Got your personal number? Do this next!

So you moved to Sweden in the summer and you recently received your personal number? Or you have been living here for a while but are always looking out for ways to improve your life here? Maybe you are moving to Linköping soon and want to be well prepared?

In this post I want to show a few ways of how your swedish personal number can make things easier (and cheaper!) for you here in Linköping. This post is not intended as a guide on how to get your personal number or information for the more obvious things the personal number enables you to do (like getting a job or a bank account). For these you can look for other blog posts from my fellow ambassadors as we have covered these topics extensively.

Instead I want to suggest some less well-known tips!

Sign up for the municipal library

If you are like and me and enjoy reading books in your free time, then I can wholeheartedly recommend the local library system here in Linköping. There are branches everywhere, including a small branch in Ryd! This is perfect as you are always just a short walk or bike ride away from the next office. You can order all the books in all branches and they get delivered to the one nearest to you. I also recommend checking out the big city library in Linköping as it is an impressive looking building, full of books! If you are worried about your swedish, don’t be! They have a truly impressive amount of books in english and I could always find what I was looking for.

And the best part about it is that the service is completely free! As long as you return your books on time 😉

You can sign up and search for books here: https://www.gotabiblioteken.se/en/

Sign up for your local supermarket membership

For some supermarkets this is actually possible even without a personal number, but the number certainly makes the process a lot easier! When you sign up for a supermarket membership you make sure that you always get the best deals. It is worth it to also sign up for multiple supermarkets as this way you can shop around and always profit from discounts and offers no matter where you want to shop.

Sign up for SJ Prio

SJ Prio is the membership program of SJ, the swedish railway company. When you sign up with your personal number (it is completely free!) you start gathering points for every train journey you book. Eventually you can use these points to book a new train journey, so it can save you a lot of money! I think this is worth it, especially if you like to travel around Sweden or go to the airport in Stockholm frequently. The membership program also includes cheaper deals on certain trains (like last-minute bookings for example) or onboard meals that you wouldn’t get without it.