ATM withdrawal amount

It looks as if some people in the know don't really agree with the overpriced bank fees

.https://medium.com/transferwise-ideas/this-shows-just-how-much-the-banks-ripping-off-customers-ddd877df1b4d

Diazo wrote:

for those looking to withdraw 8m the CitiBank ATM at Ben Thanh market in Sai Gon allows 8m and 3 st a time. Yes, I am sure you could do it in 3 separate trips if you like to. Happy banking

All Citibank ATMs allow a maximum withdrawal of 8M, 3X per 24 hrs period (no need to do it in 3 separated trips).  That's 24M per day.  If you have two cards as we do (same account), you can withdraw the maximum of 48M -- double the fun.

Beware that the exchange rate is pretty low.  The rate was $20 less per $1000 than I would have had if I exchanged dollars at jewelry stores.  Even safer than ATM, the stores deliver.

Moral of the story: hoard your dollars and use jewelry stores.

I was not meaning you had to make 3 trips. It was kind of tongue in cheek. Interesting about jewelry stores. I have never used them. But then I never have dollars to convert. For me it is not a huge issue. I simply live the convienece if being able to draw out a larger amount. ANZ use to do 10m. But they stopped sometime ago

I use MB bank here in HCMC, but it will only allow me 3 million withdrawal at a time using my US debit card, despite the nice little 5 million button.  My home bank allows me to do four such withdrawals per day.  I know of three MB ATMs in D1 that don't charge me a fee and one that charges a percentage.  I don't go to that one, of course.  My debit card is a MC and there is no 1% charge, so I get the exchange mid-rate almost exactly -- I usually check when I get home, although that's silly.

The 5 million button is for MB account holders.

I was fairly happy taking out 5 million at a time (up to 4x per day) at ANZ before they were bought out by Shinhan Bank.

The transition only happened a couple weeks ago and I haven't had to take out money recently.

Anybody have experience with the Shinhan Bank withdraw limits?

kschulz wrote:

Anybody have experience with the Shinhan Bank withdraw limits?

No direct experience but their website says it's 10 mill per time and 50 mill per day.
https://shinhan.com.vn/ (scroll down)

I went to that bank on 22 Feb and they said only 2 million. It must have changed?

I went to ATMs and withdrew money using my American debit VISA card. In Binh Thanh District, I could only withdraw max 1m vnd, but only after I discovered I had to say no to accepting receipts. If I said yes, I want receipt, the transaction ended as if the ATM ran out of cash.

All the ATMs I used charged me a fee in vnd plus $5 additional fee charged by my bank in Chicago for each transaction. Of course I ordered the bank to wave the fees because it did not have a branch in Vietnam and it happily did. I learned this little secret from a book I bought, "I will make you rich" by R. Seith.

Libhero wrote:

All the ATMs I used charged me a fee in vnd plus $5 additional fee charged by my bank in Chicago for each transaction. Of course I ordered the bank to wave the fees because it did not have a branch in Vietnam and it happily did. I learned this little secret from a book I bought, "I will make you rich" by R. Seith.

If you have an account with Schwab, they'll automatically refund ALL fees from all banks in all the countries in the world, no need to make a request.

My daughter's bank (forgot the name) also automatically refunds ALL fees in all the countries in the world, but not from all banks, only from the ones in the network.

Either the bank people didn't understand or they lowered the amount. I spoke to two people at the bank and they said 2 million. I left since I know of another bank that I get 3.

Up until last month I was able to withdraw 8 million at Saigon Citi  bank located inside arrival hall. Today, it would only dispense 3 million. I don't know if it was the ATM or the Schwab card. I'll try on my next trip then post update.

ATMs give out only a certain amount to out-of-network cards, which in VN is maxed out at 3M per transaction (not per day).  Citibank ATM allows 8M to Citi card, but only 3M to other cards.

As Schwab daily limit is $1000 (a bit more than 23M), you can perform at least 7 consecutive transactions from the same ATM if that's what you wish.

Ciambella wrote:

ATMs give out only a certain amount to out-of-network cards, which in VN is maxed out at 3M per transaction (not per day).  Citibank ATM allows 8M to Citi card, but only 3M to other cards.

As Schwab daily limit is $1000 (a bit more than 23M), you can perform at least 7 consecutive transactions from the same ATM if that's what you wish.

My financial advisor who does business in Vietnam out of Singapore, told me to "reject the exchange rate offered by the ATM/Bank" and allow Schwab to complete the exchange.

