Best Credit Cards In Sweden (2023 Guide)
I tried over 150 credit cards (yes, crazy! see the picture below). The best credit card is something that constantly changes, so it is hard to catch up. There are many sites out there that compare all of them, but it is very hard to look at so many options! I was confused too.
In this post, I cover the best credit cards in Sweden right now, based on my experience, and why. This is my overall ranking, which means that the credit card needs to be good for everyday spending, travel, reward system, insurance, etc.
Keep in mind that In this post, I talk about credit cards in Sweden with annual fees. If you are looking for a free card (no fees), then check out this other post:
Resurs Gold Mastercard
10.000 welcome points
Split into 6 interest-free installments
Free savings account (1.3%)
Decent points system
Travel Insurance
Price: 245kr / year
American Express Gold (or Blue)
100.000 welcome points
Great reward system
Great travel insurance
Lounge access
Apple Pay
Invite your friends
Price: 2100kr / year
Coop Mastercard Mer
10.000 welcome points
Points on all purchases
Get up to 5 points/kr!
Convert points for vouchers
Travel and purchase Insurance
Free first year
Price: 295kr / year
Marginalen Gold Visa
Pay bills with your card
Split into 4 interest-free installments
Payment-free months
9 Insurances
Online stores with cashback
Free first year
Price: 195kr / year
Who am I and why should you care?
Over the past 15 years, I tried over 150 credit cards. I even have a folder where I keep all the old ones I don’t use anymore.
Why? Well, I love flying and traveling, and most often, with credit cards, you could get free points or miles to travel for free. I got started when I had my first job (at 17) and still remember getting that “welcome bonus” for getting my first card.
As I grew older, I always used banks and cards to my advantage, not only for travel but also learning how to save money while using them. I would sign-up and try new cards while they were still free, and cancel them when no longer attractive or beneficial.
So, yes. I’m a bit of a freak, but I also learned a lot, like how to get to 1 million SAS EuroBonus points and travel around for free. I hope my guides can help you remove some noise and decide.
In this post, I present my top 4 best credit cards in Sweden right now, why I love them, and how they can help you save money. Let’s get started
Why Should You Get a credit card?
If you don’t have a credit card yet, check out this post on why you should get a credit card.
What are the Best Credit Cards in Sweden?
1. Resurs Gold Mastercard
Short story: Use this card to beat inflation by splitting payments in 6 installments (interest-free). In addition, you get a 10.000 points welcome bonus (worth 100 kr), and a free savings account that gives you 1.3% interest on your money.
Pros:
- 10.000 points welcome bonus (worth 100kr)
- Rewards on all your purchases (0.5 points per kronor)
- Split payments up to 6 months interest-free! This is great to beat inflation, considering that Sweden has 10% inflation a year these days. Read more on this trick below.
- Great travel insurance and purchase protection included.
- Get a free savings account with 1.3% interest on your money. (e.g. deposit 10.000 kr, get 130 kr)
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Low fee (just 245kr / year)
- Up to 60 days of interest-free credit on every purchase.
Cons:
- Extra cards cost 50kr (for family members)
- No referral program for friends and family
Why I’m using this card?
I’m from Argentina, where inflation skyrockets (90% and more per year). In Sweden, there was 10% inflation in 2022. In this context, the best you can do to make your money work best is a trick called buy now, pay later.
Why? Because your money will be worth less later. So 100kr today is more powerful than 100kr in 1 year.
If you buy a 15.000kr item in January, with 10% inflation, the same thing will cost 15.750kr in July. Therefore, if you can buy it in January and split the payment into 6 installments with no interest, you will save money.
With the Resurs Gold Mastercard, you can buy an item today and split it into 6 payments that are interest-free. You only need to pay the “administration fee”, which is the fee for issuing the “faktura”.
In the example above, you buy a 15.000kr with Resurs Gold, and split it into 6 installments of 2555kr. That’s a total of 15351kr! Compared to the 15.750, you end up saving 419kr at least.
In addition, the administration fee is per month, so if you split several things, you only pay one fee per month, saving even more.
