My credit card keeps declining in Sweden and I have enough money on there and all international transactions are activated - what do I do?
I’m living in Uppsala right now and I’ve seen this happen to other international students and tourists too. Sometimes the problem isn’t the card itself but the type of terminal you’re using. For example, smaller cafés or local kiosks might not accept Amex or foreign-issued cards at all. And some machines don’t like debit-credit hybrids either. My Danske Bank card worked but my friend’s Visa from Australia failed until she used Apple Pay. Also go to an ATM and try a small withdrawal if that fails too, call your bank immediately. They might need to reset the fraud filters on your account.
When I was traveling in Malmö I had issues with my HSBC card not working in a few restaurants and at the train station. I called the bank and they said their fraud system flagged the country switch even though I had enabled travel mode. They unblocked it right away. Also some payment terminals in Sweden reject cards if the transaction tries to process in your home currency instead of SEK. Always choose to pay in Swedish kronor when it asks. If the card still refuses, try using Apple Pay or Google Pay that worked for me when the physical card wouldn’t go through.
This happened to me in Gothenburg using a Revolut Mastercard. I had cash, international usage activated, and still it kept getting declined at ICA and even at a Bankomat ATM. I reached out to Revolut support and they told me some Swedish terminals require cards to support something called 3D Secure or offline chip validation. I switched to using my N26 backup card and everything worked fine after that. My advice is carry at least one backup card from a different network. Also turn on all security settings for in-person purchases in your banking app.
I had the exact same problem when I first got to Stockholm. My Chase Visa kept getting declined even though I had plenty of funds and had notified the bank I was traveling. Turned out the issue was with contactless payments. Sweden relies heavily on chip and contactless, and some machines just didn’t like my magnetic stripe fallback. I ended up inserting the card manually and that worked better. Also check if your card supports offline PIN - a lot of European terminals expect it. Worst case, call your bank’s fraud line and ask them to push a manual unblock. It solved mine within minutes.