Thoughts on Swedish Rounding?

tplyons · #1 11-03-2008, 09:49 PM

What are your thoughts on Swedish rounding?

For those who don't know: Swedish rounding is a method by which the total monetary cost of a purchase is rounded to the closest unit of physical currency. (Wikipedia)

In some cases, this is due to the lack of small denomination coins. In the US, if we were to adopt Swedish rounding, we could do away with pennies, and save tons of money minting them. We could then round to the nearest nickel.

Rounding is done only if paying by cash. For instance, if the total would come to $22.22, the total to be paid would be $22.20, and conversely, if the total were $22.23, the total to be paid would be $22.25.

Debit cards, credit cards, and checks are unaffected by such roundings.

Americans: what are your thoughts on adopting Swedish rounding? Do you think it would work here, do you think you'd be okay with it?

Everyone: have you experienced Swedish rounding? What is your opinion?

T-Bird · #2 11-03-2008, 10:13 PM

Hi.

Damn Swedes, they just have to have everything named after them.
They've stolen our meatballs, sauna and Santa. And now this?

This rounding the pennies has been around here as long as I can remember (mid 70's) and most probably long before that. I see no problem with it.
EDIT: My big mouth and truly exxxxellent memory

. It's seems to have been around from the early 90's when we had our coins redesigned.

As a matter of fact Sweden didn't join the monetary union and is still using Krone as their currency 1SKr ~10€cent, so it's not that big of a deal.

Here in Finland we don't have any 1&2€cent coins in daily use so the rounding still applies.

It's all about pricing after all and it takes pretty advanced math to come up with a formulae to make it profitable. And only a small minority (like me) still uses only cash.

Regards
Sam

Atoz · #3 11-03-2008, 11:16 PM

I wish stores would do the same thing by factoring the sales tax into the price of the item, and setting to price to the nearest nickel so that it would be easier to add things together in my head while I shop, but as long as people still keep getting suckered into buying stuff because $9.99 looks way cheaper to them than $10.00 it's not going to happen.

**Rune Bivrin** · #4 11-03-2008, 11:29 PM

I suppose that I'm one of the resident experts on this subject matter (a rare occasion indeed...), since I'm from the country in question. I have to ask what you are supposed to do if the amount you are to pay is impossible to achieve in real money. Cut the coins in smaller pieces?

Of course you round to the nearest physically payable amount if the purchase is to be made in bills and coins.

The question is really whether you need money down to the smallest monetary unit. In Sweden we did away with the 1 öre coin in the early seventies, and gradually we've deprecated additional coins such that now our smallest is 50 öre (which is a little less than 10 cents right now). I'd go bonkers if I'd have to carry a load of 1 öre coins around, so I think it's a good thing.

But I tend to use the debit card exclusively, so it's not much of an issue. Interestingly enough, a lot of shops here round the amount even when you do that. It's unneccesary, but works to our favor half of the time, so I don't really mind.

Sales tax has to be included in the price if the goods are intended primarily for private persons. Amazingly, most prices still end in .99

XtreO · #5 11-03-2008, 11:45 PM

Scandinavia has been doing this for as long as I can remeber. I've never seen the point of not having it

hbarcat · #6 11-04-2008, 12:27 AM

I think if we tried to pay for gasoline this way the entire U.S. would explode.

Every gas station in the U.S. sells gasoline by the 1/10th cent.
(ie 3.46 and 9/10ths)

blizzard · #7 11-04-2008, 12:37 AM

We do it here, the smallest coin we have is a 5 cent piece. I think it makes sense to do it.

**Rune Bivrin** · #8 11-04-2008, 12:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hbarcat

I think if we tried to pay for gasoline this way the entire U.S. would explode.

Every gas station in the U.S. sells gasoline by the 1/10th cent.
(ie 3.46 and 9/10ths)

So how do you pay that 9/10th of a cent?

Robert B · #9 11-04-2008, 03:18 AM

I dislike pennies and wish they would do away with them. Many people when given the choice will choose to round. That's why many restaurants/stores have penny cups by the register and people use them.

D.Don · #10 11-04-2008, 03:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tplyons

What are your thoughts on Swedish rounding?

For those who don't know: Swedish rounding is a method by which the total monetary cost of a purchase is rounded to the closest unit of physical currency. (Wikipedia)

In some cases, this is due to the lack of small denomination coins. In the US, if we were to adopt Swedish rounding, we could do away with pennies, and save tons of money minting them. We could then round to the nearest nickel.

Rounding is done only if paying by cash. For instance, if the total would come to $22.22, the total to be paid would be $22.20, and conversely, if the total were $22.23, the total to be paid would be $22.25.

Debit cards, credit cards, and checks are unaffected by such roundings.

Americans: what are your thoughts on adopting Swedish rounding? Do you think it would work here, do you think you'd be okay with it?

Everyone: have you experienced Swedish rounding? What is your opinion?

These days, the smallest monetary unit in sweden is 50 öre, which is about $0.065 ..

Some years ago, we had 5, 10 and 25 öre, but they're long gone. Think the Danes still have their 25 öre coin, round about $0.042 ...

D.Don

Deacon_Blues · #11 11-04-2008, 03:53 AM

I'm glad Finland chose not to use the 1 and 2 cent coins, but unfortunately the rest of the countries using the Euro didn't obviously agree. I hate small practically worthless coins that fill up the wallet. You can't even use the smallest coins for parking.

The gas prices here are displayed with an accuracy of .1 cents. No problems with that. The total sum is just rounded to the closest cent (if you're paying with a card) or to the closest 5 cent if you pay in cash over a counter. No problems at all doing this, hbarcat.

BruisedOoze · #12 11-04-2008, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hbarcat

I think if we tried to pay for gasoline this way the entire U.S. would explode.

Every gas station in the U.S. sells gasoline by the 1/10th cent.
(ie 3.46 and 9/10ths)

Yes but it would only be the rounding of the final sale price. So the per gallon wouldn't change but what your total was would be rounded.

I think this is a great idea. If only Canada would get rid of the penny. I hate it. In fact I wouldn't mind if they rounded to the tenth of a dollar so we can get rid of nickles as well.

steamthief · #13 11-04-2008, 08:11 AM

I think Swedish Rounding would be a cool band name.

D.Don · #14 11-04-2008, 08:16 AM

Yeah, lots of rounding thing here..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwuUskHcWyA

D.Don

dan.ablett · #15 11-04-2008, 09:04 AM

australia made the move in either the late 80s or very early 90s.

works great.

iamlowsound · #16 11-04-2008, 09:27 AM

They have been debating this for a while in Canada. I think that it is a really good idea, and I shop at several places that do this already. Pennies are useless, only good for throwing at people to get their attention.

lowsound

D.Don · #17 11-04-2008, 09:30 AM

We save all 1, 2, 5 and 10 euro cents (swedish, living in france) we get in return in change in a normal size piggy bank (size of an orange or a lil bigger), last time it was full, there was like 48 euro ...

D.Don

doctorjazz · #18 11-04-2008, 09:52 AM

It would be cool with me. Pennies are annoying, and we've debased the currency so much that the metal used to make them is now worth more than the coin itself.

tplyons · #19 11-04-2008, 11:22 AM

Sounds good, I'd love to do away with pennies as well.

RedemptionBass · #20 11-04-2008, 11:28 AM

I am terrified of all things Swedish.