Transferwise

colinoscapee wrote:

You can if you have the relevant documents for working here, everything elso, no.

I have had three-month visa extensions to my old one year tourist visa that expired in October.

Since I don't have a work visa, I cannot deposit money.  I have another account at HSBC, which did allow me to deposit money, but that was opened when I had a one-year visa.  If I tried now, I'm pretty sure they would not allow a deposit.

paulmsn wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

You can if you have the relevant documents for working here, everything elso, no.

I have had three-month visa extensions to my old one year tourist visa that expired in October.

Since I don't have a work visa, I cannot deposit money.  I have another account at HSBC, which did allow me to deposit money, but that was opened when I had a one-year visa.  If I tried now, I'm pretty sure they would not allow a deposit.

It wouldn't hurt to try.

You're technically still on the old visa and you've had extensions.

When you show them your passport and they look at all the Visa stamps, they should see that and approve the deposit.

Or not...

OceanBeach92107 wrote:

It wouldn't hurt to try.

You're technically still on the old visa and you've had extensions.

When you show them your passport and they look at all the Visa stamps, they should see that and approve the deposit.

Or not...

I don't want to deposit into that account  -- it has proved mostly useless.  The Vietcombank account would allow me to pay my rent, phone and other expenses by phone app.  That's why I'm trying one more time to fund it, this time  with TransferWise's help. We'll see if it works.

paulmsn wrote:

I don't want to deposit into that account  -- it has proved mostly useless.  The Vietcombank account would allow me to pay my rent, phone and other expenses by phone app.  That's why I'm trying one more time to fund it, this time  with TransferWise's help. We'll see if it works.

You could try an end-run by doing a bank-to-bank transfer (if your first bank allows you) to Vietcombank account (again, if VCB allows receipt).

Travelfar wrote:

paulmsn wrote:

I don't want to deposit into that account  -- it has proved mostly useless.  The Vietcombank account would allow me to pay my rent, phone and other expenses by phone app.  That's why I'm trying one more time to fund it, this time  with TransferWise's help. We'll see if it works.

You could try an end-run by doing a bank-to-bank transfer (if your first bank allows you) to Vietcombank account (again, if VCB allows receipt).

I thought of that, but my Vietcombank account will only accept a deposit from a foreign bank.  While HSBC is a foreign brand, I don't think the Vietnam HSBCs would be considered foreign banks.  I know they are locally incorporated.

TransferWise was eventually successful in sending money from my US bank to Vietcombank, although it took over a week.  Part of that was the three-day weekend in the US delaying the transfer of money from my bank to TransferWise.  They charged me $101.15 USD for a $10,000 transfer. 

The transaction was as described earlier -- I started the transfer, TW waited until the NAPAS transfer was rejected by Vietcombank, then initiated a successful manual transfer.

paulmsn wrote:

TransferWise was eventually successful in sending money from my US bank to Vietcombank, although it took over a week.  Part of that was the three-day weekend in the US delaying the transfer of money from my bank to TransferWise.  They charged me $101.15 USD for a $10,000 transfer. 

The transaction was as described earlier -- I started the transfer, TW waited until the NAPAS transfer was rejected by Vietcombank, then initiated a successful manual transfer.

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

paulmsn wrote:

TransferWise was eventually successful in sending money from my US bank to Vietcombank, although it took over a week.  Part of that was the three-day weekend in the US delaying the transfer of money from my bank to TransferWise.  They charged me $101.15 USD for a $10,000 transfer. 

The transaction was as described earlier -- I started the transfer, TW waited until the NAPAS transfer was rejected by Vietcombank, then initiated a successful manual transfer.

Thanks for the info.

Makes me feel even better about the $15.00 USD that Charles Schwab charges me on a standard account

Can you elaborate. What company???

vic50 wrote:

Can you elaborate. What company???

