I wouldn't say Swish is the default in Sweden because it doesn't support contactless payments. It is widely available though but many, many places only accept card/contactless payments. Of course, Swish is the default for person-to-person transfers, but not for payments.

Opposite is also true, some lower-value places (like fruitstands, street vendors) don't accept card/contactless because they don't want to pay visa mastercard fee.

I have no numbers but I would guess at least 50% of non-cash transactions are still card/contactless. I wouldn't be surprised if this number is 90%.

I use it for basically every payment with friends.

The greatest force of Wero is that, being from a bank consortium and not "another app", you can send money to people that don't even know the system exists as long as you have their phone number because the money will go straight to the bank account registered with this phone number.

You don't need to register to the service to receive money so basically anyone holding an account in a compatible bank can receive funds instantly. Which means, as the person sending the money, you don't have to tell your friends to install it.

I can only speak from my experience, but yes, multiple people (a few friends, people at work, and my uncle) have suggested to "make [me] a Wero" lately to pay me back small amounts. The fact that's it's integrated into the existing banking apps helps.

Every single friend to friend transfer around me is done via wero these days. And between business SEPA more and more.

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Wero is a initiative of a collection of banks from a handful of countries. Every country already had something like this, in some form of another, and now all these systems are getting merged into a common system.

No single country can claim ownership because it's an EU initiative. iDeal was one of the first and relatively easy systems across the EU, but it's hardly the predecessor.

Wero also does peer-to-peer transfers which iDeal doesn't (unless you use iDeal to pay for tikkies but that's still two apps). The new system is not just an iDeal rebranding.

Wero sounds weirdo, but iDeal sounds like a confession you sell drugs.

That’s what EMPSA[1] is trying to push. But Swish aren’t particularly interested in playing an active part.[2]

[1] https://empsa.org/

[2] https://nyheter24.se/nyheter/ekonomi/privatekonomi/1452366-d...

I don't think it is. If you want people to move, you need to give them something. And SEPA but with phone numbers isn't it. At least not for me. Especially if it means that I am dependent on whether my bank implemented it.

I have recently seen people surprised when they sent a Wero transaction and the other party could see their IBAN.

Vipps which is available in Sweden supports this system.

I know the Swedish government is also pressuring swish to integrate with vipps. So I guess you'll have this ability soon.

PayPal isn't without flaws but I think buyer protections and the obfuscation of the banking info are genuine features for people. I would like a real competitor to PayPal in Europe. Maybe even something that is not from a private company.

What I fear is that people will try Wero, see that it's not what they wanted and then never go back. But maybe I'm wrong.

> What functionality are you looking for exactly?

* Buyer protection

* Obfuscation of my banking data (IBAN)

* Having access to it with my bank

* Not needing to share my contact list

At the moment I don't see much improvement over an instant SEPA transaction. Since both parties will see each other's IBAN anyways with Wero I can just give out my IBAN.

Tell that to my bank. I am a software developer. I could probably do it. But I don't work there.

How does it work when you need to pay for something in person? (what contactless is for)