citibank usa linked w/ citibank vn for banking needs?

jaytaylor84 wrote:

For a retired American (or anyone for that matter) wishing to reside in VN for quite some time would opening a citibank us checking acct linked to citibank vn be the easiest solution to remedy my banking needs?

Yes, except for Brits and Australians there are other alternatives.  Posters here have mentioned HSBC and Commonwealth Bank in particular.

jaytaylor84 wrote:

I will be having my us pension deposited into the american branch and use their global transfer system to transfer what I need to my vn branch which I will set up for both vn or usd.

Exactly, and the beauty is that it is free.

jaytaylor84 wrote:

if the bank happens to offer a bad exchange I could just take it to an exhange with a more favorable rate...

I would suggest that you do the Global Transfer US$ to US$ not US$ to VND.  Make the exchange between the two VN accounts after the money arrives.  For some reason this way yields a better rate.  My guess is that making the exchange with the transfer gives you the rate for VND in New York and not the rate in Saigon or Hanoi.  You can take out $$ and exchange them at a gold shop but unless you live downtown, that involves a trip in traffic and also a small fee at the teller.  CItiVN has few ATMs but has cooperative zero fee agreements with a long list of local banks.  You can make the exchange online and take out VND using ATM's anywhere in the country.

jaytaylor84 wrote:

and since I'll be transferring only what I need I wont have any issues getting the money back out of the country, as I've been told there is some issue with that here.

Correct again.

jaytaylor84 wrote:

Does this sound like a viable solution for me?

It does but, by using future tenses, you implied that you have not yet set up the VN account.  If so, you may find that a little difficult if you have only a tourist visa.  I know that they did not let my wife and I have a joint account until we were legally married and I had a 5 year VEC.  I am not sure exactly what the criteria are today and they may be more lenient now.  I think the problem is bank policy and not legal.  I suspect they do not want a lot of inactive accounts being set up by people who will not be in the country for long.  They also started a 165,000 VND a month service fee about a year ago, likely to discourage inactive accounts.  You can avoid the fee with a large deposit.  I have forgotten the amount required but their interest rates are so poor, it seems better to pay the fee.

70 years old wrote:

When ever I need money sent I do a VOIP phone call to the small local bank and it is in my VietinBank account in about 36 hours.....What benefit is there to Chase, or any other Forign bank?

Are your transfers free or does your bank charge a fee?  If you have no fee on the US end then you are fortunate.  In banking, often smaller is better.

Diazo wrote:

There is not real connection between any US bank and any bank here. They license the name is what I was told. You could not take your Citi Bank checks from the US and write a check on any amount you have deposited here. About all you can do is xfer money....then at a fee. I had Well Fargo in South America and BofA in Europe. But there was no advantage I could see. I no longer do any of them and just withdraw from the ATM fro my US bank accounts. All of them rebate me my ATM fees. But not international transactions fees which is a Visa issue. But I realize we all have different needs.

Right. Use Vietnamese Banks like VietinBank in Vietnam and American Banks in America and do your own wire transfer through the American Bank to the Vietnamese bank. This has worked fine for me for over 10 years. Getting a few thousand USD when I need it doesn't work very well through an ATM. Dropping into any branch of a Vietnamese bank anywhere in Vietnam and withdrawing it works fine.

Diazo wrote:

Agree. My US ban allows me to withdraw as much as I want if I tell them in advance . But that does require MANY ATM withdrawal if I want to get $10,000 out. But I do not have a VNese bank account. My wife does, but that do not prove to be such a good thing for herself  hubby!! Like I said, I know everyone has there only needs. My only real point is the US bank name on a bank here is not a US bank. Trump does the same thing and many others do as well. You get to use the name for a fee.

I agree. Why would anyone have a Vietnamese bank with only one branch just because they bought the right to use Chase's name, when there are so many other good Vietnamese Banks with many branch offices?

While I did add my wife to my VN Bank account ten years ago, and it was a real pain to do, she has never once in ten years used that access. Unless things have changed in the last 10 years, your wife does not have access to your bank account unless you fill out specific paperwork to give her that right.

THIGV wrote:

Joint accounts have the advantage of avoiding probate.  If one spouse dies the other can simply continue the account.  All my US bank accounts, including my modest brokerage account, are joint.  My wife's Citibank VN account is joint but I am not sure if the same rules apply in VN.  At any rate, it is unlikely that I will outlast her.

I agree that the one branch aspect could be inconvenient for those who live outside of HCMC or Ha Noi but the long list of cooperating ATM's mean easy access to money anywhere in the country.

Agreed, all of my accounts including the VietinBank account are joint. But, different marriages may work better if separate accounts are used. It was really a major paperwork headache to make my VietinBank account joint. As to which one of us outlives the other, due to my wife's health issues, it is a pretty good bet that I will.

70 years old wrote:

As to which one of us outlives the other, due to my wife's health issues, it is a pretty good bet that I will.

I was thinking of that as I wrote but left it for you to say.  All the more important to have only joint accounts in Vietnam.  Can you imagine what it would take for a foreign spouse to gain access to funds in bank accounts held solely by a deceased Vietnamese spouse?  Unless it was a true fortune, which is unlikely for most of us, the legal costs and bribes to officials would likely eat up most of it.