Please use the quote function so we know who you're talking to

colinoscapee wrote:

paulmsn wrote:

TransferWise was eventually successful in sending money from my US bank to Vietcombank, although it took over a week.  Part of that was the three-day weekend in the US delaying the transfer of money from my bank to TransferWise.  They charged me $101.15 USD for a $10,000 transfer. 

The transaction was as described earlier -- I started the transfer, TW waited until the NAPAS transfer was rejected by Vietcombank, then initiated a successful manual transfer.

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

Which company???

colinoscapee wrote:

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

It is cheaper than the other options I found for US -> Vietnam transfers.  My bank would have charged over $300.  I don't know if transfers from Australia are really comparable.

paulmsn wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

It is cheaper than the other options I found for US -> Vietnam transfers.  My bank would have charged over $300.  I don't know if transfers from Australia are really comparable.

Transferwise often turns out to be the better deal for smaller amounts

paulmsn wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

It is cheaper than the other options I found for US -> Vietnam transfers.  My bank would have charged over $300.  I don't know if transfers from Australia are really comparable.

Why? Its a bank to bank transfer. Ive been doing it for years.

vic50 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

paulmsn wrote:

TransferWise was eventually successful in sending money from my US bank to Vietcombank, although it took over a week.  Part of that was the three-day weekend in the US delaying the transfer of money from my bank to TransferWise.  They charged me $101.15 USD for a $10,000 transfer. 

The transaction was as described earlier -- I started the transfer, TW waited until the NAPAS transfer was rejected by Vietcombank, then initiated a successful manual transfer.

Transferwise seems a bit expensive, I transfer the same amount from Australia for 25 AUD, about 20 USD.

Which company???

From my bank, CBA.

colinoscapee wrote:

Why? Its a bank to bank transfer. Ive been doing it for years.

As I noted, my bank charges a lot more.  The main cost is not the fee, but rather the exchange rate you are given, which at my bank was well below mid-market rates.  The rate I received from TransferWise was actually slightly above the mid-market rate I found when I checked right after notification that the money was sent, although who knows what it was the moment they exchanged.   When I factored that in, my cost was less than $50 USD, although, since the rates are constantly changing, it might have been higher at another random moment.

Have you transferred from  US bank?  I'd welcome a cheaper alternative.

paulmsn wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Why? Its a bank to bank transfer. Ive been doing it for years.

As I noted, my bank charges a lot more.  Have you transferred from  US bank?  I'd welcome a cheaper alternative.

Why would I, Im Australian.
If it costs you 300usd compared to my 20usd there must be a reason.

Wire charges at various US banks vary, but are usually $50 or less.  They often give you a less-than-optimal exchange rate, though.  I have two bank accounts, my credit union and a Capital One 360 account, which doesn't allow outbound transfers.  Since my credit union ended up with an effective $300+ cost, I went with TransferWise.

I used Western Union when I first moved here, and that cost more than my bank, because they offered an even worse exchange rate.

paulmsn wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Why? Its a bank to bank transfer. Ive been doing it for years.

As I noted, my bank charges a lot more.  The main cost is not the fee, but rather the exchange rate you are given, which at my bank was well below mid-market rates.  The rate I received from TransferWise was actually slightly above the mid-market rate I found when I checked right after notification that the money was sent, although who knows what it was the moment they exchanged.   When I factored that in, my cost was less than $50 USD, although, since the rates are constantly changing, it might have been higher at another random moment.

Have you transferred from  US bank?  I'd welcome a cheaper alternative.

dont' know about US to Vietnam, but for UK to Vietnam, I've not come across a cheaper alternative.

also for UK to aus trasfers i did some time ago, I found transferwise always beat the banks. mind you my transfers were small. did approach a specialist broker for large sums. although when i tried doing this for UK to Vietnam large transfer, found that many specialist money transfer dealers based in UK didn't do gbp to vnd transfers. so i stuck with transferwise.

