As you enter the cheerful ABBA Museum building in Stockholm you are met by a 10ft-high pair of sparkly platform boots, the familiar sound of the band’s greatest hits — and a stern black and white sign.
‘Cashless Museum,’ it reads. ‘We only accept payment cards.’
The band which 40 years ago sang of their love of Money, Money, Money now seek only the plastic variety.
This cash-free crusade goes beyond the museum walls. ‘We have a vision of a cashless society,’ reads another sign hanging overhead. It turns out millions of other Swedes feel the same.
In just five years, Sweden has undergone a radical change in its spending habits. Today, 80 per cent of payments in shops are made by card.
And growing numbers of restaurants, hotels, bars and bakeries have — like the ABBA museum — banned cash all together. Cash is now so rare that even market stalls, churches and homeless people accept card payments.
Many bank branches have gone ‘cashless’, meaning customers cannot deposit notes and coins into their account, and others charge a fee to do so. The result is that many Swedes have not carried cash for months, if not years.
Could Britain be heading for a similar revolution in the way we use money?
