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New ATM fee scheme to burden cardholders
With low-income ATM cardholders already saddened by a number of transaction fees, the new fee to be charged on cash withdrawals made from ATM machines operated by their card’s issuing bank will just exacerbate customers' current bank fee woes.
 As of next March, banks will be allowed to charge ATM users for on-us transactions, or those made on machines of the same bank that issued the ATM card, according to a draft decree on which the State Bank of Vietnam said last week it has completed collecting feedback.
Customers are currently charged a VND3,000 fee only when conducting the transaction at an ATM booth of another bank.
ATM cardholders, mostly workers who do not usually withdraw all of the salaries they are paid via the cards at once, are unhappy with this on-us withdrawal fee.
The VND3,000 burden
It was around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, when dozens of workers were queuing in front of the ATM booth inside the Tan Thuan Processing for Export Zone in Ho Chi Minh City for money withdrawal.
Most of them only withdrew VND100,000 – 200,000 each.
“I only withdraw around VND200,000 every week to cover expenses,” said Thach Son, who is paid VND2.35 million a month by FAPV Company.
“This means I have to have 4 – 5 withdrawals a month, and with a VND3,000 fee for each transaction, the total sum can be up to VND15,000,” he said.
“It’s definitely not a small sum to workers like me.”
Workers countrywide have been paid via ATM cards for years, but most of them say they dislike such a payment method.
“We have already been charged VND3,300 a month for ‘card management fees’,” said Van, a worker of Eidaikako Company.
Under current law, ATM users must always leave at least VND50,000 in their accounts, and the minimum sum for each withdrawal is also VND50,000.
“So if I have less than VND100,000 in the account, I cannot withdraw my money,” she said.
Even white-collar workers do not support the on-us transaction fee.
Lien, who works at a university in District 1, said she prefers to receive her salary in cash rather than have it paid via ATM cards.
“Certain banks limit the maximum sum for each withdrawal at VND2 million, so I have to make two to three transactions to get all of my money,” she said.
Lien said the banks should carefully consider before officially implementing the fee collection.
“Customers may not use the ATM booths but withdraw their money at the banks’ transaction office.
“The ATM booths will thus become useless, and banks will have to assign more workers to complete customers’ withdrawal demands.”
Banks and companies benefited
A retailer executive of a commercial bank revealed that banks are enjoying huge benefits when companies pay their employees via ATM accounts.
“Most users do not withdraw all of their money, and the money stored in the accounts is a huge amount of capital for the banks, while they only have to pay interest at 2 percent a year for this, compared to the official deposit interest rate of 7 percent,” he elaborated.
Meanwhile, the companies that pay salaries via ATM accounts enjoy simple procedures for payment, especially those with thousands of employees.
Asked why banks do not charge the fees to the companies instead of the employees, the director of a card center said, “It’s because banks have to grant incentives to companies to compete with each other.”
“So charging cardholders is the safest solution,” he concluded.
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