VietNamNet Bridge – Card holders have got with 17 kinds of fees charged by commercial banks, while the fees have been increasing rapidly.

Since September 3, Vietcombank’s domestic debit card holders have to pay VND5,000 instead of VND3,000 for every transfer to the account of another bank. The fee does not include the VAT.

Under the current regulations set up by the State Bank of Vietnam, the transfer service fee could be between zero and VND15,000 per transaction. As such, Vietcombank can raise the transfer fee further by three times.

A senior executive of Vietcombank said the bank initially planned to raise the transfer fee in March 2013. However, it decided to delay the plan, because the cash withdrawal fee increase and the transfer fee increase at the same time would have made card holders furious.

Some Vietcombank’s clients said the fee increases did not surprise them. The fee increases are just big enough to buy a glass of ice tea, which are not worth to worry about. What they want to know is whether the service quality would be improved when the fees increase.

According to Vietcombank, the bank has 1,626 ATMs and some 11,000 POS throughout the country. The machines have been serving not only the 5 million Vietcombank’s card holders, but the card holders of other banks as well.

Supposed that the 5 million Vietcombank card holders withdraw cash once a month, Vietcombank would collect VND5 billion. If they transfer money to the accounts of other banks once a month, the bank would earn VND25 billion.

BIDV, Vietinbank, Agribank, SeABank and Sacombank are moving ahead with the plans to charge fees on the transactions of withdrawing cash within the systems. Meanwhile, Vietinbank, VP Bank charge VND3,000 on every transaction of withdrawing money from other banks’ accounts.

A report of the Payment Management Department under the State Bank of Vietnam showed that there are 50 million cards used in the payment system in Vietnam. Card holders now bear 17 kinds of fees.

As for the credit cards, banks offer the credit limits of up to hundreds of millions of dong and a grace period of 45 days. However, the holders of the cards have to bear a lot of kinds of fees and the exorbitant fees.

An ATM card holder has to pay the initial issuance fee of VND50,000-90,000, card reissuance fee of VND25,000-66,000, PIN re-granting fee VND10,000-33,000, annual fee of VND39,600-132,000, transfer fee of VND1,650, balance inquiry fee of VND550-1,650… Especially, some banks collect VND10,000 from the card holders who report the loss of cards.

Economists think that the existence of too many kinds of fees would make the financial burden on people’s shoulders become heavier in the current context of the economic recession.

Dr. Le Dang Doanh, a well-known economist, said banks should think carefully when raising fees at this moment, when workers struggle hard to live in the high inflation and modest incomes. He also thinks that it’s necessary to reconsider the State Bank’s plan to raise the ATM cash withdrawal fees.

“Not only workers, but employers and commercial banks also get benefits when employers pay workers through their bank accounts. Therefore, the expenses should be shared by the three parties, not only card holders,” Doanh said.

Dat Viet