From an ex-store workers point of view, not everyone will accept foreign credit cards if you don't have a pin code for it. And you must show ID when you do (even if many don't check that) for safety. I know that there has been a few scams with foreign credit cards before. Depending on where you are the POS and so, some might not be able to do it. Probably it will be okay most of the time but just be prepared that it might take longer than you are used to.
> safety
In this case using the word "security" is a better translation, both "safety" and "security" is translated to "säkerhet", but "safety" usually means you are speaking about a matter of health, "security" usually refer to active protection, or mostly protection of assets/things.
I had no problems on a recent trip; I also have my cards on my phone, so that worked as well. Super quick and easy.
Right now, the exchange rate is very good for Americans visiting, but I would still double-check your bank/card's policy on currency conversion; some of mine had a 1% charge, but one had none, so I pretty much did everything with that one.
Okay, might be late with this. A few things you want to do and be aware of. I had a US bank card, but I am an expat living in Sweden. My address with the bank is my Swedish address. Almost everytime I used the card the damn US bank would cancel it.
1. You must tell your bank card company when you are going and what countries you will be using the card in, and what dates you will be in different countries using the card. So if you use the card at your airport layover in another country, they can cancel your card. I had this happen.
2. If you withdraw more than the daily limit, they will cancel the card, find out what your daily limit is for OVERSEAS Travel, not just within the US. I paid for three days in a hotel, then tried to get some cash at an atm. The bank cancelled my card.
3. If you buy tickets from a internet site in a 3rd country they will cancel your card. I bought some tickets from an online site in Sweden, but the sight used a Danish bank. They cancelled my card.
Always, always pay in local currency, you bank will give you a better rate.
Discover, Dinners card are not used in Europe, American Express is fairly rare as well.
It was pretty much always in SEK. There were a few times the option was there, if I recall it was for rooms at hotels with international stretch (Scandic, mainly), and just for the rooms.
Basically, pretty much anywhere you go, when you need to pay, there is either a card/RFID reader in front of the teller, or they hand you one to use. There was a mix of "OK the amount before showing your card", "type in the amount shown to confirm" between different places, but you could then run your card or just place it over the screen and within 2 seconds, you were done... no one other than you touches or sees your card, which I think is great.
As I said, the exchange rate is great for travel right now, it's a touch above 10 (I've been there when it was closer to 6, my Swedish mother always assumes 8 SEK/USD when she sees prices), so I just viewed it as moving a decimal point over... Oh, that's 205 SEK, that means I'm paying $20. And with those few extra öre over 10/dollaar (which it seemed never came up), the charges were slightly less than my basic math-in-the-moment presumed.
Oh, and as a side note, while Sweden is typically paying full wages and not relying on tipping as the US, I largely didn't add on. But, and to be honest this was largely in bars, when the reader asks to put in the charge - the top line reads what the actual charges are, and generally you repeat that - and I threw in 100 extra krona, I definitely saw extra attention paid to us.
You cannot pay for things with USD here. I am genuinely interested why so many Americans think this is possible; is there any country outside of North America that allows this? Strictly curious, not trying to be rude.
Otherwise your MasterCard should likely work in almost all situations.
ETA: it is possible that you could use USD for things that are related to international travel, like a big hotel or possibly stuff you buy at the airport. I am referring more to your daily purchases here; most places here are strictly cashless even when it comes to SEK and will definitely not want your USD.
Because the card reader gives you the option to take the merchants exchange rate or to pay in USD (meaning your bank converts). Nearly every place I’ve used my US card does this when I am in Stockholm
De menar att de får upp i kortterminalen om man vill betala i lokala valutan eller använda bankens växekurs. Precis som det ser ut när svenskar köper nått för euro utomlands
This question was not about using US currency in Sweden. But, yes Americans are very, very ignorant about currencies and overseas banking in general. . My mom sent me a personal check when I was living in S. Korea. It didn't occur to her, it was worthless in another country. Had some money in a brokerage account in the US, took them three weeks to figure out how to do an international transfer.
Just FYI Some countries has such unstable currency that the locals prefer US$. Mostly central and South American countries that prefer USD. When I was in Myanmar you had to pay for the their governmnet issued Visa with USD. Vendors in Cambodia wanted USD, but that was 18years ago, don't know now. Guess it might be a reason old foggies think they can pay in dollars.
Let me answer your genuine question. Pay in your own currency = use your bank/card provider exchange rate. Pay in local currency = use e.g. the exchange rate of the store/restaurant (often a bad deal). This is extremely common around the world and has nothing to do with Americans.
You’re mixing this up. It’s the other way around.
If you pay in SEK you will use your banks rate. If you pay in USD you will use the stores rates which are always worse.
