Don't Take Your Dollars to the Jewelry Shop Anymore

In certain towns/cities, generally the smaller places, jewellers have licences to exchange money particularly when there are no or few banks.

In HCMC there is a row of jewellers on Le Thanh Ton, behind Ben Thanh Market and at least two are authorised money exchangers. There are also some hotels here that can legally exchange money as well as a few foreign exchange stores that are legal and licenced.

Could be that Can Tho Cog An is just out shaking the store keepers down for some 'pension' money.

Perhaps the Cong Am hot software team will be by soon for some more money.

Jaitch,

I have no clue as what the heck is going on.  But, I brought my money over to the biggest and most reputable jewelry shop in the city--it has Western Union--but the owner told me, "We are not going to do currencies for a few days."  It startled me because I used to exchange or buy in any amount that I wanted there. 

I later brought that up to my banker friends and they told me not to do it for awhile because there was some type of sweep going on and I shouldn't do business with any jeweller for the time being, because they might be setups. 

But man, the rate for USDs has really plummeted the last couple of days.  Let's just wait and see what becomes of this.  I am not sure if this is just a local thing or a national crackdown, but I urge all of you to be extra vigilant with your cash.

Good day,
Howie

I saw an article on line a few weeks ago warning the people not to try and exchange USD for VND at the gold stores any more. Can’t find it now but it appears to be a decree that went into effect on I think 12 Nov. I had a 2k that I had been wanting to exchange for awhile and never got around to it. The next day, after reading the article I went into Can Tho to change it thinking I could get it done before the crack down started. The gold store a few doors down from a Techno bank branch close to the tourist part of town is where I’ve been doing business with for many years. Started to walk into the store and the old lady sitting back in the corner looked at me with terror in her eyes I took the hint real quickly.  I just looked at a few pieces of gold and left. Went down to Agri-bank and exchanged it. I might have got a few VND less than the black market rate at the bank, but I didn’t have to go back and forth with the clerk about good bills and bad bill. A few years ago I changed 3k at the same gold store and 40% of them were either counterfeit or in bad shape. .

One of my researchers put the following together.

VietNam banks limiting dollar sales after SBV’s latest tough measures

Some banks were said to stop selling dollars claiming limited supply, the online newspaper VnExpress (vnexpress.net) reported, citing an unnamed forex official of a bank in Dong Da, Ha Noi.

The move was the knee-jerk response of commercial banks after the State Bank of VietNam warned that it would spot inspection on foreign currency trading activities at some credit institutions to prevent banks from breaking forex ceiling rate.

A bank CEO, who wishes to remain unnamed, in Ho Chi Minh City, said his bank did not risk buying dollars above the ceiling rates after the central bank’s warnings. As dollar supply falls, the bank cannot meet demands of customers, the CEO added.

Little wonder the Black Marketeers are doing so well.