Last chance to top up your Swedish pay-as-you-go card anonymously

From February 1st it will no longer be possible to top up pay-as-you-go SIM cards anonymously due to a recent law change. Instead, they will require registration with information including the owner’s name, address and personal identity number.

The new rules come as part of a crackdown on crime, as the anonymous nature of unregistered phones makes the work of law enforcement agencies more difficult.

Foreign residents who don’t have a Swedish personal number may still be able to register their pay-as-you-go card. Comviq, for instance, says on its website that they should instead bring their foreign ID to a Pressbyrå, 7-Eleven or Circle K shop.

Swedish vocabulary: pay-as-you-go card – kontantkort

Youth robbery victims fall in Sweden

Fewer minors fell victim to robberies last year, according to new statistics from the Swedish Council on Crime Prevention (Brå). A total of 1,428 robberies of people aged under 18 were reported to the police in 2022, down 40 percent from the peak in 2019.

Such incidents have been making headlines in Sweden in recent years, after they more than doubled between 2015 and 2019 – from 1,084 to 2,489 cases reported to police.

Swedish vocabulary: a robbery – ett rån

Sweden ‘should not expect Turkey’s support over Nato’: Erdoğan after Koran burning

Sweden reacted with caution after a furious Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned the country should not expect his backing to join Nato, for allowing a Danish-Swedish far-right extremist to burn the Koran outside Ankara’s embassy in Stockholm.

“Sweden should not expect support from us for Nato,” Erdoğan said on Monday.

“I cannot comment on the statement tonight. First, I want to understand exactly what was said,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström told Sweden’s TT news agency.

The United States defended Sweden for upholding freedom of association, but slammed the act as “vile”, saying it threatened to derail its Nato application.

Swedish vocabulary: understand – förstå

Spotify to lay off six percent of its workforce

Spotify founder Daniel Ek said he had been “too ambitious” as the Swedish streaming giant announced it is cutting six percent of its approximately 10,000 employees.

The company did not specify where the cuts will be made.

“In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. And for this reason, today, we are reducing our employee base by about six percent across the company,” Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek said on Spotify’s official blog.

If you’re a Spotify worker affected by the cuts, you’re welcome to contact The Local’s editorial team at [email protected] to give us your side of the story. Your right to be anonymous is protected by the journalist code of ethics and the Swedish constitution.

Here’s a guide to what to do if you lose your job in Sweden.

Swedish vocabulary: employee – anställd