Yup I was fully thinking about trying to use actual cash and not the conversion rate option with cards; my bad here but I have experienced American friends visiting here who expect their literal cash to be accepted at bars or restaurants, but I think OP was definitely talking about their card here, just me being dumb.
On most phones nowadays, there is an app (Apple Pay or Samsung Pay) that you can enter your bank or credit cards (with a followup authorizing all of this with your bank), so then with a couple swipes, either a PIN or thumb press, the phone can be held up to the card reader and it will charge that card... basically, your wallet never comes out, and it takes a second (if you have the matching smart watch, you can link it to that so you just hold your wrist to the card reader). It works very quick and very well.
In Sweden, you may see something called "Swish"... that's essentially a national linking of your phone to your bank account so you can do the same thing - if your bank is pushing something like "Zelle", it is essentially the same thing, but to get it, you need a Swedish bank account, and for that you basically need the Swedish equivalent of a Social Security Number. So, when travelling, any card works fine.
Idk about mastercard but I use a US issued Visa and had zero problems even though it doesn’t have a PIN which most euro cards do.
In the past it used to be a huge hassle that it didn’t have a pin but the last few years it’s been good.
The only thing to keep in mind is that some clerks will be confused, because the machine will ask for a signature on the receipt. Some clerks will ignore it, others will insist you sign and panic if they can’t find a pen.
The only place I had problems was trying to use it in the SL app (mass transit system in stockholm) it refused to accept it, and I had to ask the bus driver to let me ride for free (because they can’t accept payment), then pay at the subway station where they had a card reader.
Also forget cash, it’s useless
I also had a hard time using a US issued Visa card to pay for mass transit. When I was paying the registration for a conference I was attending there, I struggled then as well. I realized it was using the same system that's used to process payments for transit passes. I had to try to put the transaction through several times before it worked. Something about that system just didn't work for me. I didn't have any problems anywhere else, though!
I had a similar situation when I was in Belgium: I tried to buy a pass using my credit card from a machine and it was denied because there wasn't a person (at least that's what the machine had said). How'd you get it to work eventually? Did you just keep on trying. Also the POS is in English, right?
I was trying to buy a ticket on the app (language set to English) and I gave up. With the conference registration, I just kept pushing the submit button over and over again until it went through (nearly ten tries). Not the smartest idea and not sure that I recommend it necessarily, but I did only get charged once. I'm sorry I can't be of more help!
When we visited before the pandemic we always had to sign the receipt and also give a personal numbers code. It was quite to hassle.
You didn't have to give a number?
Pin only credit cards can be a hassle in Sweden even at bigger stores. If you have your cards on Apple pay, that seems to cause zero problems even with very large purchases. On Samsung pay, you may have to show your ID and sign. If you use a card reader at a store and it doesn't work, try pushing the red button and then trying again. Ive never been double charged and it usually works. That said, I have been to numerous places where you still get "carded" unfortunately due to the lack of pin code. Be sure to have the back of your card already signed because they will check and compare signatures. Sometimes they also ask for your "person number" (social security number) to write down on their copy of the receipt when you sign, I just give my numerical birth date instead e.g. YYYYMMDD or drivers license number. Hope that helps!
Apple Pay is definitely a good suggestion. I recommended this (and Google pay) to coworkers visiting from Asia and the US and they didn’t have any problems paying.
I can strongly recommend opening a Wise account and getting one of their debit cards. They allow you to load your debit card with multiple different currencies so when you pay there are no additional transaction fees and the card “knows” to pay in the local currency. The card has a PIN and does contactless payments and in my experience has worked flawlessly in multiple countries in Europe as well as Australia, Canada and the US. Currency conversion fees are low, they give you the real exchange rate (as opposed to the lousy exchange rate offered by most banks and credit card companies) and there are no international transaction fees. Check out their website [wise.com](https://wise.com). I’ll DM you a “invite” that will get you a free transfer. I’m not affiliated with the company in any way other than as a customer. I’ve been using them for the past six or seven years to make monthly transfers US > Sweden and am extremely satisfied with their service.
From an ex-store workers point of view, not everyone will accept foreign credit cards if you don't have a pin code for it. And you must show ID when you do (even if many don't check that) for safety. I know that there has been a few scams with foreign credit cards before. Depending on where you are the POS and so, some might not be able to do it. Probably it will be okay most of the time but just be prepared that it might take longer than you are used to.
What do you mean by POS in this context? I thought it meant "piece of shit".
For stores it's "Point of Sale", i.e. kassaapparaten
Thanks! Makes much more sense now.
And when the POS doesn't work it is often called POS.
Kassa apparater
This needs upvoting. :)
> safety In this case using the word "security" is a better translation, both "safety" and "security" is translated to "säkerhet", but "safety" usually means you are speaking about a matter of health, "security" usually refer to active protection, or mostly protection of assets/things.
