Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by ahoka 1495 days ago
Swish is just another proprietary solution though along with BankID. And BankID basically requires residency in Sweden (and much more), so it's not something you can install while visiting to pay at flea markets. Their only appeal is that they are ubiquitous.
2 comments
SOLAR_FIELDS 1495 days ago
I lived in Sweden as a resident for a period of time (less than the amount you are required to get a personnumber, one of the requirements for BankID) and sometimes not having Swish was a real hassle. Oftentimes it was with smaller mom-and-pop shops whose primary method of accepting payment was Swish. Carrying cash usually solved the problem, but not always. Transferring money to and from friends was also more difficult, either cash or Transferwise were used instead.

Even if I had been able to get a personnumber getting a BankID would have also been a real hassle - by law I believe Swedish banks have to grant me an account if I reside there and have a personnumber but as a US citizen they go out of their way to make it as difficult as possible due to the extremely onerous requirements that US requires foreign bank accounts comply with.

link
tapland 1495 days ago
In practice signing up for a regular account w/ debit card, bankid etc as a US citizen isn't very different from signing up as a Sweden.

You'll run into issues trying to open an account for trading stocks though.

link
thomashabets2 1495 days ago
It does not require residency in Sweden. I left in 2011. I'm not in SPAR anymore, which restricts some rare things, but not BankID or Swish.
link
ahoka 1494 days ago
You cannot have BankID without having a personnummer, for which you need to be a resident or citizen (Swish uses BankID for identification for those who are not familiar with it).
link
thomashabets2 1493 days ago
Yeah, in Sweden you basically don't exist if you don't have a personnummer, yeah.

I'm a citizen and have a personnummer, but because I'm not a resident I'm not in SPAR. But I need to be neither in SPAR nor a resident for BankID or Swish.

I even managed to pick up a parcel my saying my personnummer, when they couldn't scan it off of my British driving license.

link