Transfer fortnightly Aussie pension to dong

Hi all
i am currently in Vietnam and planning to stay but transfer costs at atm are crippling.
any suggestions
thanks. 😊
-@JohnnyChristo

Hi there JohnnyChristo. By "transfer costs", do you mean the ATM withdrawal fee? My usual ATM (Agribank) charges 22,000 VND (~$1.42 AUD) per withdrawal, with a maximum limit of 3 million VND per transaction.

For comments from members regarding ATM limits/charges, please see this recent thread.

@JohnnyChristo I have been using Wise (formerly known as TransferWise) for many years, and it is up to 7 times cheaper than traditional banks or PayPal.

I transfer my pension to my bank here in Vietnam.

You can check this link to view transfer/exchange rates. Select currencies of choice on this landing page, https://wise.prf.hn/l/3YvonNV, and change the vn in the link to determine the country you wish to transfer to/from.

@JohnnyChristo I have a friend here in Thailand who has arranged to have his Australian Aged Pension paid directly into his Bangkok Bank account every 4 weeks. Here's some info. It may help. https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/pa … 20account.

Plus, I agree that Agribank seems to have the lowest ATM fees per withdrawal but my Australian bank also took a healthy bite.

I use Wise now to transfer money from my Westpac account. $1000 costs me $7.50. And its here within minutes. I keep my Westpac ATM card current as a backup

Hi all
i am currently in Vietnam and planning to stay but transfer costs at atm are crippling.
any suggestions
thanks. 😊
-@JohnnyChristo

For the sake of future casual readers on this thread, the real answer is to make sure you have your pension going into a bank in your home country that provides an ATM card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees or exchange fees and rebates any ATM fees you are charged.

in the USA we have a few banks that do that including Charles Schwab.

if you are here already and you came into the country with a sucky ATM card, it still may be your best option over having phones wired to you.

Hi all
i am currently in Vietnam and planning to stay but transfer costs at atm are crippling.
any suggestions
thanks. 😊
-@JohnnyChristo

For the sake of future casual readers on this thread, the real answer is to make sure you have your pension going into a bank in your home country that provides an ATM card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees or exchange fees and rebates any ATM fees you are charged.

in the USA we have a few banks that do that including Charles Schwab.

if you are here already and you came into the country with a sucky ATM card, it still may be your best option over having phones wired to you.
-@OceanBeach92107

Unfortunately, O.B. thieving banks in Australia don't provide an ATM card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. One reason many years ago why I opened a Viettin bank account here in VN and now use Wise to transfer from my account in Australia to my account here for a very minimal fee.

Hi all
i am currently in Vietnam and planning to stay but transfer costs at atm are crippling.
any suggestions
thanks. 😊
-@JohnnyChristo

For the sake of future casual readers on this thread, the real answer is to make sure you have your pension going into a bank in your home country that provides an ATM card that doesn't charge foreign transaction fees or exchange fees and rebates any ATM fees you are charged.

in the USA we have a few banks that do that including Charles Schwab.

if you are here already and you came into the country with a sucky ATM card, it still may be your best option over having phones wired to you.
-@OceanBeach92107

Unfortunately, O.B. thieving banks in Australia don't provide an ATM card that doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee. One reason many years ago why I opened a Viettin bank account here in VN and now use Wise to transfer from my account in Australia to my account here for a very minimal fee.
-@Safepeter

Which is "the rest of the story" when it comes to wiring funds here.

It's wonderful for you that you were able to open the bank account here back when that was possible, and just as wonderful that you've been able to keep the account open and they haven't attempted to close it.

Without a bank account here, which is presumably impossible for the OP, wiring the funds becomes not so cheap when the receiving Bank also imposes a fee in addition to whatever the wire service charges.

So I'm admittedly assuming, but if that's the scenario for the OP, I'm not sure he's going to do much better than paying the ATM card fees.

FYI - Vietcombank does not make any charges to receive foreign income. You can check the exchange rate on-line at any time, so if you know your own bank's charges, you can calculate what you will actually get in dong. 

Ah - reread problem - just realised my post not helpful..... sorry!

FYI - Vietcombank does not make any charges to receive foreign income. You can check the exchange rate on-line at any time, so if you know your own bank's charges, you can calculate what you will actually get in dong. -@noddi

Ah - reread problem - just realised my post not helpful..... sorry!
-@noddi

Also, Vietcombank's incoming exchange rate basically includes a "hidden" fee.

Example (at this moment):

International online exchange rate:

1 AUD to VNĐ = ₫15,524.44 VNĐ

Vietcombank incoming transfer exchange rate:

1 AUD to VNĐ = ₫15,247.58 VNĐ

A hidden exchange fee of ₫27,686 VNĐ for every $100 AUD transferred in.

Exchange rate through an ATM will normally be determined by your foreign bank in conjunction with the card company (VISA, etc).

A person would have to check with their foreign bank to confirm their foreign exchange fee (if any) and add that to the Vietnam bank's ATM fee (and any card foreign transaction fee) to arrive at a true cost comparison between incoming wire transfer vs ATM cash withdrawal.

{Again, that's why the Schwab VISA debit card works so well for me, since my ATM fees are rebated at the end of the month, I  don't pay a foreign transaction fee and the foreign exchange rate is equal to the international rate; no exchange fee).

1. open a Vietnamese bank account with a atm debit card
2. use a transfer company / app to transfer the funds
3. use Viet debit card to withdraw as required

open a Vietnamese bank account with a atm debit card

use a transfer company / app to transfer the funds

use Viet debit card to withdraw as required -@panda7

You apparently got very behind the times during covid when you couldn't re-enter the country.

A foreigner opening a bank account in Vietnam is a thing of the past unless you are employed with a work permit or here on a TRC.

Retirement visas coming shortly, the post assumes you can still open a bank account which I suspect he will be able to in 2024. Hence the relevance of the post...