VietNamNet Bridge - ATM services are provided to Vietnamese card holders in accordance with “Vietnamese standards”, but the fees imposed are at “international standards”.

Since July 2, Eximbank domestic card holders have had to pay VND1,100 for every inner-network transaction of cash withdrawal from ATMs and VND2,200 for every cash transfer. 

The bank’s policy on exempting fee for the first three transactions of the month has been eliminated.

Eximbank has been collecting fees on inter-network ATM transactions – VND3,300 for every cash withdrawal transaction and account transfer fee – 0.011 percent of the value of transaction.

Other commercial banks also impose many different kinds of fees on card holders. HDBank began collecting annual fees of VND60,000 since May 2015.

In early April, ACB began collecting fees on opening domestic debit cards, at VND30,000 and the annual fee of VND50,000. 

Meanwhile, VIB has decided to raise the balance card holders must keep in their accounts.

An analyst noted that card holders now have to bear 30 different kinds of fees. 

“Vietnamese poor people now have to use luxury services,” he commented. “Banks set up many new kinds of fee when the number of card holders increased.”

A report of the State Bank showed that Vietnamese now use 63 million domestic debit cards, which is 17 times higher than the 3.6 million debit cards in late 2006.

In general, most people have at least one ATM debit card, while many people use credit cards – Visa, Master Card, JCB and American Express.

It is estimated that every client bears 20-25 basic kinds of fee. 

Commercial banks say they have to charge money for the services they provide, and that that the money collected is used to cover huge expenses they have to pay to maintain the system.

An economist noted that banks only remember counting expense items while they forget the great benefits cardholders can bring. 

ATMs help banks mobilize huge capital from the public.

Dr. Nguyen Tri Hieu, a renowned banking expert, said in principle, people have to pay for goods and services they use. However, overly high and unreasonable fees will displease clients.

Hieu pointed out that banks set fees based on international calculations, which are unreasonable because Vietnamese income is much lower than the income of people in developed countries.

The Vietnamese average income per capita is approximately $2,000 per annum, while one card holder bears VND1 million, or nearly $50 in fee.

Any kind of fee over VND3,000 would be high compared with the monthly VND2-3 million income of many Vietnamese people.

Dat Viet