ATM's

Unfortunately, MB ATMs now charge a fee, which came out to about 1.5%, so I'm back to using Agribank and its 22.000 fee.

I'll have to try Agribank again.  Last time I thought I was limited to 2,000,000.
I've been using SecomBank, in which I can get 3,000,000 per transaction and it will let me do my card multiple times.
I think that's why everyone takes so long at the ATM.

paulmsn wrote:

Unfortunately, MB ATMs now charge a fee, which came out to about 1.5%, so I'm back to using Agribank and its 22.000 fee.

Correction -- that was only the ATM near my home.  The one I was using on Hàm Nghi still does not charge a fee.

Both Agribank and MB limit me to 3 million, even though the MB ATM has a 5 million button.  Maybe it's a limit on my debit card.  I can do multiple withdrawals at both, though.

Update: in the last month all the MB ATMs I go to are now charging 33000 VND for a 3 million withdrawal, so it's a 1.1% fee.  I guess I'll go back to Agribank.

paulmsn wrote:

Update: in the last month all the MB ATMs I go to are now charging 33000 VND for a 3 million withdrawal, so it's a 1.1% fee.  I guess I'll go back to Agribank.

That's the reason we have our account in the States with Schwab.  All ATM fees from all over the world are reimbursed to us within a few days of withdrawal.  We haven't paid ATM fee for years.

- Citibank: free

Hapiness1988 wrote:

- Citibank: free

Citibank, BofA, and First Republic allow free ATM withdrawals within its network or with its non-network partners.  Fees and charges from other banks and networks unrelated to them aren't reimbursable.

Ciambella wrote:

That's the reason we have our account in the States with Schwab.  All ATM fees from all over the world are reimbursed to us within a few days of withdrawal.  We haven't paid ATM fee for years.

As far as I know, Charles Schwab credit cards are for US citizens only.

There are two kinds of ATM fees.
1) The ATM surcharge fee (charged by the ATM owner) which you must pay during withdrawing process (maybe 45k Dong).
2) The ATM transaction fee (charged by the card issuer) charged with the credit card statement (maybe 2%).

Does Charles Schwab also refund you the already charged ATM surcharge fee?

The issuer of my VISA card did this in the past too. But not anymore, unfortunately. Only the ATM transaction fee will be refunded.
But I found out that HSBC does not charge any fees when I withdraw money with this VISA card. So there are also no additional costs for me.

According the previous post from Hapiness1988, Citibank charges also no ATM surcharge fee.
I'll try it there too.

Schwab One account (with ATM  card) is available for everyone, not just for US citizens:

http://international.schwab.com/public/ … ments.html

Schwab reimburses EVERY ATM FEE no matter what kind (using Schwab Visa/Debit card). 

I'm confused about your usage of the term "credit card" and "Visa" in connection to cash withdrawal.  The word Visa is displayed on ATM (debit card) as well as credit card.  With Visa/debit card, you can use the card either way.  As debit card, the money will be taken immediately and directly from your account after you enter your PIN.  As Visa, PIN is not required, and money will be taken a day or so later, after the merchants send the charge to Visa.  The money still comes from your personal account, but not at the very second of your using the card.

The Visa credit card (without the word ATM or Debit) is another story altogether.  I don't withdraw from credit cards that aren't backed up with my own checking/saving account because that's cash advance (borrowing money from the bank).  I use credit cards in every store that accepts them, but never at ATMs for cash advance.

In spite of what Hapiness said, Citibank doesn't reimburse all fees for all accounts.  This is from their website and documents they gave to us when we opened our accounts.

"In any eligible statement period, when you use another bank's ATM to conduct an ATM withdrawal from your Citibank deposit accounts, you will receive reimbursement from Citibank if your Citigold Account Package had a combined average monthly balance of $200,000 or more in eligible linked deposit, retirement and investment accounts for the calendar month prior to the ATM transaction. If [not] (the combined average monthly balance in your Citigold Account Package was not equal to or greater than $200,000  for the calendar month prior to your ATM transaction, then Citibank will not reimburse you for ATM fees charged by other banks or other ATM service providers when you conduct a Citibank deposit account transaction using their ATMs[/b]. This ATM reimbursement is only available in the Citigold Account Package and is limited to consumer accounts."

Other Citibank accounts only receive reimbursement when using "a network of Citibank and non-Citibank ATMs displaying the CIRRUS®, MAESTRO® or Mastercard® logos."

We used to have accounts with Citibank both in the US and here in Vietnam.  Couldn't afford to stay with them.

Thank you for the information Ciambella.
I'll check out the Schwab credit card.

I don't want to open an account with Citibank.
I just want to try the Citibank ATM with my VISA card to see if I don't have to pay AMT surcharge fees (like at the HSBC ATM).

Andy Passenger wrote:

I'll check out the Schwab credit card.

Not Schwab credit card, Andy.  Debit/ATM card with the word Visa on it is what you want.  You do need to open an account and deposit money in the account for the use of the debit card.

Schwab credit card is Amex Platinum.  You don't want to use Amex for cash withdrawal.

Okay, thank you Ciambella.

I have just seen that with a Schwab account the minimum balance must be US$ 25,000. It's also complicated because I only live in Vietnam (in my home country I'm logged out).
http://international.schwab.com/public/ … country=SZ


So I prefer to stick to my current International VISA card which also refunds me a part of the fees.

In Vietnam I don't pay any fees anyway, because I have bank accounts with Bank/VISA cards at two Vietnamese banks. Only when I go on holidays outside of Vietnam I have to pay one part of fees.

No, it's not $25K minimum deposit.  We do not have that kind of money sitting in the bank, ever. 

Read on to see other options.

How are the exchange rates with Schwab?  Sometimes banks (and brokerage houses) can say that there are no fees but they can zing you by charging a higher exchange rate.

Their rate is 15 - 20₫ higher or lower than the one shown on my xCurrency app -- about $0.001 per dollar.

I highly recommend opening a Schwab account before you return to VN.  The only problem we have with Schwab is husband's pension doesn't show up in our account on Friday night before a holiday weekend.  It's because they don't work around the clock as other banks do.  When we contacted them, they said the money was there, it just didn't show on the balance.  We've learned to adjust and adapt after that.

The free ATM made up for it though.  We haven't paid one cent for ATM fee from anywhere in the world since we joined Schwab.

It doesn't have to be Schwab or nothing, however. Schwab ATM card is no fee, but if you don't qualify, there are also a number of low-fee ATM cards, and low-foreign exchange fee cards for travelers. It's a spectrum. One comparison website is nerdwallet.com.

I have a Schwab debit, and a Capitalone 2% reimbursed credit card. But I also have a Capitalone savings debit, and a Barclay's credit card; those are not low fee but I only have them for emergency backup for when my main cards fail/break/expire. Which they have.