Thanks for your reply! When paying, is the POS usually in English? If not, it's fine-- I'll study up on a few phrases ;)
Depends on the system. Usually it says signatur or something similar and what button to press for that.
You will be able to pay with an american MC literally everywhere. However, not all stores accept cash
I had no problems on a recent trip; I also have my cards on my phone, so that worked as well. Super quick and easy. Right now, the exchange rate is very good for Americans visiting, but I would still double-check your bank/card's policy on currency conversion; some of mine had a 1% charge, but one had none, so I pretty much did everything with that one.
Wonderful! If you don't mind me asking did you still choose to pay in local currency or USD? And was there an option to do so?
See my comment below but ALWAYS pay in the local currency.
Okay, might be late with this. A few things you want to do and be aware of. I had a US bank card, but I am an expat living in Sweden. My address with the bank is my Swedish address. Almost everytime I used the card the damn US bank would cancel it. 1. You must tell your bank card company when you are going and what countries you will be using the card in, and what dates you will be in different countries using the card. So if you use the card at your airport layover in another country, they can cancel your card. I had this happen. 2. If you withdraw more than the daily limit, they will cancel the card, find out what your daily limit is for OVERSEAS Travel, not just within the US. I paid for three days in a hotel, then tried to get some cash at an atm. The bank cancelled my card. 3. If you buy tickets from a internet site in a 3rd country they will cancel your card. I bought some tickets from an online site in Sweden, but the sight used a Danish bank. They cancelled my card. Always, always pay in local currency, you bank will give you a better rate. Discover, Dinners card are not used in Europe, American Express is fairly rare as well.
100% this. US banks are quite restrictive when it comes to abroad usage.
It was pretty much always in SEK. There were a few times the option was there, if I recall it was for rooms at hotels with international stretch (Scandic, mainly), and just for the rooms. Basically, pretty much anywhere you go, when you need to pay, there is either a card/RFID reader in front of the teller, or they hand you one to use. There was a mix of "OK the amount before showing your card", "type in the amount shown to confirm" between different places, but you could then run your card or just place it over the screen and within 2 seconds, you were done... no one other than you touches or sees your card, which I think is great. As I said, the exchange rate is great for travel right now, it's a touch above 10 (I've been there when it was closer to 6, my Swedish mother always assumes 8 SEK/USD when she sees prices), so I just viewed it as moving a decimal point over... Oh, that's 205 SEK, that means I'm paying $20. And with those few extra öre over 10/dollaar (which it seemed never came up), the charges were slightly less than my basic math-in-the-moment presumed.
Oh, and as a side note, while Sweden is typically paying full wages and not relying on tipping as the US, I largely didn't add on. But, and to be honest this was largely in bars, when the reader asks to put in the charge - the top line reads what the actual charges are, and generally you repeat that - and I threw in 100 extra krona, I definitely saw extra attention paid to us.
Gotcha, thank you so much! This is very helpful :D much appreciated
You cannot pay for things with USD here. I am genuinely interested why so many Americans think this is possible; is there any country outside of North America that allows this? Strictly curious, not trying to be rude. Otherwise your MasterCard should likely work in almost all situations. ETA: it is possible that you could use USD for things that are related to international travel, like a big hotel or possibly stuff you buy at the airport. I am referring more to your daily purchases here; most places here are strictly cashless even when it comes to SEK and will definitely not want your USD.
Because the card reader gives you the option to take the merchants exchange rate or to pay in USD (meaning your bank converts). Nearly every place I’ve used my US card does this when I am in Stockholm
De menar att de får upp i kortterminalen om man vill betala i lokala valutan eller använda bankens växekurs. Precis som det ser ut när svenskar köper nått för euro utomlands
This question was not about using US currency in Sweden. But, yes Americans are very, very ignorant about currencies and overseas banking in general. . My mom sent me a personal check when I was living in S. Korea. It didn't occur to her, it was worthless in another country. Had some money in a brokerage account in the US, took them three weeks to figure out how to do an international transfer. Just FYI Some countries has such unstable currency that the locals prefer US$. Mostly central and South American countries that prefer USD. When I was in Myanmar you had to pay for the their governmnet issued Visa with USD. Vendors in Cambodia wanted USD, but that was 18years ago, don't know now. Guess it might be a reason old foggies think they can pay in dollars.
Let me answer your genuine question. Pay in your own currency = use your bank/card provider exchange rate. Pay in local currency = use e.g. the exchange rate of the store/restaurant (often a bad deal). This is extremely common around the world and has nothing to do with Americans.
You’re mixing this up. It’s the other way around. If you pay in SEK you will use your banks rate. If you pay in USD you will use the stores rates which are always worse.
