It’s been two months. Today I received my Dankort, which is a debit card linked to my bank account. It says Visa but it’s not a credit card. At long last, I was able to create a MobilPay account.
Denmark is rapidly becoming a cashless society. As I mentioned in my postings about going to a local football match, it’s tough to pay with cash. I went swimming today and when I arrived at the pool, I was informed that the pool was switching to digital access only. I went for my swim and then made the transition from my old ID card to a new QR code system. I asked the very helpful pool staff about why they were making the transition. Part of it is that now everyone has to have a pool admission band on their arm or leg – your choice. Printing out a band every time you go to the pool seems rather wasteful in this very green conscious country, yet that’s the system now. The other rationale given was that now the person at the counter who checked people into the pool won’t have to ask permission to go the toilet. I wondered if they would have anyone at the counter. Oh yes was the reply, “there will be someone at the counter to help people with the new system.” The young woman then asked if I wanted her to print out the QR code or just have it on my phone. I asked her to print it out because it takes energy to use your phone, let alone finding the QR code three times a week on my phone. She inserted the paper QR code into my pass and now I’m good to go for the next year.
The more some things change, the more other things stay the same.
Getting back to my Dankort — now you might think I would have gone and used my Dankort to buy something. That would be a fitting way to celebrate having my new debit card, right?
Sorry, Kimosabe, not happening today. My Dankort came today and I could easily activate the card online. Wonderful. Simple. All digital all the way. Just one issue. You need a pin code to use the card here.
You can tap the card at some terminals and spend up to 350 kroner about $55 without a pin code. However, even the tap and spend terminal could ask you to enter your pin code to make sure that it’s really you using that card. So without knowing your pin code you could run into some issues. I can only imagine the cashier’s reaction to me using a Dankort and then not be able to enter the pin. Can anyone say Security? I am after all a foreigner here.
I thought about it and came up with the perfect pin that isn’t close to the pin for my NemID, or the pin for the Pool, which I had to create today to switch over to the digital system, or the pin for my bank’s mobile app or any of the other pins floating around that I have to remember, assuming the Internet banking system would ask you to create a pin code for this new card. Wrong again Kimosabe.
The pin code will arrive in a separate letter in the mail. It’s been preselected for me. It’s a pin you’re supposed to remember and never write it down – an issue for the forgetful among us – or those of us with lots of pins, which would include most Danes in this almost digital always country of Denmark. So it goes.
