Payment Processing in Sweden

• Currency: Swedish krona (SEK).
• Cash: only 5% of people paid cash for their last in-store purchase in 2025, down from 10% in 2023.
• Most used online payment methods: cards, with 64% of methods used online, and Swish and buy now, pay later as the single most common methods.
• Swish: used by 91% of people in the past month in 2025.
• Regulators: Finansinspektionen for payment and e-money firms, Spelinspektionen for gambling.
• Checkout rule: a payment option without credit must be shown first, and credit may not be pre-selected.
• No card surcharges: shops may not charge a fee for paying by card.

The Riksbank's survey of payment habits, run in September 2025, found that 80% of Swedes had shopped online in the past month. Cards are still the backbone: debit cards, credit cards and cards stored in mobile phones together make up 64% of the payment methods used for online purchases. The single most common methods, though, are Swish and buy now, pay later services, and both have grown since 2023 while online debit card use has fallen.

Swish is used by 91% of Swedes in a given month. At an online checkout the shopper approves the payment in the Swish app, switching to it on a phone or scanning a QR code on a computer. Sending money with Swish needs Mobile BankID on the same device, which ties Swish to BankID, Sweden's most widely used e-ID for identification and signing. Buy now, pay later and invoice payments are common for higher amounts, and the credit risk on them usually sits with a specialist provider rather than with the merchant.

• Payment option order: since 1 July 2020, Sweden's Payment Services Act says that when a consumer buys online and can choose a method that does not involve credit, that method is shown first, and a credit option may not be pre-selected. A breach counts as unfair marketing. Finansinspektionen's 2024 follow-up still found gaps in 5% of checkouts reviewed.
• No card surcharges: the Swedish Consumer Agency confirms a shop may not add a fee for paying by debit or credit card, in a store or online.
• Strong customer authentication under the EU's PSD2 has applied in Sweden since 14 September 2019, when a payer starts an online payment, so expect two-factor checks on Swedish cards.
• VAT: the standard rate is 25%. EU sellers of goods to Swedish consumers above the EU threshold of EUR 10,000 a year charge Swedish VAT, usually reported through the One Stop Shop.

• Registration with Bolagsverket, the Swedish Companies Registration Office, with board members and signatories.
• Beneficial owners in Bolagsverket's register of beneficial owners: a person with more than 25% of the votes is presumed to have control.
• Whether the activity needs authorisation or registration with Finansinspektionen, for example payment services, e-money or consumer credit.
• A Swedish settlement account in the company's name, and VAT registration.
• A website that shows the payment options in the right order, clear prices in SEK and compliant terms.

A foreign company does not need a Swedish entity to sell to Swedish consumers. What matters is the checkout: prices in SEK, cards, and Swish and a pay later option through a provider that supports them, since those are what Swedes reach for first. Without Swish and pay later, a card-only checkout leaves out the methods Swedes now use most. The payment-order rule and the ban on card surcharges also apply to sales to Swedish consumers, so set up the checkout to Swedish standards from the start.

Since 1 January 2019, online gambling offered to Swedish players needs a licence from Spelinspektionen, the Swedish Gambling Authority. Licensed operators may offer a bonus only the first time a player gambles with them, and may not give credit. Players set deposit limits by day, week and month, and can exclude themselves through Spelpaus, the national self-exclusion register run by Spelinspektionen. Cash may not be accepted for online gambling.

From 1 May 2026, the ban on gambling on credit was widened: licensees may not allow or take part in gambling financed by credit, including credit cards, bank loans and invoice payments. Online operators must block credit cards as a payment method. Card payments under merchant category code 7995 are rejected by payment providers unless they relate to a licensed operator, and Spelinspektionen tells payment providers about injunctions against unlicensed operators.

Acquipayer is not a payment provider. You add your business, markets, volumes and the payment methods you need once, and your profile is matched with a payment provider that accepts your business type and can collect from Swedish customers. Your account is then prepared with that provider so you can start taking payments.

• Sveriges Riksbank, Payments Report 2026 (published 12 March 2026).
• Act (2010:751) on Payment Services, chapter 7 a, and Finansinspektionen's 2024 follow-up report.
• Finansinspektionen, news on strong customer authentication (2019).
• Swedish Consumer Agency (Konsumentverket), guidance on card fees.
• Act (2017:631) on the registration of beneficial owners.
• Spelinspektionen, responsible gambling rules and news on the widened credit ban; Gambling Ordinance (2018:1475).
• Riksdagen, Committee report 2025/26:KrU3 on a new ban on gambling on credit.
• Skatteverket, VAT rates and the EU distance-selling threshold.