How To Open A Bank Account?

Opening a bank account is of critical importance when you reach Sweden. Either to get your salary deposited or to pay through a local card. And it sometimes becomes a challenge to open one, particularly when you don’t yet have a personal number. But first, let’s go down to the basics.

Major banks: There are dozens of banks in Sweden, but these are the major ones: Handelsbanken, Nordea, Norwegian, SEB, and Swedbank. Your company will likely have an account with one of those banks.

For a bank to open an account for you, they need to “sufficiently” identify you. In most cases, they mean a Swedish ID. When you have recently arrived in the country, getting a Swedish ID card will take some time. You can get a Swedish ID after you receive your personal number. You can’t get a Swedish ID card with a coordination number. You can use your passport to open a limited banking account and upgrade it to a full-service version after getting a Swedish ID. To do that, visit the branches of the banks mentioned above and try to present your case to the account officer. It’s at their discretion. Even if an officer of a bank branch refuses to open an account citing a lack of identification, another officer at a different branch of the same bank can help you open one. Follow these steps:

Be polite and confident while talking to a bank executive
Carry your passport, resident permit, and copy of your job contract
If they refuse, ask them for a concrete reason
Ask for a limited account
If still they refuse, move to the next branch or bank
File a complaint with National Board of Consumer Disputes (ARN)

TIP Limited account means the bank will put 0000 in the place of your personal number. Some banks like SEB gives an appointment date several weeks or months later.

Basic bank accounts: Basic account or Grundkonto is a type of bank account that is available to individuals who do not have a personal number. Basic accounts are limited in the types of transactions they can perform and may not offer the same features as a regular bank account. However, they can still be useful for receiving salary or other types of income, paying bills, and making basic financial transactions. When you have got a basic account, it’s usually a Maestro card. However, you won’t be able to make online purchases, use Swish or Apple Pay. A limited account is upgraded to a full-service Mastercard/Visa accounts after you have submitted your Swedish ID card. Cards usually come with a few hundreds Krona in annual fees.

Bank account for non-working dependents: If you thought getting your bank account was hard, getting one for your non-working partner will be much harder. There is no option of getting one without a Swedish ID. Even with a proper ID, the banks may still refuse to give you one. The usual reasons that could work:

You have a child and expecting childcare money
You want to transfer money from abroad
You want to start a business in future

REAL LIFE EXPERIENCE

Hemang Shah – He moved to Sweden in August, 2022, along with his wife and daughter.

Can one get a bank account with a coordination number?
When you move to Sweden you want to open up a bank account as soon as you can but it will take some time for you to get it open. Nowadays with recent changes, people are not getting a personal number but instead, they get a coordination number, meaning you can’t apply for a Swedish ID card. The good news is you can still open a bank account with a coordination number but it will be a limited account where you can’t use internet services. Mostly Swish and debit cards would work to make payments.

How easy/hard was it to get your bank account?
As soon as I received my Swedish ID card, right after my personal number, I just went straight to the bank and they gave me an appointment for the same day. After 2 hours I had my bank account. Those 2 hours were the waiting time at the bank until my turn came. After that, it was really quick – about 15 minutes, with a couple of signatures and verifications. Now, when I wanted to open an account for my wife, most of the banks said no because she was not working at that time. We managed to convince a bank to open up an account for her the reason that I will also have to open an account and support her by transferring some money every month. Also, she will receive child benefits from Försäkringskassan. This bank’s process was different as you can’t visit any branch directly without an appointment. So we called them and convinced them to send us the account opening documents. We duly filled and sent back the documents. After a couple of days, they called us back and we scheduled an appointment at a nearby bank branch. On the appointment day, the process was almost similar to what I had already experienced.

Were you worried at any stage?
No, it’s just when you don’t know the process or are not familiar with this kind of experience you might feel different but that’s how the system works here. Again patience is the key.

Did you take help or advice from anyone?
Not for opening a bank account. I might have asked people about which bank is good but I ended up opening an account that is closer to my office location, where I was getting the same-day appointment and the bank is one of the top banks in Sweden.

How was the overall experience?
Overall it was a smooth experience.

Tips from Hemang

When you have an appointment at the bank, make sure you have installed the Swish app, BankID app, and the app for that bank from where you will get your account.
Try different branches of the same bank, it might be possible that in one branch the waiting time is 3 months and in another branch, just a week or no waiting at all.
One of my colleagues received his personal number even when other people were just getting just a coordination number, there is no trick. Just share your need for a personal number with Skatterverket.
Open your spouse account along with yours as sometimes banks will open accounts even if they are not working.
You can always ask for a limited account where you can ask only for a Bank ID and a Swish app access and there will be no monthly charge.
Most of the bank’s monthly or yearly charges are similar so get your account where you can get it quickly.