So, I got home to Arizona after living in Norway for 2 years, and I’m finally running into some of my old woes with Norwegian currency here in the U.S. I found an incredible steal on [Finn.no](https://Finn.no) (Norway’s homebrew version of eBay), but I realized that the only viable way to pay for my potential purchase will be through Vipps (the Norwegian version of Venmo, PayPal, etc.). I have a Venmo account, but since I never had Vipps during all my time in Norway (I only used cash and debit card), trying to set it up now is proving to be a nightmare. So, a few orders of business:

1.) Do my fødselsnummer and MinID still work, even about a year after coming home from the country? Vipps is asking for my info, but I’m not sure if it will even still work at this point.

2.) I don’t have BankID. Is that a necessity for this?

3.) Can I bypass signing up for Vipps and simply transfer money via Venmo? That would honestly be the best option for me.

4.) In a worst-case scenario, does anyone have any customer service numbers/sites I can call? I’ve had to call Postens telephone number when I was waiting on packages over there. I can speak and read Norwegian, so it doesn’t matter what language they’re in, either.

Takk på forhånd! Jeg venter på svarene deres.

TL;DR Is Venmo compatible with Vipps, and if not, how can this be remedied when purchasing from Norwegian sites that require Vipps?

6 comments

  2. No, you will not be able to get Vipps.

    No, there is no other payment solution that is compatible with Vipps.

    If you have any friends in Norway you could ask them to do the payment for you. Otherwise you would have to get the seller to agree to a different form of payment.

    Expect that sellers on [Finn.no](https://Finn.no) will be expecting Norwegian buyers, and many will probably assume that it is a scam when someone foreign try to make a purchase.

  3. No workaround for the BankID, you need it in order to use Vipps. Ask your debit card’s bank to process it for you… Although it will not be in time for you to buy what you saw on Finn

  4. Use PayPal or Wise. With Wise, you can transfer directly to an account of their choice. They don’t need PayPal.

  5. I find this post amusing as often we get questions about something foreign with no explanation whatsoever as if we are supposed to know this thing. So seeing how it is explaining Norwegian things to us using the American equivalent I can’t help but chuckle at the odd switcheroo. The things used to clear up what a thing (venmo) is are actually being cleared up by the things they supposed to explain(vips).

    So thanks for the unintended early morning chuckle and i hope you have a great weekend.

  6. Are you sure the seller will ship to Arizona? The vipps doesn’t belong to finn.no, it belongs to the seller. I’m sure they’ll accept other payment methods if you ask them. If you have a Norwegian bank account you can transfer to the seller’s bank account for free. If not, you can always use wise.com

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