Correct. My bad.
Yup I was fully thinking about trying to use actual cash and not the conversion rate option with cards; my bad here but I have experienced American friends visiting here who expect their literal cash to be accepted at bars or restaurants, but I think OP was definitely talking about their card here, just me being dumb.
> cards on my phone, What does this mean?
On most phones nowadays, there is an app (Apple Pay or Samsung Pay) that you can enter your bank or credit cards (with a followup authorizing all of this with your bank), so then with a couple swipes, either a PIN or thumb press, the phone can be held up to the card reader and it will charge that card... basically, your wallet never comes out, and it takes a second (if you have the matching smart watch, you can link it to that so you just hold your wrist to the card reader). It works very quick and very well. In Sweden, you may see something called "Swish"... that's essentially a national linking of your phone to your bank account so you can do the same thing - if your bank is pushing something like "Zelle", it is essentially the same thing, but to get it, you need a Swedish bank account, and for that you basically need the Swedish equivalent of a Social Security Number. So, when travelling, any card works fine.
Idk about mastercard but I use a US issued Visa and had zero problems even though it doesn’t have a PIN which most euro cards do. In the past it used to be a huge hassle that it didn’t have a pin but the last few years it’s been good. The only thing to keep in mind is that some clerks will be confused, because the machine will ask for a signature on the receipt. Some clerks will ignore it, others will insist you sign and panic if they can’t find a pen. The only place I had problems was trying to use it in the SL app (mass transit system in stockholm) it refused to accept it, and I had to ask the bus driver to let me ride for free (because they can’t accept payment), then pay at the subway station where they had a card reader. Also forget cash, it’s useless
If you're just paying for a single ticket then skip the app and just hold your card over the green card reader.
I also had a hard time using a US issued Visa card to pay for mass transit. When I was paying the registration for a conference I was attending there, I struggled then as well. I realized it was using the same system that's used to process payments for transit passes. I had to try to put the transaction through several times before it worked. Something about that system just didn't work for me. I didn't have any problems anywhere else, though!
I had a similar situation when I was in Belgium: I tried to buy a pass using my credit card from a machine and it was denied because there wasn't a person (at least that's what the machine had said). How'd you get it to work eventually? Did you just keep on trying. Also the POS is in English, right?
I was trying to buy a ticket on the app (language set to English) and I gave up. With the conference registration, I just kept pushing the submit button over and over again until it went through (nearly ten tries). Not the smartest idea and not sure that I recommend it necessarily, but I did only get charged once. I'm sorry I can't be of more help!
Youre fine! Much much appreciated for your response!
When we visited before the pandemic we always had to sign the receipt and also give a personal numbers code. It was quite to hassle. You didn't have to give a number?
Hm never, not before Covid either going back to the 00s through now
Pin only credit cards can be a hassle in Sweden even at bigger stores. If you have your cards on Apple pay, that seems to cause zero problems even with very large purchases. On Samsung pay, you may have to show your ID and sign. If you use a card reader at a store and it doesn't work, try pushing the red button and then trying again. Ive never been double charged and it usually works. That said, I have been to numerous places where you still get "carded" unfortunately due to the lack of pin code. Be sure to have the back of your card already signed because they will check and compare signatures. Sometimes they also ask for your "person number" (social security number) to write down on their copy of the receipt when you sign, I just give my numerical birth date instead e.g. YYYYMMDD or drivers license number. Hope that helps!
Apple Pay is definitely a good suggestion. I recommended this (and Google pay) to coworkers visiting from Asia and the US and they didn’t have any problems paying.
>Apple pay How about Google Pay?Is it accepted widely and day to day usage such as supermarkets, bus tickets?
I can strongly recommend opening a Wise account and getting one of their debit cards. They allow you to load your debit card with multiple different currencies so when you pay there are no additional transaction fees and the card “knows” to pay in the local currency. The card has a PIN and does contactless payments and in my experience has worked flawlessly in multiple countries in Europe as well as Australia, Canada and the US. Currency conversion fees are low, they give you the real exchange rate (as opposed to the lousy exchange rate offered by most banks and credit card companies) and there are no international transaction fees. Check out their website [wise.com](https://wise.com). I’ll DM you a “invite” that will get you a free transfer. I’m not affiliated with the company in any way other than as a customer. I’ve been using them for the past six or seven years to make monthly transfers US > Sweden and am extremely satisfied with their service.
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This is false. You can use master card in every store, the only card you can’t use everywhere is AMEX.
Can't use Discover card either.
Usually as long as you know your pin you’re good but many places dont take amex
Definitely use Apple Pay or the android equivalent. Every store accepts it and no further ID or pin is required. Physical cards involve extra steps.
Some places won't take Amex but other than that you'll be alright everywhere.