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Everything You Need to Know About Swish in Sweden
As a foreigner in Sweden, you’ll quickly get to know about a service called Swish. Whether after a night out with friends to split the tab, paying for a bus ticket, the rent to your landlord, or at a store - Swish is one of the most common and popular options to handle all kinds of payments in Sweden.
What is Swish in Sweden?
Swish is a mobile payment system that has revolutionized the way transactions are conducted in Sweden. Launched in 2012, Swish has quickly become an integral part of everyday financial transactions for millions of Swedes.
How Swish Works
Swish allows users to make instant payments using their smartphones by linking their bank accounts to their personal mobile numbers. This makes it incredibly easy to transfer money to friends, pay for goods and services, or even donate to charities with just a few taps on your phone. The system is integrated with the BankID security app, ensuring secure and verified transactions.
Popularity and Usage
With over 8 million users in a country of about 10 million people, Swish is without a doubt a popular service for Swedes, making it the leading mobile payment solution in Sweden. It is widely accepted by more than 300,000 businesses and is used for various purposes including splitting bills, paying rent, and online shopping. Swish has even influenced the Swedish language, with "swisha" becoming a common verb meaning "to make a payment via Swish".
Getting Started with Swish
To start using Swish, you need:
- A Swedish bank account from a participating bank.
- The Swish app, available for both Android and iOS (you might need to change location to Sweden in the App Store/Google Play Store to find Swish)
- A registered mobile number (some banks also requires you to have a Swedish number)
- BankID for secure identification and verification. If you want to read more about getting Bank-ID in Sweden, we’ve outlined the process in a previous article - Complete Guide: How To Get BankID in Sweden.
Once these are all set up, you can link your mobile number to your bank account and start making instant payments through Swish.
For more detailed information on Swish and how to get started, you can visit the official Swish website or consult your bank's customer service.
Organized, structured, and clear—that's me in a nutshell, and it’s also my vision for how things should be for our community of newcomers in Sweden. With years of experience in the subscription business and living abroad, I understand how tough it can be to navigate even the most basic things in a new country. That's why we're here to help.
