credit cards accepted in sweden?

[zcrider]

Are all credit cards readily accepted in Sweden? Even Amex cards?

 

[beejaybee]

No problems in June using a VISA cc . I don't even bother carrying my AMEX to Europe, but do bring along a different VISA card and an MC, in case we should encounter a problem with the Capitol One VISA.

 

[Carolinian]

I have not been to Sweden in a few years, but there are generally two problems with American credit cards in western Europe, problems that have not yet migrated to eastern Europe.

One is the need for a PIN to use a credit card. Most US based cards do not routinely assign PIN's to credit cards, but will if you request one. If traveling in Europe, you should definite do this to be on the safe side.

The second is the embedded chip that credit cards issued in EU countries have. Machines that take credit cards often will not work unless you have a card with a chip. Since I am living on this side of the pond, I have two European-issued Visa cards, one from a country that embeds the chip and one from a non-EU country that does not have a chip. If my US-based Cap One card does not work, I pull out the Visa with the embedded chip, and it does.

 

[Jimster]

Sweden

I never take an Amex card to Europe. The reason being that some places don't like the merchant charge which is higher than other CC. There are whole countries which basically refuse to take the Amex card.

 

[Carolinian]

I never take an Amex card to Europe. The reason being that some places don't like the merchant charge which is higher than other CC. There are whole countries which basically refuse to take the Amex card.

Oh, definitely! The country I work in is one of them. The only place in the capital that used to take AMEX was one of the luxury hotels, but a couple of weeks ago, I was there for drinks after work, and when I tried to use my personal Amex, they said they had stopped taking Amex. So now it looks like nowhere here takes Amex.

The weird thing is that my employer has been using Amex for its business card for years, and we are all supposed to be issued a corporate card. Since it was essentially useless here I have never even bothered. Fortunately, they are changing to a Diners Club branded Mastercard, and MC is widely accepted here. The other great thing about the new card is that it will give us airport lounge access free in 80 airports. This is a long overdue change, in that in many of the other 73 countries where we have offices, Amex is also probably next to useless.

 

[Pit]

I use to live and work in Sweden. As long as you're not in a rural area, I had no problems with either my Amex or MC. True, some merchants don't take Amex (as in US). I could even use my ATM card (not debit card) at the local bank ATMs to extract cash (in Krona, of course) from my US checking account. It was generally cheapest to use my Amex card, as they use a fair exchange rate.

Now, that was 18 years ago, and I haven't been back to Sweden since 2004. Things may have changed for the worse, but I doubt it.