with the borderless account method, you deposit gbp first, then convert to vnd. the conversion is immediate so you get the rate shown on screen (which is pretty much the same as the xe.com rrate). whereas, if you do'nt use borderless account and send direct the rate may fluctuate slightly (which may turn out to be a lot if you send a large sum) depending on when the conversion happens. Seems thats whats happened in your case.

have you opened a trasferwise borderless account yet?

sanooku wrote:

dont' know about US to Vietnam, but for UK to Vietnam, I've not come across a cheaper alternative.

also for UK to aus trasfers i did some time ago, I found transferwise always beat the banks. mind you my transfers were small. did approach a specialist broker for large sums. although when i tried doing this for UK to Vietnam large transfer, found that many specialist money transfer dealers based in UK didn't do gbp to vnd transfers. so i stuck with transferwise.

with the borderless account method, you deposit gbp first, then convert to vnd. the conversion is immediate so you get the rate shown on screen (which is pretty much the same as the xe.com rrate). whereas, if you do'nt use borderless account and send direct the rate may fluctuate slightly (which may turn out to be a lot if you send a large sum) depending on when the conversion happens. Seems thats whats happened in your case.

have you opened a trasferwise borderless account yet?

This may be my only transfer, since I will be moving back to the US at some point once travel resumes, if it does.  I put in enough for the remaining rent payments on my lease and various smaller payments, and will likely have money remaining in the account when I move back to the US.  Because of the NAPAS thing, this turned out to be several months of effort, and I'm glad it finally worked.  I learned a lot of things I didn't know before, though.

Update:  On Monday, 23 March I transferred $AUD1000 from my Australian Westpac account. Note-there is no option to transfer VND
Vietcombank credited to proceeds to my account at 10.06 on Tuesday 24 March.
The VCB AUD buying transfer rate shown on their website was 17,563.34.
So, $1000 at 17,563.34 = 17,563,400. I received 16,898,216.
I know VCB charges some fees (Swift fee, VAT etc) but I don't believe these account for the 665,000 difference.
I will take a VN friend to VCB to try to get an explanation.
Also, if I'd been able to use transferwise I would have got 17,798,000.

QPR_FC
I'm thinking of opening a Sacombank account, if I can recieve funds via  Transferwise.
Can you tell me what type of account you have with Sacombank?
As much detail as possible please.
Thanks.

Just read every post on this thread and grey matter is spilling out my ears.

Want to make sure I understand.  And I don't and won't for a while. Doh!

You have a bank or brokerage account in your native land.

For many, Wise is the way to go for a transfer of cash from your home account converting to dong.  Where are you putting the Dong after transfer?  I am guessing a local VN bank?  Or?

After transfers to local bank or wherever you can use a credit/debit card for payment get and cash at a local branch or ATM.  Standard stuff like abroad at home country.

Some are using accounts like Schwab checking account to hold cash at home and to use the credit/ATM cards in VN with good exchange rates and little/no ATM fees?  Sounds good to me.

If you can pay with visa or direct deposit and can use ATM's. (See Q'a below) Why do you need a local bank?

I haven't connected all the dots yet and don't fully understand this...but do have a couple of questions.

When paying rent, utilities or bigger ticket items ect, are you cutting checks, debit/credit card, set up autopay for recurring expenses? How do you pay for things.  Meals, stores, incidentals you are using a mix of cash/credit/debit I get that.  But paying rents, utilities, buying a scooter, VN version of Uber that needs an account set up, or whatever other stuff how do you pay?

When you go to the ATM, what is the max limit on cash withdrawals?

How big of a mattress do I need? My head hurts, time for Tylenol.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

Some are using accounts like Schwab checking account to hold cash at home and to use the credit/ATM cards in VN with good exchange rates and little/no ATM fees?  Sounds good to me.

It's not little ATM fee; it's zero ATM fee.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

If you can pay with visa or direct deposit and can use ATM's. (See Q'a below) Why do you need a local bank?

People who have income in VN or have the need to transfer money from their home countries need an account with a local bank. 

