The Swedish Civil Defence and Resilience Agency, in collaboration with the Riksbank, has developed recommendations for households to have several ways to pay in the event of a crisis. Household preparedness will be strengthened if it is possible to use alternative payment methods in situations where it is temporarily difficult to pay. For example, in the event of disruptions to data communications or payment services, the ability to switch between different options can be crucial when paying for everyday purchases. If one payment method does not work, there should be others that can be used.

Households should therefore, as far as possible, have cards linked to different card networks, for example both Visa and Mastercard. This reduces vulnerability if a single card network or card issuing bank is disrupted. The public should also be able to make payments via mobile phones, for example with Swish, as mobile payment services can work in certain situations even when other payment methods are unavailable. To be able to pay in situations where data communication is down, for example when the internet is not working, the public should have access to their physical cards and remember the associated PIN to be able to pay offline.

The Riksbank also recommends that the public keep cash at home in mixed denominations as a reserve in the event of disruptions to the payment system. Cash can also be used when digital payments are not possible, for example in the event of prolonged interruptions in electricity or data communication. The amount of cash needed varies from household to household, partly depending on the specific needs of the household and the household’s general level of home preparedness. As a benchmark, households should hold around SEK 1,000 per adult.^[97] This is based on the Swedish Consumer Agency’s 2025 estimate of how much a household spends on food per month, Statistics Sweden’s 2021 statistics on the average annual expenditure on food for a single adult have also been taken into account here. The amounts have been converted to a weekly level and adjusted by a small mark-up to give a reasonable estimate.

The benchmark should be seen as indicative. For many households, holding a large amount of cash can be difficult, but even a smaller amount can help increase preparedness and reduce vulnerability to temporary disruptions in the payment system.

The background and assessments are also described in section “Collaboration makes the payment system resilient”