Juz moved in to Saigon

wow are the interest rates in banks really that high?  my savings account at my Canadian bank is only like 0.5% lol

If you qualify as a foreigner, you can deposit money into a "Cash Deposit" account or a "Time-Savings" account.  Essentially agreeing to keep your money in for a set amount of time.

I found the interest rates of the nation's three largest banks and listed them here for you (aren't I such a nice guy?):

Agribank 
- note you'll have to select "View savings interest rates" under the FORMS, FEES AND INTEREST RATES box on the right side

http://agribank.com.vn/62/977/individua … vings.aspx


Vietin Bank
- right side is "interest rates in VND" box

http://www.vietinbank.vn/web/home/en/index.html


Vietcom Bank

http://www.vietcombank.com.vn/InterestRates/?lang=en


Since you're asking about financial advice from total strangers, then you'll get advice that goes...."here's what I'd do":

Don't deposit what you can theoretically lose if the banking system collapses.  Of the amount you would invest, split them in multiple segments to be deposited in different banks.  Of the amount you deposit in each bank, divide them up so that you'll always have access to a percentage of your money.  Here's the example.  I'm assuming all interest rates remain the same in this scenario to illustrate how to "ladder" your investments.

100 million VND to be deposited.

33 million VND to go in Agribank

33 million VND to go in Vietin

33 million VND to go in Vietcom

Agribank (select 3 month at 7% for optimization)
1) 11 million VND starting January (or month #1 of your plan), matures in April
2) 11 million VND for 1 month deposit at 6%, matures in February at which time you deposit in the 3 month at 7%, matures in May
3) 11 million VND for 2 month deposit at 6.5%, matures in March at which time you deposit in a 3 month at 7%, matures in June

after the 1st block matures, redo it for another 3 months...or do nothing and the bank will automatically roll it into another 3 month (you should verify with bank if they do this), so it matures in July

So every month, you have at least 1 group matures; at which time you can go in and withdraw the interest rate or plow it back in for compounding effect...i.e 11 million X .07 per year / 12months per year X 3 months = 192,500 VND (the bank actually uses a interest rate formula but it should come close to my simple math straight interest calculation).

You can do the same with the other two banks...using a separate strategy for a 2 month block or 6 month block.  Or you can just drop the whole enchilada into a 12 year time frame for a larger percentage rate.

mikeymyke wrote:

wow are the interest rates in banks really that high?  my savings account at my Canadian bank is only like 0.5% lol

Only for the VND.  Because the inflation rate for the local economy has been hitting around 5.78% per http://www.tradingeconomics.com/vietnam/inflation-cpi .  So at 7%, your buying power is growing by about 1.22%. 

Per http://www.tradingeconomics.com/canada/inflation-cpi , the inflation rate in Canada is only 0.70% so at least your Canadian Loonie isn't losing it's buying power.

In Canada, if the bank collapses, isn't your money insured?  The US has the FDIC insurance that covers investors up to $250,000.  I do not know if Vietnam has the same insurance.  Hence the caveat on depositing an amount of money that you won't be devastated if the banking system collapses.  Anyone remember the 1997 collapse of Thailand's Baht? 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1997_Asian … ial_crisis

great advice
but collapse meaning bankrupt?

sorry to ask again
Is UOB or HSBC or Citibank safer than local banks?

mikeymyke wrote:

wow are the interest rates in banks really that high?  my savings account at my Canadian bank is only like 0.5% lol

A lot of banks are giving 1.5% on saving account.

Actually 7% is low. They used to give like 12%+. Think some banks are still giving 10% though not advertised.

The sticky part is taking your money out of Vietnam. But if you don't plan to take money out of Vietnam than it's good rate.

Right now the Canadian dollar is dropping. Was 21k/Cad last year but now below 20k so not a great time to convert currency. Great if you're American!

joe1980 wrote:

sorry to ask again
Is UOB or HSBC or Citibank safer than local banks?

I think HSBC is safe because it's an international bank and been in Vietnam over 100 years. But don't think HSBC Vietnam is HSBC the parent company. They are separate entity. But still HSBC gives the lowest interest rate and there's a reason for that.

I don't know much of Citibank other than I think it's a big well known international bank too. I would think it be safe.

But as safe a bank can be you still have to navigate through all the red tape.

joe1980 wrote:

great advice
but collapse meaning bankrupt?

joe1980 wrote:

sorry to ask again
Is UOB or HSBC or Citibank safer than local banks?

collapse, bankrupted, shutter its doors, close shop, cease to exist.

Alot of smaller local banks have collapsed or otherwise had to merge with other banks to survive.  The lending for real estate projects did them in.  Bigger banks are surviving, so that's why I recommended the top 3 largest banks for you.  Banking laws still restrict branches and physical presence of foreign banks in Vietnam. 

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) is strong being headquartered in London, UK which is famous for it's Financial center.  So I would say HSBC is safe(r) than most banks.  I've seen some of their branches outside HCMC.  Citibank is very safe.  However, I don't know if they are allowed to do business on the consumer banking (or if they're presence here is just commercial banking).  As for United Overseas Bank, I don't even know how many branches they have in HCMC; they do have at least one.  But if UOB is prominent in Singapore, then you should entrust your money with them.     

So take your pick...or pick all of them.  You should ask them if you can withdraw your money from any of their world branches without penalty.  So say you open an account with UOB in HCMC, can you withdraw money from their main Singapore branch?  If so, go with them since that'll give you management flexibility.  Would be an advantage over local banks.

no cant withdraw from singapore uob if u open in hcmc uob.
so the best 3 banks are the one u said right.
ok thanks  bro

joe1980 wrote:

no cant withdraw from singapore uob if u open in hcmc uob.
so the best 3 banks are the one u said right.
ok thanks  bro

The three I recommended are all wholly or majority own by the state.  I think you can even buy shares of Vietcom bank on the stock market here.  Anyhow, you can bet the central bank won't let them go belly up; otherwise it would be disastrous on the world stage.  But nothing's ever certain though. 

Another strategy you can do is walk the block where you live or find the "banking street" close to where you will reside and drop little bits of money in each one. 

Good luck.

thanks for your time bro.
thanks for the great advice.

is Sacombank good?
i see Sacombank everywhere.

its called "risk reward" and you can see the international bond market yields that reflect this, ie the likelihood of you getting your money back or not.
eg. US, UK, German, Japanese bond yields are very low because you will have almost no risk,
Venezuelan, Nigerian, Brazilian etc bonds pay high yields to reflect the high risk,
all the local banks reflect this worldwide based on the risk level, its how the money markets work to fund the worlds economies
be careful and seek advice

slightly!
enormously safer of course!