We don't have a local account.  Opened one when we first arrived, then closed it after a while when we realised there's no need for it.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

When paying rent, utilities or bigger ticket items ect, are you cutting checks, debit/credit card, set up autopay for recurring expenses? How do you pay for things.  Meals, stores, incidentals you are using a mix of cash/credit/debit I get that.  But paying rents, utilities, buying a scooter, VN version of Uber that needs an account set up, or whatever other stuff how do you pay?

Most people pay rent in cash; some transferred from their local account to the landlord's account.  We pay rent and utilities in cash; paid the dentist 61M in cash (since he gave us a family and friend discount of 20%, we didn't feel right using credit card); didn't have a motorbike but paid husband's mountain bike in cash; all meals in cash.  We opened and maintain a cash account with Grab (Uber has been gone 3.5 years now).  All other expenses including supermarket are paid by credit card unless the vendors ask for cash.

I haven't seen any individual using checks to pay for things unless it's a certified check.  Just before the New Year, my nephew bought some land in Bao Loc (100 km from Da Lat) in cash.  He and his wife sold their house in cash, then bought a house and a condo in Saigon two months ago with a combination of money transfer, certified check, and cash.  With large transactions such as property, the money is changed hands at công chứng (notary public).

Jimpdxusa wrote:

When you go to the ATM, what is the max limit on cash withdrawals?

Depends on the machine and your bank if you use an American ATM card.  Schwab gave us the standard limit of $1000/day (much more if you request).  We have two cards (same account), so it's $2000/day.  Most machines give only 3M at a time so we make as many transactions as needed for the amount we wish to have.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

How big of a mattress do I need?

Bed, mattress, and linen are included in the rental. The standard sizes are 1m6 or 1m8.  Most Vietnamese mattresses are thin and firm latex foam.  My husband likes Kymdan mattress for he thinks it helps his back.  It doesn't help mine, so after 4 years, I'll bite the bullet and purchase an American mattress next month.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

My head hurts, time for Tylenol.

It'll be Panadol when you live here.

Jimpdxusa wrote:

How big of a mattress do I need?

How much money do you want to stuff in it?

Great lessons to help myself and others that follow better understand.  Thank you for taking the time.  I know it's a lot so much appreciated.

OceanBeach exactly what I was saying tongue & cheek.  Hehehe.
And thanks to Ciambella for turning my lame joke into a lesson of how bedding works too.  Because you just know I wound be asking that question for real on another Expat forum 😁

I think I got how most of this works now.  Ciambella, given you are an American expat as I will be, I am going to PM you with a few follow up questions for clarification.

Thanks again.

honem wrote:

QPR_FC
I'm thinking of opening a Sacombank account, if I can recieve funds via  Transferwise.
Can you tell me what type of account you have with Sacombank?
As much detail as possible please.
Thanks.

Sacombank New Combo 2 Package (Personal - Current Account)

You get a Visa Debit Card printed at time of opening the account and they will set-up online banking and mobile phone banking app too.
1,000 VND fee per ATM transaction (limited to 30m vnd withdrawal per day)
I connect the Visa Debit Card to my Grab (Moca) Account and all my journeys are cashless
I use the Visa Debit Card card for grocery shopping
I pay my rent via Mobile App/Online banking each month
I pay my mobile phone account via Visa Debit Card

You receive an SMS immediately to your mobile phone each time you use the Visa Debit Card and it will state the transaction amount, shop name and your new account balance.

It just works so well together with the monthly Wise (formerally TransferWise) transfer from Westpac to Sacombank. Happy as Larry

I had trouble with my first Wise transfer from my US CU to Vietcombank, but I just did another one and it went through without a hitch.  The listed cost was $126.69 USD, of which 38.94 was the bank's ACH fee.  I didn't get as good an exchange rate this time, though, so it ended up costing $10.18 more when comparing it to xe.com's mid-market rate.  Last time it ended up costing less.

