
timeon 1y ago
> cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal Sounds like GrapheneOS.

elictronic 1y ago

Physical attacks are also possible, this site focuses on software so much of the time, while acts occur in the physical world. Cyberattacks are grey areas, but based on some of the undersea cable cutting and factory fires Russia has been performing, physical attacks are very much on the table if you can obscure the source.

timeon 1y ago
Physical attack is localized. Cash is more decentralized. Maybe this offline card-payment will help with that but I wold not bet on it.

daneel_w 1y ago

> "It's usually not said out loud, but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal ..." Are you sure this isn't impression you've gotten from isolated reactions involving a small number of individuals, perhaps just a single individual? I can't relate to the sentiment at all, having lived here for just over three decades and experiencing the popularity shift from cash to debit card. I can, in fact, not recall a single time ever that someone has divulged the opinion that they consider cash "dirty and criminal". More than anything else the Swede's favor of debit card is the convenience. Second to that I would say is the security of not immediately losing funds if you misplace the card or it being stolen - it feels less risky carrying a debit card, in particular if you're the type who prefers having more than a few "tens" on you in case you'd need or want to buy something.

veeti 1y ago
Sweden has introduced civil asset forfeiture where the mere possession of cash can make you a suspect [1]. It's coming from the very top. https://archive.ph/v7TRe https://archive.ph/v7TRe
- daneel_w 1y ago
  I fully understand why the Swedish government wants to get rid of cash. What I'm saying is that the people simply don't feel that cash is in any way dirty.
  - boringg 1y ago
    Its a way to control the population if you control the transactions. It amazed me that people don't understand what they give up by not using cash. Cash is the ultimate privacy payment.
- dghlsakjg 1y ago
  That article does not at all make the assertion you are claiming it does: "The new law allows police to seize expensive goods even from people who are not under investigation for a crime, if they cannot prove they acquired them lawfully." I don't love the law, but having cash on its own is not grounds for seizure. Having expensive goods that you cannot explain how you managed to pay for is what they are targeting, according to your source. This is basically a law that takes your expensive shit away if you are too stupid to launder your ill-gotten cash.
  - veeti 1y ago
    You can put lipstick on a pig all you want, but if you reverse the burden of proof from "we have to prove your money is dirty" to "you have to prove your money is clean", that is a very clear cut case of "possessing cash is grounds for seizure" to me. By the way, have you ever wondered what the definition of "expensive goods" is? Of course, the powers that be want to make it all about the Rolexes and Lamborghinis, but a cursory peek at the actual law reveals [1]: > Section 4 If the property has been seized and the value of what may be confiscated does not exceed one tenth of the price base amount according to Chapter 2, Sections 6 and 7 of the Social Insurance Code, a question about confiscation of the property may be examined by 1. a police officer, or 2. another employee of the Police Authority or the Security Service appointed by the respective authority. Which effectively means that using the "price base amount" value of ~59k SEK in 2025, you are subject to asset forfeiture at the whims of any police officer once you have more than 600 bucks in your wallet or under the mattress. But I'm sure they will only use it on brown gang bangers or knife wielding foreign drunks and not law abiding citizens such as myself, so it's fine! [1] https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/svensk-forfattningssamling/lag-2024782-om-forfarandet-vid-forverkande-av_sfs-2024-782/ https://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-och-lagar/dokument/sven...

1oooqooq 1y ago

that's the excuse. it's really visa lobbying to destroy the (somehow worse than visa) easy credit new players. they give credit like candy because being online and low value only it's easier to avoid (or swallow) fraud. forcing their hand to accept offline sales mean they can't decide on the spot, and now those 5k credit lines which they only allow transactions for sub 100 purchases at a time will be wide open for offline fraud they can't detect, and which visa already know how to handle/sustain. this will probably be lobbied elsewhere soon. i predict Netherlands is next.

Hikikomori 1y ago

Wouldn't say it's dirty or criminal, it's just convenient to use card, but if you buy a car it would be a bit weird if you insist on cash. It's mostly old people paying with cash these days.

seanalltogether 1y ago

How do kids get pocket money in Sweden? I can't imagine grandparents handing over prepaid debit cards to 8 years old to go buy candy at the neighborhood store?

