Danes are increasingly leaving their wallets at home as mobile-phone payments spread to supermarkets, cafes and even Christiania, Bloomberg reports.

Danske Bank's free hit
Almost a third of the Danish population use Danske Bank's MobilePay application. The system currently processes more than 80,000 payments per day.

One of the advantages is that the app can be used by everyone regardless of whether they are customers of the bank or not – and for free.

Other banks only offer their apps to their customers. However, Nordea has plans to soon make its app, Swipp, available to all.  

Mobile technology in grocery shops
MobilePay can be currently used at 3,400 sales outlets nationwide.

One of the country’s largest grocery retailers, Dansk Supermarked, is now getting ready for the next step: enabling consumers to buy goods with a swipe of a chip-wristband.

“Mobile technology is changing how Danish consumers pay,” Joergen Kluewer, the head of e-commerce at the supermarket chain, told the broadcaster.

“We’re now preparing for the future with Danske Bank, and our terminals already have scanners for chip payments," Kluewer noted.

Practical during festivals
At the Smukfest in Skandeborg, about 50,000 festival-goers used phones to load their chip-wristbands and paid for beers, food and other merchandise with a simple swipe, helping the queue move faster.

“Without cash and credit cards we sell beers much, much faster,” Per Langpap, the festival’s chief accountant, told Bloomberg.