Have you seen the ATM offer its own exchange rate before?

If so, did the machine allow you to refuse in favor of settlement by Schwab?

I was able to get 8M with a Fidelity card at Citi's ATM.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

My financial advisor who does business in Vietnam out of Singapore, told me to "reject the exchange rate offered by the ATM/Bank" and allow Schwab to complete the exchange.

Have you seen the ATM offer its own exchange rate before?

If so, did the machine allow you to refuse in favor of settlement by Schwab?

No, we've never seen that.  The only thing all machines asked was whether we would accept the transaction fee, which we've always said yes.

Earlier this month, out of laziness, we used an ATM from BIDV instead of Sacombank which is our favourite.  Aside from ATM fee and an outrageously high transaction fee (90K for 3M), the bank tagged another 10% for VAT.  We're waiting for end-of-the-month statement to see if Schwab picks up the VAT.  Either way, we'll never use BIDV again.

wandertheglobe wrote:

I was able to get 8M with a Fidelity card at Citi's ATM.

Citicorp owns Fidelity so they're in the same family.  That's the reason for your 8M withdrawal from a Citi ATM.

Ciambella wrote:

wandertheglobe wrote:

I was able to get 8M with a Fidelity card at Citi's ATM.

Citicorp owns Fidelity so they're in the same family.  That's the reason for your 8M withdrawal from a Citi ATM.

Hmm...according to this report, Fidelity is a privately held company.

https://www.bloomberg.com/research/stoc … pId=163894

My fidelity cash management account is linked to UMB Bank out of Kansas City, MO.

Which Fidelity are you with?  Below are the info on both Fidelity S&L and Fidelity Investments.  The first is completely under Citibank's umbrella; the second, a private company, is a shareholder of Citibank:

Sept 29, 1982:  "In a ruling that may set a precedent for interstate banking, the Federal Reserve Board yesterday gave Citicorp of New York permission to acquire the Fidelity Savings and Loan Association of California."

April 28, 1992:  "Fidelity Investments said today that it had acquired nearly 10 percent of Citicorp stock to spread among various mutual funds, reflecting confidence in the nation's largest banking company."

I can find more recent news if needed.  Either Fidelity card would be in the same network as Citi card.

I can't speak for Schwab but Fidelity fully reimbursed me for a BIDV withdrawal in Lao Cai of 2016. I was charged 231.47 USD for a 5M VND withdrawal and later reimbursed 7.39 USD. 5M VND was worth 224.1 USD in June 2016.

I rarely use these cards (1-2 times per year) but I have been able to withdraw 8M VND in a single transaction from Citibank ATMs with my Wells Fargo, Chase, and Ally (once) cards.

Edit: Just noticed this thread was posted in the Da Lat subforum. My Citibank ATM experiences only apply in Saigon and Hanoi.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

Ciambella wrote:

ATMs give out only a certain amount to out-of-network cards, which in VN is maxed out at 3M per transaction (not per day).  Citibank ATM allows 8M to Citi card, but only 3M to other cards.

As Schwab daily limit is $1000 (a bit more than 23M), you can perform at least 7 consecutive transactions from the same ATM if that's what you wish.

My financial advisor who does business in Vietnam out of Singapore, told me to "reject the exchange rate offered by the ATM/Bank" and allow Schwab to complete the exchange.

Have you seen the ATM offer its own exchange rate before?

If so, did the machine allow you to refuse in favor of settlement by Schwab?

Welcome to the real world. Your financial advisor is correct.
ATM operators have figured out another way to get more than just fees: "The
guaranteed exchange rate", but as your financial advisor has warned you, you will end up paying an higher exchange rate.

I first saw this some years ago in Europe and now see it virtually everywhere, except for Vietnam.

I love to see that...
“Your financial advisor is correct”.

That's Yogi's territory,,but at the moment in Australia there's a “bounty” on them due to a banking royal commission.

About the cards, if you do a bit of googling there are some cards on the market that absorb the ATM & currency transfer fees BUT ,,some of them have hefty annual fees, certain spend levels & may require account packaging stipulations.   If your a shareholder in a bank, check to see what's being offerered in shareholder packages.

They won't tell you unless you ask.