afandian 1y ago
I don’t know the answer, but Swish is very common. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swish_(payment)
wdrw 1y ago
In Canada there's MyDoh, which is specifically a debit card you can give to kids including in that age range. One of the major Canadian banks runs this. Can only imagine that it's more advanced in Sweden.
- johannes1234321 1y ago
  That may be practical, but many kids I observe in my family etc like to collect the money and see it and are proud of their collection and about what they saved. That goes away with a card ... and I wonder how that impacts the "feeling" for it. Counting and making likes and plans about what to buy is a big part of learning to deal with it.
  - brewdad 1y ago
    Like or not the world is a digital currency world for the most part these days. I want my kids to understand that those numbers on a computer screen have real world value. How many young adults get into trouble with their first credit card or debit card because the money isn't "real" to them? In the US it's quite a few.
    - johannes1234321 1y ago
      I don't have a final answer to this. However in m observation with different families and kids is that some start relatively early, before the kid can do arithmetics or such, they can count till a pile got enough money for the sweets or toy they want and then count the other pile to see how much is left and if they can buy the other. Doing this in a digital system requires first some computing device (be it phone or laptop or whatever) then check the account value, read it correctly, then do some arithmetics and then interpret the result. That's a year or two older.

sitharus 1y ago

We hardly use cash in New Zealand, over 85% of transactions are electronic. There’s a lot of places that don’t accept cash anymore because cash handling is annoying and risky. That said, nobody thinks of cash as dirty, just annoying. Also our payment system has always been able to work offline, because it started rolling out in the 80s.

joshvm 1y ago
I've visited New Zealand a few times en route to Antarctica. The only time I've ever needed to take out cash was for the Christchurch bus service. I was in MIQ on the way in, but they gave us free reign on the way out because Antarctica was considered virus-free (and according to immigration NZ, it counts as the Ross Dependency). There was obviously a lot of push for contactless payments in 2021. I get the impression that the pandemic helped really cement it, although it sounds like the UK where we've had widespread contactless for almost 20 years.
- sitharus 1y ago
  The pandemic helped the banks push contactless which they love, because it’s not EFTPOS. EFTPOS is our national post of sale system, it has very low or no fees for any party involved. Merchants pay a fixed machine rental per month which can include unlimited transactions, or may have a per transaction fee of up to $0.20. Most individuals do not pay a fee for using EFTPOS and there’s normally no card fee, though some banks have accounts with fees that have other benefits (eg higher deposit interest rates to encourage saving). Contactless goes via the standard card network extortion. Since 2022 the interchange rate has been capped by legislation which has helped merchants a lot, but the per transaction fee over the card network is still far higher than EFTPOS. Contactless EFTPOS does exist in Australia - we share a lot of the underlying tech - but the banks won’t activate it here because they’d lose the interchange fees. Online EFTPOS is starting to gain market share though, which is nice.
PostOnce 1y ago
Since when does EFTPOS work offline? It works off the internet, but not "offline", if the phones are down, EFTPOS is down. It happens with relative frequency, given the weather. Or trucks hitting boxes, or diggers cutting cables. Shit happens. Regarding places not accepting cash: NZ First (political party) is proposing to protect the right to use cash and make all businesses accept cash for up to $500 items. > The Cash Transactions Protection Bill would mandate businesses in trade accept cash payment for goods valued up to $500.

DavidVoid 1y ago

> Digital payments are very convenient and deeply integrated, so long as you have a local ID which allows you use the local payment system Swish etc. Just to reiterate how ubiquitous Swish and BankID are here: 99.9% of Swedish residents age 18-67 have BankID (8.6M users), while Swish has 8.7M private users, and 93% of those users send or receive money via Swish at least once per month.

0points 1y ago

> It's usually not said out loud, but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal As a swede, your statement is outlandish and false. We use cash all of the time.

Too 1y ago
If your local hairdresser gives you a cheaper price when paying cash, wouldn't you assume tax evasion? (criminal). Someone selling a used bike, or other items of similar value, on second hand market and not accepting Swish would maybe not directly be considered criminal, but would for sure raise an extra eyebrow about the origins of the goods. Otherwise correct, nobody would blink if you use cash for other daily purchases like ice cream or groceries, even if unusual.
sebra 1y ago
That is just not true. To quote the Swedish riksbank. "The Swedish payment market is almost entirely digital" https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payments-in-sweden/payments-report-2025/ https://www.riksbank.se/en-gb/payments--cash/payments-in-swe...
KomoD 1y ago
As a swede, your statement is false. Most of us don't use cash all the time unless you're a kid or >60. I can't even remember the last time I used cash.
lbschenkel 1y ago
I'm living in Sweden for ~20 years. I haven't used a banknote in more than 15 years. During this time I can't recall a single time I saw anyone using a banknote either. Here in Malmö where I live, especially since COVID, you'll be searching more and more to find stores that take cash (besides supermarkets and kiosks and the like). I would say more than half of them don't accept cash any longer. Speaking of restaurants or pubs, my estimation would be that 2/3 have signs that say "no cash". Maybe more. You can't do simple things as taking public transport if you want to pay by cash. You can't pay in the bus. You can't buy in the machine. It's all card or app only. You'll need to search around for an equivalent of a 7-11 kiosk to be able to buy a ticket using cash. Depending on where exactly you are when you need that, it may take as much walking than you wanted to save by taking public transport. If you took a daily trip to the Danish side (Copenhagen) and need to come back home, I'm not even sure if it's possible to get back if you need to buy a ticket and only have cash on hand. Only Skånetrafiken sells that particular ticket and only via machines that don't take cash. Handling cash became more expensive than taking card payments. It's also more complicated in terms of logistics and payments take longer. With this set of incentives, it's understandable why the shift happened. Not saying I particularly like this development. Just reporting my anecdotal experience.