On top of splitting the payment, you also get points for your purchases. A 15.000kr is 7500 points (75kr). In total, you’ve saved 494 kr on a single 15.000kr purchase.
Plus, Resurs Gold gives you a free bank account with a 1.3% interest rate on your savings. For example, if you deposit 10.000kr, you get 130kr after a year. If you deposit 100.000kr, you get 1300kr, etc. The money is not frozen, and you can take it out anytime. It’s just a savings account. You get paid proportionally for the time you’ve had the money in the account.
Overall, a great choice this year for only 245kr (you get it back pretty quickly).
2. American Express Gold Card (or Amex Blue)
I won’t lie, I have been in love with the American Express concept for a long time. I love their brand and how they’ve built it. Their customer service. Their cards, and the rewards. I have a long history with them and tried many flavors of their cards, and it’s because of that history that I will try to be the least biased here.
Pros:
- Bonus points on everything!
- Extra points twice a year
- Up to 55 days of interest-free credit on every purchase.
- Invite a friend and get your money back, and collect points with someone you like.
- 600kr back on selected restaurants
- Supplementary travel insurance with cancellation protection is included.
- Lounge Access at Arlanda
- Apple Pay and Google Pay
- Metal card (sleek)
Cons:
- Expensive
- Some shops do not accept American Express.
- Interest rates are more expensive
Is Amex the right card for you?
First of all: the card is expensive. If you are not planning on using some of the benefits, like the 600 kr on dinners, the lounges at Arlanda, or their travel benefits, it will not be worth it.
Plus, if you don’t like dealing with your finances and you would rather prefer not to worry and just use a single unique card for everything, then this is probably not the right choice for you.
Let me explain. Let’s start with the cons. Many, many shops, even in 2023, don’t accept American Express. This means that if you order this card, you will most likely end up anyway having to use your debit card or some other alternative.
In addition, you will get lots of points. Hundreds, thousands, and even millions. But, to use them, you need to sit down and understand how you can translate those points into something meaningful to you. A simple option is just to use those points to pay for your bill (like cash back, or credit statement). But it has many more opportunities than that, like for example being able to get free flights and hotels. It can be very lucrative, and it is a fun game.
Now, if you don’t mind spending some extra couple of hours figuring that out, or you actually would like to consider more than just one credit card in your wallet, then American Express is a no-brainer.
There are just so many opportunities with their cards. You enjoy very high purchase limits, get almost 2 months of interest-free payments, and they have a fantastic referral program: if you invite friends and family, both you and them get rewards. Plus, they support Apple Pay, and they have excellent adoption internationally (especially in the US). Check how I use Amex to get to 1 Million SAS EuroBonus points.
You can sign-up now to get 100.000 welcome points which are worth 500kr. You can also invite more friends and family members to get 100.000 points for each of them.
3. Coop Mastercard Mer
Coop Mastercard Mer has been around for several years, at least since I came to Sweden in 2012. The Coop Mastercard Mer is a payment, credit, and membership card developed by Coop and Entercard. With this card, you earn points when you shop at Coop and its partners. The card also gives points on purchases outside Coop and outside Sweden and has a favorable insurance package included.
I also love their cooperation with SAS, as an alternative to the SAS EuroBonus Mastercard, where you can only use points on Scandinavian Airlines.
Who’s this card for?
If you are already shopping at Coop, this card is a no-brainer. You get extra points and can squeeze out a lot of benefits. It can also be good for someone who wants a flexible points system that can be used pretty much anywhere (like Amex points), but don’t want to pay a high annual fee.
Pros:
- 10.000 welcome bonus (worth 100 kr)
- Free for the first year, then 295kr
- Simple point system
- Points can be exchanged for pretty much anything (vouchers).
- Collect points with your family
- Travel and purchase insurance
- Up to 55 days of interest-free credit on every purchase.
- Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
- Solid reputation: Issued by EnterCard, and has been around for ages
- Exclusive offers and promotions like with other credit cards (MoreGolf Mastercard)
Cons:
- It would be nice to see a cheaper version of this card (i.e., 195kr) and a Premium version of this card where you earn more rewards, similar to the SEB SAS EuroBonus World Mastercard Premium
The Coop Mastercard Mer card is a solid option that has been around for many years with a good reputation. Its point system is simple and can be a great option for families spending considerable amounts on groceries and everyday expenses. You also get the flexibility to use your points on anything you want without paying exorbitant fees like with American Express cards.
