Monzo in Sweden šŸ‡øšŸ‡Ŗ [Discussion]

Monzo Chat Travelling with Monzo
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So Iā€™ve been border-hopping the last couple of days and taken the opportunity to use my Monzo card in Sweden.

Am pleased to report it has worked 100% of the time, including:

  • Train ticket vending machines
  • Local cafes and restaurants
  • Tourist attractions

and perhaps more obscurely:

The cashless, contactless buffet trolley on the train. It worked contactless on the attendants strange pocket-calculator device - in the remotest part of the Scandinavian countryside - and thanks to 3 Feel At Home, I knew my coffee was Ā£1.57 before it was even poured

The public conveniences in Malmƶ :scream: - in case anyone is interested, itā€™s 10 SEK / 87p

I had a backup card but didnā€™t need to use it, and still I have no idea what a Swedish Krone or coin looks like in the flesh :slightly_smiling_face:

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Travelled to Sweden recently going to Gothenburg, linkoping, and Stockholm. Could use my card everywhere with ease except for the magstripe payments for gothenburgs tram system (although I believe this is fixed now), even then I was only charged about 10p for using my Barclays card instead.

Sweden is basically cashless, and Monzo works perfect here

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Interesting fact:

Sweden has the lowest proportion of cash machines in Western Europe with 333 machines per one million inhabitants.

Dec 2016

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My friends and I are going on a 4 day trip in Stockholm, Sweden in 2 weeks. Since the currency there is SEK (Krona) instead of GBP, I was thinking of exchanging some cash at a local money exchange before departing.

I was wondering if it will be cheaper instead to use the ATM machines in Stockholm to withdraw the cash with Monzo since the rates are better. Or should I just use Monzo and pay by card whenever possible (might still need some cash in case though)?

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Hey Zheng,

We try to keep the posts about travelling to a certain country in one place, to make it easier for users to find all of the tips in one place so Iā€™ve moved your post here.

Although I canā€™t be 100% sure, Iā€™m very confident that, thatā€™ll be the better option - you can compare Monzoā€™s exchange rate with the rate of the local money exchangerā€™s here though (Monzo donā€™t add any fees on top of the MasterCard FX rate) -

That would be the better option for Monzo, as it costs them money when you withdraw cash from a foreign ATM. But I usually withdraw some cash too & also, carry another card, as Monzoā€™s still in beta.

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I also used the card in Sweden. Mostly in restaurants and for buying the tours around the country. Well I also used some cash for public transport and so on.
That was a great trip

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Iā€™m travelling to Stockholm for a long weekend towards the end of August. Reckon I need a small pot of physical cash as a backup or will my Monzo be fine?

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You should be fine. Swedes are practically a cash free country. They mainly use Swish which is linked to your mobile number & bank.

Yes take some cash though as itā€™s always handy plus in Stockholm itā€™s common to have to pay a small fee for using the toilet in certain places :sweden:

Iā€™m with a Swede and go to Sweden A LOT :joy:

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Iā€™m in Sweden at the moment. Iā€™m not getting the instant notification after using my card

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Hi all. This is my first post and my first time trying to use Monzo abroad. Just had the card declined at the flygbussarna ticket machine in skavsta airport. Not a great start but hopefully it will get better for the rest of our scaniwegian holidays!

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Has the app identified that youā€™re in Sweden?

Also, was there an active card check in the app?

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Iā€™m not sure how I would know if itā€™s identified that itā€™s in Sweden or not. I have since used it online for some tickets at a Swedish site and it worked okay.

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Usually you get a ā€œwelcome to xxx the current exchange rate is xx = xxā€

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I was in Sweden a week and a bit ago and encountered my first ever ā€œcontactless with PINā€ transaction. The amount was only ~Ā£27 but perhaps the local requirement is for over SEK300 as the transaction was for SEK320. Worth being aware of though.

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My Monzo card was accepted in the airport itself when I landed there (got the ā€˜Welcome to Swedenā€™ notification). I didnā€™t need to use the Flygbussarna ticket machine though.

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Currently in Sweden, been using Monzo daily without an issue. Flygbussarna tickets at the Info Desk at Arlanda were fine. ICA, Preem and T-Bana all worked first time.

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Why arenā€™t people buying their Flygbussarna tickets online or via the app anyway? Itā€™s cheaper!

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I believe Nordic Choice group hotels are mostly cash-free to settle the bill. Any other hotel chains that follow suit?

One can also pay for some tour guide tips with Monzo cards.

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Iā€™m in Sweden for majority of my time now with my fiancĆ©, and Iā€™ve never had a problem when using the card.

While I tend to convert for use on my Swedish bankkort for direct debits, I hope that Sweden will one day house our own Monzo.

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Monzo and cards are fine where in Sweden, in fact lots of places especially tourist places are card only. Was in Sweden last week with couple of friends, we took 200 SEK (around Ā£15) out of an ATM, and struggled to find anywhere that would accept it.

Moral of the story: cash not needed, cards always work