With impending charges due on ATM services, consumers are looking for free of charge outlets.
New ATM transaction fees have annoyed cardholders
The State Bank of Vietnam’s Circular 35 is set to take effect from March 1 this year.
As a result, cardholders will be charged a maximum of VND1,000 per transaction at ATMs provided by their own bank, with the fees set to increased to VND2,000 in 2014 and VND3,000 in 2015.
Transactions at ATMs of other banks would be charged VND3,000 each.
“My salary fluctuates at around over VND10 million (USD479.1) per month and I often withdraw from VND500,000-1 million (USD23.9-USD48) per transaction to for daily life. This means that I would have to pay nearly VND100,000 (USD4.8) per month for such fees and I’m not happy with it,” said real estate agent Hong Loan on an online forum.
Minh from Hai Duong Province was also worried about such fees. He often has to send monthly funds via an account of a different bank to his son who is studying in Hanoi.
With a monthly salary of VND7.5 million, he often conducts four transactions and this would mean a fee payment of VND12,000 (USD0.6) per month.
His son would have to pay around VND30,000 (USD1.4) per month as he often conducts dozens of cash withdrawals per month for his living costs.
Meanwhile, a woman called Lan, who is a business owner of a firm with 30 staff has had second thoughts about paying her staff via bank account transfers.
“I am still pondering over a solution. Cash payments are inconvenient to accountants but account payments would result in transaction fees,” she noted.
Few ATM services with free-of-charge transactions
Many people have discovered there are precious few banks that provide free-of-charge ATM transactions.
“After finding three banks that provide free-of-charge services for both same-bank transactions and activities at other banks, I’ve decided to apply for an ATM card at OceanBank Hai Duong. I told my son to open an OceanBank account to make it cheaper, so now I don’t have to worry about transaction fees,” Minh revealed.
The bank has committed itself to free-of-charge services through 2013.
Lan has also opted to choose OceanBank to set up accounts for her staff.
More and more people still continue to search for the same services to ease their niggling financial burdens.