That said,,living in SE Asia for most of the year for a small fraction of the cost back home, and enjoying a refreshing change in lifestyle far outweighs those pesky little machine fees. 😆

And if Yogi gives someone some advice that didn't “pan out”   They'll have some fun finding him won't they. 🤓

The withdraw limits depends on the ATMs themserves, the banks and the cards.
I could withdraw with my foreign VISA card in a HSBC branch (near the Saigon Post Office) 4M at the new small ATM and 5.6M (half year ago 6.8M) at the older big ATM.

With the Sacombank VISA I can withdrawn 10M at the Sacombank ATMs.
With the TIMO bank card I can withdrawn 20M at the VPBank ATMs.

One point that I don't believe has been mentioned:

Since the ATM limits are set in VND and not USD, then the "better" the exchange rate (the more VND you get for a USD) then the LESS USD you can exchange per transaction.

For instance, the exchange rate I just checked was VND 23,292 to $1.00 USD

However, a year ago, it only took VND 22,502 to get $1.00 USD

So that's good, right?

That depends on inflation, eh?

It's good for our monthly expenses.  Our rent was $528 when we first moved to Vung Tau, now it's $515.  Our grocery budget is the same in VND but costs us less in our US account.

[deleted  ]

I thought the Vietnam Dong was more or less linked to the US dollar. 

For me, the exchange rate is far worse.
In the last 12 months, this fluctuates between CHF 1 = 22,000 VND and CHF 1 = 24,000 VND. If I transfer 1 trillion VND at the wrong time I can lose up to 100 million VND. 

An interesting situation in Hanoi:

This ATM location at an HSBC Bank (Google Maps)

6A Nhà Thờ, Hàng Trống, Hoàn Kiếm, Hà Nội
1 block away from St Joseph's Cathedral

There is a machine to the right, inside the main door, that will give me ₫4,000,000 max on my Charles Schwab Visa Debit ATM card. It charges  ₫80,000 per transaction.

To the left, a different machine will give ₫7,000,000 max, but it charges ₫140,000 for the transaction.

Across the street there are three different ATMs from various banks, but all reject my card.

When they are out of money they all reject them. I have had a few occasions when it was the link to whatever they now use to link up, satelite etc,

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

There is a machine to the right, inside the main door, that will give me ₫4,000,000 max on my Charles Schwab Visa Debit ATM card. It charges  ₫80,000 per transaction.

To the left, a different machine will give ₫7,000,000 max, but it charges ₫140,000 for the transaction.

I always read here in the forum that Schwab refunds all fees.

Yes, they do. In addition you can get large sums out at once. They are the greatest to do business with. Kind of the Apple of banking  and brokerage when it comes to customer service.

Schwab just rebated me $40.72 USD for September ATM fees here in Hà Nội; my first full month.

Sweet 

Up to 10 million are possible, I have seen.
However, there might be limits imposed by your home bank. Charges are a part of their profits
I know a number of ATMs offering more than 2 million. Good changes to find are near international supermarkets.

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

Schwab just rebated me $40.72 USD for September ATM fees here in Hà Nội; my first full month.

Sweet 

FYI, the reason Schwab credits their customers ATM & currency exchange fees (month as OceanBeach notes), is that this business cost is cheaper than building and operating a worldwide network of brick and mortar facilities. They most surely will continue this practice. It is also a brilliant word-of-mouth loyalty strategy as evidenced by the many savvy members of this expat community

@ workplacestars
I can not  tell you how much your FYI is appreciated. I am starting a coffee shop and wanted to avoid the cost of opening a brick and mortar store. So I will have a mobile  coffee shop on the back of my motorbike and give the coffee away. I think with a business model such as this I should capture a large portion of the coffee market. You have a genius business mind. Thanks for sharing

Vagabondone wrote:

@ workplacestars
I can not  tell you how much your FYI is appreciated. I am starting a coffee shop and wanted to avoid the cost of opening a brick and mortar store. So I will have a mobile  coffee shop on the back of my motorbike and give the coffee away. I think with a business model such as this I should capture a large portion of the coffee market. You have a genius business mind. Thanks for sharing

Thumbs up for the kudos. Heck, coaching, consulting and training to business success is my passion and life's work - now to slow it down somewhere beautiful in VN    Best fortune to you and your evolving business Vagabondone. I'd love to partake in your coffee when you become operational.

@Vagabondone:  I'm afraid your particular audience has missed your satire completely.

Oh shucks....not again.

Vagabondone wrote:

Oh shucks....not again.

Color me chagrined...now more determined to better recognize sardonic IEDs...thanks for the laugh.