You can check the full review post here.
4. Marginalen Gold Mastercard
Marginalen Bank has been stepping up the last few years in all its products and offers a pretty competitive portfolio. They provide a range of cards, Gold and Traveller, and their own point system.
You can get the Marginalen Traveller Mastercard for free for the first year, as I explain here. But here I would like to focus on the Marginalen Gold Visa, as it has a different system.
Pros:
- Free for the first year, then 195kr
- Cashback on online purchases, discount on over 200 stores
- Pay bills with your credit card
- Two “payment-free” months. You can choose to “not pay” that month, and your payment gets postponed to the next month.
- 9 different insurances
- Up to 50 days of interest-free credit on every purchase.
- Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.
- Split payments up to 6 months
Cons:
- Compared to Resurs Gold, they don’t offer a free savings account or their own point system.
Overall, it is a very solid option at a low price. Resurs Gold has a few more benefits, but a good idea could be to combine both cards, particularly if you are planning on doing a home renovation or have large expenses ahead.
Marginalen Gold allows you to pay bills with your credit card with no extra fees like Betalo, and then you can split those into installments. So, you could potentially pay for constructors or other fees and split them over time.
Wrap up
I hope this post is useful and promise to keep it regularly updated with the most updated info.
If you have any further questions or wish to brainstorm or chat, feel free to reach out to me anytime on Instagram!
Enjoy!
I live in Denmark and I must say the available selection of credit cards is miserably dissatisfying. can you do a similar article for Denmark?
on a related note, I lost my eurobonus status over the last 2 years (thank you COVID) and I am now eyeing up the Eurobonus mastercard premium in order to get back to Gold. However, with the announced coming changes in Feb 2023, does it still make sense?
Hi Ade, thanks for checking my post. Sure! I’m working on a similar article for Denmark that’s coming up in the next couple of days. I’ll let you know once it is published.
Re: EuroBonus, it will be definitely harder to get Gold status with EB Mastercard, the trick most people use in Sweden and Norway is to get the SAS Amex Elite that helps with 20k status points (combined with the Mastercard). Being based in Denmark with a strong SAS presence it can still make sense to try to qualify for EB Gold. Have you looked into registering in Norway or Sweden and applying for a credit card from there? Several people use that trick.
Are there any cards in Sweden that do not charge a transaction fee for purchases abroad in a foreign currency? And for withdrawals?
What would you recommend?
Hi! Thanks for reading. That’s hard to find, but there is a fix you can use that works for any credit card in Sweden except American Express. You can get a Curve card for free and connect your credit card to it. Then you just pay with Curve, and your transaction gets forwarded to your credit card. The currency conversion is done by Curve which has no fees during weekdays, and your Swedish card gets charged in SEK.
My takeaway is as follows –> Get the Swedish card you like the most, and then:
– If you do just a few foreign transactions every month, Curve free works just fine
– Depending on how many transactions you make every month, it could be worth subscribing to Curve X. If you need a more premium plan like Curve Black or Curve Metal, make sure that it is worth it, instead of just paying the foreign transaction fees on your Swedish credit card.
– Curve Metal is also great if you travel a lot because you can get extra lounge access, travel insurance, phone protection, etc.
– There’s a way to get free Curve Black with Plutus (yeah, sounds complicated, but it is not so much). You can potentially get the best of everything by exploring that approach, but I never tried it. How it works is that you pay for Curve Black using Plutus, and then you get reimbursed that money.
here are some articles I wrote
Curve: https://airlapse.net/blog/new-prices-for-curve-and-curve-x-tier
Plutus: https://airlapse.net/blog/plutus-the-new-way-to-get-free-spotify-or-netflix-in-2023-plutus-perks
Curve and Plutus: https://airlapse.net/blog/curve-and-plutus-partner-to-offer-free-curve-black-card-worth-120
Hope it helps!