jobigoud 1y ago

How do you pay for things that are just one or two euros? In my local boulangerie they don't accept cards for less than 5€, so if I just want a baguette I need to have cash.

pas 1y ago
I assume there's no minimum there (as I haven't encountered such a requirement in Hungary for some time, nor in Spain)
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
basisword 1y ago
In the UK most small shops had this same 'minimum spend' requirement for card. It disappeared a few years ago (maybe during Covid) and now I haven't come across minimum spend in a long time. That was one of the last things that made me always keep some cash on hand. Now, I genuinely cannot remember the last time I used cash - it's been at least 2-3 years, probably longer.
input_sh 1y ago
Oh it's easy: they don't use Visa / Mastercard, but their own domestic system called Swish, which is much cheaper for businesses and of course completely free for individuals. Similar instant payment systems have really blossomed across the world, especially in recent years. One by one, countries are finally figuring out that there's no reason to rely on American brands for all of the payment processing.
- timeon 1y ago
  > Oh it's easy Can you use it without local ID/phone and with foreign bank account?
  - KomoD 1y ago
    No because you need BankID which is issued by your bank and to get BankID you need a Swedish bank and a personnummer. You can use a foreign phone number with Swish but some banks don't allow it (or only allow some countries, e.g. finland).

vkou 1y ago

> but cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal, to the point that most don't have any at all. Is it because it's considered dirty and criminal, or is it because it's a pain in the ass to deal with, and most people have no reason to bother with regularly withdrawing it, and then carrying it around?

cheema33 1y ago

> Swedes practically don't use cash It is interesting how the European cash culture is so very different between the countries. In Austria I struggled to find places that would take any kind of digital payments. Germany wasn't as bad, but was pretty bad. My experience is about 3 years old.

deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
EasyMark 1y ago
Austria definitely moved up a few notches for places to visit if only for their valuing of cash money

UltraSane 1y ago

I live in the US and never use cash. I use a credit card and automatically pay the entire balance every month so I don't pay any interest but get 2% cash back. I pay rent using a app on my phone and a checking account.

xyzal 1y ago

How does one give money to the needy on the streets?

scbrg 1y ago
For a while it was seen as an excellent excuse not to. Not joking. These days, the needy on the streets accept our local app based payment system called Swish. Still not joking.

lawn 1y ago

It's true that cash is rarely used in Sweden but it's out of convenience not because it's "dirty and criminal".

qingcharles 1y ago

It's funny. I live in rural USA and I overheard a girl say she wouldn't date a guy who uses a card as it wasn't very manly. He needs to use cash apparently. Where I live cards are seen as controlled by "them" and allow the government to spy on you and come after you for taxes.

Sammi 1y ago
High trust vs low trust society differences.

catears 1y ago

To add some more context to your comment. One of the big attacks was in 2021 with the Kaseya ransomware attack that caused one of the larger grocers (coop) to essentially be unable to operate. Made national news as they had to give away product for free in some places. source in swedish: https://www.aftonbladet.se/minekonomi/a/aPrJWL/hackergruppen-bakom-coop-stangningens-krav-598-miljoner-kronor https://www.aftonbladet.se/minekonomi/a/aPrJWL/hackergruppen... And yes, we use cash so seldom that most people cannot from memory recall what the bills/coins look like!

Findecanor 1y ago
> And yes, we use cash so seldom that most people cannot from memory recall what the bills/coins look like! It didn't help that the Riskbank replaced all bills and coins during a relatively short time period, and did it badly. People used up/deposited their old and didn't get new. The new coins and bills have unnecessary denominations and bad design that made cash bothersome to use. They introduced an unnecessary 2 SEK coin, that is almost indistinguishable from the 1 SEK coin — especially if you are unused to them. They also introduced an unnecessary 200 SEK bill, that was just too big to be useful for small purchases. Several times I've seen people at ATMs withdrawing 100 SEK over and over again, just because they wanted the more useful 100 SEK bills.

swiftcoder 1y ago

It's funny how these attitudes vary across the EU. Here in Spain the government is trying to move everyone to digital payments so they can keep an eye on the flow of money, but normal folks are transacting as much as possible in cash to hide from the tax man...

EasyMark 1y ago
Hopefully they vote to keep cash an option for all financial transactions. Every little freedom they take away is one we won't get back

timeon 1y ago

> cash is often considered to be dirty and criminal Sounds like GrapheneOS.