The vast majority of people have been paying their bills digitally for several years. In the Riksbank’s latest survey on payment habits, less than 5 per cent reported that they had used non-digital services such as postal giro and cash over the counter to pay bills in the past month. About six in ten had used direct debit and e-invoice. In recent years, paying bills digitally has become even faster and easier, and it often only takes a few keystrokes to authorise a bill to be paid on the due date. This is possible both thanks to digital mailboxes where invoices are sent and the possibility for third-party providers to access the customer’s bank account to schedule an invoice payment on a specific date.

A quick and easy way to pay for subscription services such as streaming services and newspaper subscriptions is called recurring card payments. The Riksbank’s survey shows that almost seven out of ten have one or more recurring subscription services that are paid for by card each month. Younger people have more of them than older people.