Bill Pay & Banking

If you work for the University, your bank will be Nordea. Yes, you are not in the US any more, you don't get to choose your bank. (OK, technically it may be possible to switch banks after you open an account at Nordea and start getting your paycheck deposited there, but seems prohibitive in practice.)

Nordea is located at Stora Sodergatan 2 in Lund, across from the Tourist Office and H&M. It is inevitably a 30 minute wait to speak to a clerk (take a number when you walk in). Bring something to read. Try going first thing in the morning. It seems very busy between 11:30-14:00.

You will not be able to open a bank account until you have a personnummer. Believe me, I tried. Don't waste your time standing in that line! You may only open an account once, and it must be with your personnummer. They will not let you open a temporary one and add your personnummer later. (I've talked to people for whom this was not the case, but they were staying in Sweden for less than one year. If you have a work visa, they are not going to want to open an account for you until you have your personnummer. Then, your bank account number will be the same as your personnummer... seemingly without security concerns... weird!)

This creates problems if you need to pay a bill in the meantime. As near as I can tell, bills in Sweden must be payed using "bank giros." These are electronic payments sent from a bank. Once you have a bank account, you will be able to send them using online banking (I think). Until then, you will need to pay a fee to send a bank giro.

Nordea charges non-customers 150 SEK to pay a bank giro, and charges customers, 80 SEK.

I was told that you can go to the ForEx office (across from the train station) and pay a bank giro for only a 35 SEK fee. (I was told this after waiting in line for 45 minutes at Nordea, so I ended up taking care of it then and paying the higher fee). Note, at ForEx you can also change foreign currency at favorable rates, and get it back at the same rate if you don't spend it all. Handy.

Old sources say that you can pay bank giros at the post office, but I tried this, and this service is no longer offered in Sweden (since the official post offices have closed and now there are just small service centers inside the ICA stores, etc.)

To open an account, you need:
1. Your personnummer
2. A letter stating the terms of your employment (monthly salary and the length of your contract) from your employer.
3. Your passport.

They will open the account for you and give you a "device" for online banking. This is something that looks like a calculator, and that you put your ATM card into to access your bank account online. CRAZY! They will also give you a lot of printed information in Swedish.

Ask for a copy of the Nordea "Guide to Internet and telephone banking" so that you can use these systems to manage your account.

You will get your ATM card in the mail in about a week. (It is ready to use and does not need to be activated.) You will also get two different four-digit codes.
1. The PIN code ("PIN-kod") to your ATM card is hidden under a sticker that you have to peel back. This number cannot be changed (you can't choose your own PIN).
2. A log in code (personliga) to use with simplified online log in or phone banking.

To deposit a bank giro, you can either:
1. bring it to the bank, wait in line, and sign it over. You will be charged a 50SEK fee, and the money is available immediately.
or
2. Put your account number on the bank giro but do NOT sign the back, put it in a special envelope, drop in a postal mailbox, and wait several days for the money to show up in your account.
Apparently you cannot deposit money at ATMs.

Once you have an account, to pay bills:
1. Log in to the Nordea account (following the directions in the English guide)
2. Go to Betalning PG/BG and sign up for payment services (this costs 12 SEK/month; you need to select "sign" on your device and enter the response code after accepting this fee.
3. Add the recipient to your list of payees.
4. Click Betalning PG/BC and set up the payment. (You can specify monthly or recurring payments here).

The true pain in the ass is credit cards. My Chase United Visa is not widely accepted in Sweden because it doesn't have a chip and seems not to have a PIN (make sure you get mailed your PIN before you leave home, the only way to change it is through the mail). I have been repeatedly told that you can't get a Swedish credit card in Sweden until you have been working there for at least one year. Apparently there is an AmEx card for Americans living abroad that I'm going to look into. Because this means that you can only have a US credit card, which must be paid in dollars, and yet you will be making money in kronor, and it's really a pretty big nightmare. Currently to pay my US credit card bill, I have to make an international wire transfer of SEK from Nordea to USD to Bank of America, wait for the money to appear, then pay my bill from my online BofA account. Not ideal.

In any case, to make a wire transfer, you need the following things. These are for Bank of America in Northern California, more options here.

Swift code: BOFAUS3N
Wire transfer routing number: 026009593