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Banks mull collecting on-us transactions fees
The Vietnam Bank Card Association (VNBC) will lodge a petition to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to be allowed to collect fees on the ATM on-us transactions, saying it will enable them to expand, modernize and maintain the ATM networks.
The decision has received consensus from commercial banks under the association.
Meanwhile, as recently as earlier this month, Vietcombank, one of the banks with the largest number of ATM cards issued, announced that it will collect a 3,300 dong month fee on managing ATM card accounts, and the same rate will be slapped on money transferring transactions made amongst Vietcombank cardholders.
“With 6 million ATM cards issued, Vietcomank expects to reap around 200 million dong a year to invest in the ATM network,” said Trinh Thuong Thuc, head of the Vietcombank plastic department.
ATM cardholders of most banks currently only have to pay fees for interbank transactions, including both money withdrawal and transfer.
The idea of collecting fees for on-us transactions was proposed by the VNBC bank members, and the Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, or Agribank, will be in charge of drafting the plan for fee collection, VNBC said in a recent meeting.
“ATM transaction fees do not only include money withdrawals, but also transfers,” said a VNBC representative.
Several VNBC bank members told Tuoi Tre that on-us ATM transaction fees must be collected, since most banks have incurred losses from maintaining their ATM networks over the last few years.
“Expenses for the machines, as well as for renting the places to install them, have constantly risen,” the banks said.
It costs some dozens of millions of dong to hire a place for the ATM booths, and 500 million dong a year for repair and maintenance.
There are also different expenses for leasing network cables and paying employees to put money into the machines, the banks added.
Meanwhile, it is unlikely that banks can earn interest from the non-term deposit money in ATM plastics, since Vietnamese cardholders have yet to develop a habit of paying via cards.
Most card holders withdraw their money for spending right after receiving it. Meanwhile, banks are required to keep at least 400 million dong in each ATM booth.
This means banks with large networks consisting of thousands of ATM booths have to sink up to 600 billion dong into the booths, which will yield no interest.
Cardholders concerned
Ha, a worker at Pungkook Co, said that if the on-us transaction fees are collected, she will turn to withdrawing all of her salary for use, rather than making on-machine transferring.
“The fee of 3,300 dong for each transaction is trivial to some people, but for low-income workers like us, it is more expensive than buying an egg,” said Ha.
Other workers said that while they used to withdraw only a part of their wages to use within a week, they will also switch to drawing all of their funds to avoid paying the withdrawal fees.
“We can withdraw the money without paying fees at the banks’ transaction offices, but how can workers get out of the factories during office hours to do so?” T., who works for Hansoll Co, wondered.
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