Some things are so different

So last night I ordered something online, nothing major just a couple of spring form cake pans from a website here in Sweden, however this is the first time I was unable to use my Visa out of Canada to complete the purchase. We do have an account here in Sweden and the debit card can act like a Visa for purchases, similar to those in the US, but I have not used it for purchases online, only in person where there is a chip/card reader and you input a pin.When I tried to use my Visa from Canada it took me to the 'Verified by VISA' pop up that I get often, I put in my password and....nothing. It failed. Now I knew my card was good and such, and I knew that Carl had run up against this in the past so I tried the Swedish Visa.

I input all the required info and when I got to the verification part it told me to get my card reader. Oh boy, this can't be good, or easy. You see Sweden, and in fact it seems all of Europe, is far FAR ahead of North America in banking. I mean even to log in you have a specific card that you put into your own personal card reader that you can either attach to your computer via USB or wirelessly as well. In this instance I was prompted to place my Visa into the card reader and follow the instructions. I did, and after a series of numbers and verifications I got a code to input into the transaction that approved it. Kinda freaky, but cool all at the same time.

One thing I find interesting here is that no one uses checks (or cheques to my Canadian and UK readers). If you have a bill to pay you get the payee's bank routing and customer number and just directly post the payment to them. There are even people who work at the Embassy who had never even seen a check/cheque until they went to work there. To be honest the system here still puzzels me, and I have yet to figure it out completely. Maybe someday in the next 3 years I will get it.