If Sweden is anything like the UK, you really don't need cash at all for day-to-day life. Most shops, coffee places, market stalls etc accept cards now (even very small ones), as does much public transport (in cities).

In addition there are contactless payments nearly everywhere -- it's becoming an oddity to have to insert your card for any payment under £30.

I definitely haven't used cash in the last two weeks, and I think maybe only a handful of times in the last few months.

Assuming Sweden is the same as Finland and Denmark then it's even better than the UK for not needing cash. The only DKK and EUR I need are for buying a bus ticket if I've forgotten my pass - and there's even an app for that.

In the UK I find that I need cash a couple of times a month, usually a market stall (most seem to use iZettle, but some don't). Occasionally you'll also get a cab trying to con you by saying their machine's broken - and suddenly getting it working again when you cite the law to them (they need a working card reader in London).

Apparently digital currency is all causing a problem in tipping and donation. Can't put a dollar in the old man's hat if you don't carry a dollar any more. And tipping at bars etc can be harder too.

When I was in New Orleans recently some buskers had Venmo accounts which I thought was a neat progression, for lack of a better word.

The Edinburgh Fringe introduced a tap-to-tip system this year, based on iZettle readers in nice-looking Plexiglass stands. The readers are preconfigured to debit £5 from your card on a tap. That's a bit more than your average street show tip of a pound or two, but really good if you're wandering around without any change - you don't have to feel guilty about watching a street show but not being able to pay at the end.

Canadian here. We tip 15% on almost everything but also pay by card most of the time. What happens is that machines have three quick press buttons (10%, 15% and 20%). You can also press the "tip $" button and enter the amount you want. Once that's done, you simply tap your card on the pay-pass machine that the barman presented to you.

That being said, I've not given money to an homeless person in ages. Whenever asked I simply answer "I only carry cards, sorry" and they immediately lose all attention towards me.

Tipping's not a problem, when they present The Machine you type in the tip you want.

>And tipping at bars etc can be harder too.

That's not too much of an issue in Europe.

It's certainly a bit more of a pain if you're paying with card. As noted in a sibling comment, it's pretty uncommon for bars to allow you to run up a tab in a lot of places in Europe. I lived in Sweden for awhile recently and out of the many bars I went to I could only think of one or two in the entire nation that allowed me to open a tab. So you have to do the whole song and dance with typing in extra every time you go to the bar (assuming the card machine is set to allow it, some aren't). There isn't even a guarantee that the extra amount will go to the bartender, so your best bet is to just tip in cash. But wait! a lot of bars in Sweden for example don't even accept cash.

My point being that it is out of the norm to tip for drinks in a bar.

How is tipping at a bar harder? You just write on the bill what amount to want to tip when you close your tab.

Bar tabs (in addition to tipping culture) are less common outside of NA. It is however quite common to leave the change from say a £5 note for a £4 beer. This is purely down to the convince (no need to wait for your change) and frictionless nature (the bartender already had your tip) of the transaction.

Write with what? I've yet to see a single restaurant put a pen next to bill. What I do is I leave the cash after card payment. Seen the option on card reader for tip maybe 2-3x in my life.

You don't need to tip at bars when the law mandates all workers have to receive a livable wage.

I understand that this issue is a sensitive one and there is a great deal of justifiable criticism of tipping culture. However, this comment is snarky. We all know that many countries have higher minimum wages in place of a culture of tipping. The person to whom you responded is not responsible for the prevalence of tipping where he or she lives and there is no reason to be reductionist, accusatory or otherwise snarky.

This is the case in many (most?) states in the US as well.

I live in the US and almost never use cash. Is this not the norm?

It depends. If you're shopping at Whole foods you can pay with card. If you're shopping at the bodega you pay with cash because the processing fees are larger than their margin (and consequently they might not have the card infrastructure).

This is person to person. I buy stuff from the bodega a few times a week. I use my card because that's my preferred payment method. I never carry cash around. I wish they, "made" the same off me either way but it's not really my fault that it costs them something for me to pay in a convenient way.

To be fair, credit cards in the US can have great rewards, probably better than in any other country. I get 2-5% back on all of my purchases, which means that the credit card fees paid by the merchant aren't really "wasted" on the payment processers.

In big cities at least. I used cash once in the last three months I think (because the place we were shopping at looked a bit dodgy).

You can generally get by in most suburbs that way as well. I really only use cash for my monthly D&D game when we're buying take out.

I live in a small (300,000 people) Midwest city and I pretty much only use cash for person to person transactions.

I'm in the US also and I rarely use cash.

Sweden also has a fairly friction-free mobile payment system called Swish that you can use to pay small amounts to other people or small shops.

Sweden was early adopting cards, but it's really changed in the last couple of years. When I went back this year the local pizza place had a sign saying they no longer take cash. Just five years ago pizza places were always happy to get cash, so they could (sometimes) pocket the money and not pay tax.

It's mostly debit cards, not credit. So the merchant fees are low.

Sweden also introduces new coins and bills a few years ago, and then a lot of people just gave up on cash.

There's also the 'Swish' system for sending money to people. You sign up and link your mobile number to your bank account. Then you can send money to a phone number, and it instantly goes to the linked bank account. Swish is popular for splitting bills, selling used items, market stalls, charities and such. Even some local stores take Swish payments, although that's not what the system is intended for.

The UK's PayM is similar to Swish, but the UX is not as good. Sweden is actually a bit behind the UK on contactless though.

When I was in Stockholm a few months ago using cash seemed actively discouraged. There were several restaurants and other businesses I went to that refused to accept cash.

It's was the exact opposite for me when I was in Berlin last year. The only places that I found that accepted cards were tourist stops and Starbucks. None of the good, local restaurants I visited accepted cards and there were frequently lines on ATM machines.

Germans are well known for their propensity for cash, in part due to their strong desire for privacy. Often they will take cards, but only something like their indigenous GeldKarte[0] which tries to be as cash like as possible.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geldkarte