ATMs and bank cards in Vietnam

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The use of plastic cards in Vietnam is quite common: you can easily pay with a bank card in shops, hotels, travel agencies, or withdraw money from it at ATMs. However, there are features that are worth knowing about.

Plastic cards in Vietnam

Security issue

In advance of the trip, you need to take care that after one or two transactions, your bank's security system does not block it. To do this, in some banks, you can pre-call the support phone number indicated on the card, or contact the chat in the online bank and inform about the countries of travel and the period. The bank's security service will put the appropriate label, and your card will not be blocked. However, some banks do not accept such applications. In this case, you need to take the bank's phone numbers and data with you on the trip so that you can unlock the card: voice or digital access codes, passport data.

In general, if you take standard precautions when handling the card, there are no problems. Ideally, connect SMS-informing about the transaction to the phone and monitor each message, because according to the reviews of tourists, there have been cases of double debiting for a purchase, using your card number and code on its reverse side to make online purchases.

Features of payment by card in Vietnam

As we have already mentioned, you can pay for goods and services with a card everywhere, almost the same as with us. Do not accept cards for payment only in remote villages, and difficulties may arise with payment in small hotels, hostels, Homestays. And of course you can not pay with a card in private shops and markets, they accept only cash dongs.

But before you pay with a card for services (hotel accommodation, excursions, tourist transport, entrance to an amusement park, etc.), it is better to clarify whether you are charged a commission for payment. Unlike the Russian Federation, where the card is charged exactly as much as the service costs, they can easily add a percentage for servicing the transaction. Usually it is 2-5%. It seems to be on the one hand and not much, but on the other hand. The larger the amount, the more Commission you will pay. In addition, there may be a minimum commission, for example, $ 2. Fortunately, there are no commissions when paying in large stores and supermarkets.

Withdrawals from ATMs in Vietnam

ATMs in large cities and tourist areas are almost at every turn. It is easiest to find the one closest to you on Google Maps by searching for "ATM" or "ATM". Only dongs can be removed. We have never met currency ATMs.

However, due to the difference between the official and real exchange rate, so far the use of a plastic card, and especially cash withdrawals, is not the best alternative to cash. In addition, ATMs, in addition to your bank's Commission, will withhold their commission, averaging about 2% of the transaction or a minimum of 20,000 VND per transaction (varies depending on the bank that owns the ATM). When withdrawing, the amount of the ATM Commission is necessarily displayed on the screen, but you can only find out about the commission of your Russian or other bank in the terms of your card agreement.

Attention! Recently, some Russian banks offer "commission-free withdrawals worldwide" shares when issuing a new card. However, consultants and brochures usually forget to say what is written in small print in the contract. Namely, that the commission is not withheld only the first few months of use, there is a maximum amount, as well as other unfavorable conditions for you. So be careful with this.

The maximum amount of cash withdrawals is usually limited to 2 or 3 million VND, which is roughly $ 150. The course will be recalculated according to the official one, and all this together will not give a very profitable result. Therefore, try to look for an ATM that issues larger amounts at a time, and takes a smaller commission. According to the latest information (2018), the most profitable ATMs for working with cards of Russian banks: Military Bank (MB bank); TPBank (Tien Phong Bank); VRB (Vietnam Russian Joint Venture Bank)

Vietnam Street ATM

Is it profitable to use a bank card in Vietnam

As for withdrawing money from ATMs, the question of profitability depends on the specific ATM in Vietnam and the conditions (commissions) of your Russian bank that issued the card, and the currency on it. There is no universal recipe: you need to carefully study the conditions of your bank and try different ATMs. But in general, our experience shows that cash still wins, especially if your card is ruble. Even the dollar international card showed itself in ATMs worse than if you withdraw dollars at home (in the Russian Federation) and then change them to cash dongs.

When paying by card in stores and hotels, the situation is also not in favor of a plastic card. The difference is small, but still the benefit is still for cash. For example, payment was made with a dollar Mastercard card for the purchase of 400,000 VND.

At the time of purchase, the courses were as follows:

• The official rate is 23,296 (you can find out the current official Dong here)
• Rates in exchange offices-23 350 and above
• The real rate of debiting from the card for the purchase is 22,714

As you can see, even with a dollar card, the exchange rate when buying was much lower than the official and Real in the exchangers. When paying with a ruble card, the difference will be even higher due to double conversion. In addition, do not forget that a transaction processing fee of up to 5% can be added to the purchase amount in Vietnam, which should be clarified in advance before buying (see this above).

In general, it turns out that cash dollars or euros remain a more profitable option in Vietnam than using a bank card, although more dangerous.