Many customers flocked to the bank at the beginning of the week to check various bank cards and credit cards.
Many customers came to the bank to check their accounts, bad debts, and cancel bank cards.
At Eximbank Vietnam Import Export Commercial Joint Stock Bank Branch, Mr. Huan (residing in Binh Tan District) was surprised to know that he still owed this bank 713,000 VND for 64 months of account maintenance fees (11,000 VND/month). Of which, the outstanding balance for 64 months is 648,182 VND, and the tax fee is 64,818 VND.
Mr. Huan said that in April 2016, he opened a bank card to transfer money when buying a house, then the account still had a balance of 300,000 VND and he did not withdraw it. The bank staff also did not advise him to cancel the card if he did not use it anymore. Due to no transaction needs, Mr. Huan has forgotten about this card for the past 8 years. The bank also did not notify any information related to this card.
Mr. Huan is frustrated to owe over 700,000 VND from a debit card of Eximbank despite not using the card for the past 8 years.
“I thought that if I didn’t use the card for a long time, or after deducting all the maintenance fees, the bank would automatically close the card. I didn’t expect that today’s inspection revealed that the bank still continues to deduct fees, even though the card has been at 0 VND for a long time,” Mr. Huan angrily said.
Similarly, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa (residing in Tan Phu District) got caught with bad debts of over 800,000 VND from Eximbank for nearly ten years without knowing. According to her, when she applied for a bank card, the staff did not give thorough advice, nor did she receive any information about not using the card anymore, but the maintenance fees continued to be charged.
When customers do not use the bank card for an extended period and the account balance is 0 VND, Agribank will automatically stop booking and not charge any additional fees to maintain the card.
At Agribank Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mrs. Le Minh Ha (residing in Thu Duc City) applied for a bank card and has not used it since 2018, but she has not canceled the card yet. Concerned that maintenance fees were still being charged, she brought her ID card to check. The bank staff said that when the account balance of the card reaches 0 VND, the bank will automatically close the account. Therefore, Ms. Ha does not have to pay any additional fees.
Similarly, many other banks like Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank will automatically close the bank card account when customers do not use it and will not charge any fees. Customers who want to cancel the card only need to pay an additional 20,000 VND.
ACB also stated that customers who do not use the bank card for an extended period will automatically stop transactions. To cancel the card, customers only need to pay a fee of 20,000 VND.
In an interview with PV Tien Phong, Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam’s branch in Ho Chi Minh City, said that according to Article 18 of Circular No. 23/2014/TT-NHNN on August 19, 2014, guiding the opening and use of payment accounts at payment service providers (amended and supplemented), the regulations on closing payment accounts are as follows: Payment service providers are required to close payment accounts upon request of the account holders and when the account holders have fulfilled all the relevant obligations regarding the payment account.
Based on the above regulations, banks will close accounts that do not maintain the minimum balance and have no transactions for a long time. The period for notifying account holders before closing the payment account and specific issues related to closing the payment account in this case will be regulated and publicly announced to customers by the payment service provider.
