Vietnam Import Export Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has recently announced that from March 1st, 2024, it will officially adjust its policy on charging SMS exceeding fee when customers receive more than 20 SMS Banking messages per month for individual and corporate customers.
Specifically, if customers receive more than 20 SMS Banking messages in a month (SMS Banking messages are understood to be SMS messages notifying changes in deposit and payment balances), in addition to the fees of the SMS Banking service, Combo package, etc. (already charged at the beginning of the period: monthly, quarterly), Eximbank will charge an additional SMS exceeding fee of 770 VND/message/month/account/subscriber * (the actual number of SMS messages generated in the month – 20 messages).
Eximbank will charge the SMS exceeding fee for the SMS Banking service on the first working day of the next month after the month in which the customer exceeds the limit, i.e. from April 1st, 2024. At the same time, balance change notifications will only be sent via SMS for transactions of 50,000 VND or more.
Therefore, Eximbank encourages customers to switch from the fee-charging SMS banking service (which is the service of managing balance changes through SMS messages) to the free OTT service (which is the service of managing balance changes on the Eximbank EDigi application for individual customers, on the Eximbank EBiz application for corporate customers) in order to save costs for both customers and the bank.
Accordingly, to optimize benefits, enhance the digital channel experience, and save costs for customers, Eximbank recommends that customers actively switch to using the balance change notification service via OTT messages on the Eximbank EDigi application, Eximbank EBiz application, which is completely free.
By using the balance change notification service via OTT messages on the Eximbank EDigi application, customers will receive benefits such as: Free use of the OTT message service; No transaction limit for receiving notifications; Encrypted transaction information when sent and high security; Receive balance change notifications anytime, anywhere with an internet connection.
Prior to Eximbank, from January 1st, 2024, the fee schedule for SMS Banking services at many banks such as Vietcombank, ACB, NamABank, etc. has also experienced similar changes. For example, at Vietcombank, the bank has officially stopped sending SMS messages for balance changes in transactions valued below 50,000 VND. For the proactive SMS service, Vietcombank will charge a fee based on the number of generated SMS messages in a month. If it is below 20 messages/month/phone number, the service fee is 10,000 VND/month/phone number. For over 20 messages/month/phone number, Vietcombank charges a fee based on the actual number of SMS messages generated in the month, with a fee of 700 VND/message. These fees do not include VAT.
From January 1st, 2024, ACB has also changed its fee calculation mechanism and the fee schedule for SMS Banking with individual and corporate customers. Accordingly, the lowest fee is 15,000 VND/month (including VAT) for the number of SMS messages from 20 messages and below. The number of SMS messages above 20 messages will be 15,000 VND plus 700 VND/message, starting from the 21st message, calculated on a monthly basis/subscriber/customer. Balance change notifications will only be sent via SMS for transactions of 50,000 VND or more.
