n’Jonas: The bills hide, but the fees always find me

In 1993, the bills arrived on the doormat. You paid them once a month with a ballpoint pen. Now, n’Jonas wonders how many money apps are hiding in the phone.

While waiting in line at a tobacco shop’s parcel counter during a warm late summer day, a payment reminder flashes on the screen and disappears. The writer searches through Kivra, Billo, fourteen parking apps, the banking app, My Authority Mail, email and the spam folder. Nothing appears.

The contrast takes n’Jonas back to a student flat in Umeå. Paper invoices arrived together in window envelopes. The payment slips went into a neat pile in a desk drawer, and on the 25th the writer filled out the payment order book, signed the forms and sent them in a prepaid envelope through the yellow postbox.

Back in the queue, the search continues through Klarna, Walley, Qvickly, Riverty, Avarda, Zaver and Qliro. The writer describes it as a pseudoworld speaking a language that makes no sense. Electricity suppliers’ customer pages offer another hiding place.

The old doormat had one feature no fintech service has recreated: everything was in the same place. Today, the notification arrives by email, text message or push alert, the invoice lies somewhere else, and payment takes place in a third, vague internet space. Then the reminder flashes again, just as the writer reaches the counter and the queue grows behind them.