Jimpdxusa, before I got this local account I had to go to the landlord's bank every month to pay my rent in cash, which usually meant waiting 20 minutes or more even if there were not many ahead of me, because bank transactions are slow affairs here.  I now do it from my phone, and pay other bills and make transfers that way, too.

Reasons to have local bank account:

Use with Grab Taxi (so you not faffing around with cash after each journey). I don't know if they accept foreign credit/debit card as yet within the grab app. They didn't last time I checked.

Top-up viettel mobile. - However, without topping-up directly through your banking app. Use ViettelPay. So, you top-up ViettelPay with your local bank debit card, then when you want to top up mobile use ViettelPay. You get a 2% discount for doing so.

Use Momo to pay for Be. Taxi and Use local bank debit card to top up Momo.

Use momo to pay for lazada shopping. I recently bought mobile charger cable and got a small discount.

It looks like Sacombank is the answer. Thanks for the info. It was more than I expected, but really appreciated.

honem wrote:

Update:  On Monday, 23 March I transferred $AUD1000 from my Australian Westpac account. Note-there is no option to transfer VND
Vietcombank credited to proceeds to my account at 10.06 on Tuesday 24 March.
The VCB AUD buying transfer rate shown on their website was 17,563.34.
So, $1000 at 17,563.34 = 17,563,400. I received 16,898,216.
I know VCB charges some fees (Swift fee, VAT etc) but I don't believe these account for the 665,000 difference.
I will take a VN friend to VCB to try to get an explanation.
Also, if I'd been able to use transferwise I would have got 17,798,000.

The Westpac website:
https://www.westpac.com.au/internationa … nking-fee/

Does not have fee charged by Vietnamese bank. Has listing for many other countries (including EU countries).

However, this Westpac webpage:

https://www.westpac.com.au/internationa … end-money/

Says fee charged by Westpac is  20 AUD. This converts to about 352,000 VNd by today's rate. So, I reckon the Remainder, around 313k Vnd (665k -352k vnd) has been pocketed by vietcombank or vietcombank and other bank(s) along the way.

With Wise you see the fee before the transfer, so you're aware and take this in to account before doing the transfer. You're not left scratching your head after the transfer arrives wondering where 313k VND has gone.

Similar to pick pocketing. But it's allowed because a big bank is doing it.

sanooku wrote:

...Use Momo to pay for Be. Taxi and Use local bank debit card to top up Momo.

Use momo to pay for lazada shopping. I recently bought mobile charger cable and got a small discount.

Can also use momo iOS/Android app for grocery shopping. I used it yesterday at Lotte mart.

No more take wallet out, look for bank card, give card to cashier, cashier swipes card on machine (sometimes need to swipe again), hands machine to you to enter pin, you hand machine back to cashier...

Yesterday, we just scanned code on receipt using momo app. Sorted.

I would like to know if a Wise MC debit card will work in Vietnam, my Visa works everywhere but thinking about opening a Wise account and getting a pre-paid debit card for travel expenses.   Tks

Good information, I have had a Sacom Bank account for a num her of years, but due to an injury, haven't been back to Vietnam in 2 years - I had money in my account when I left , I hope it is still there. ( ). will be returning soon.   Tks

tunnelrat69 wrote:

I would like to know if a Wise MC debit card will work in Vietnam, my Visa works everywhere but thinking about opening a Wise account and getting a pre-paid debit card for travel expenses.   Tks

My main credit card here for 2 1/2 years has been a U.S. BANK brand Mastercard.

It has never been rejected wherever credit/debit cards are accepted and I've attempted to use it.

Discover cards are a bit more troublesome.

Some hotels accept mine as do Lotte Mart and  Mega Market.

However, CoOp mart and Vinmart reject it (but Circle K accepts it).

Agoda wouldn't let me use it but BookingDOTcom does.

Most bank's ATMs don't recognize a Discover card, except for Vietcombank.

If I'm not mistaken, I think you will find that your prepaid debit card MasterCard will work flawlessly at point of sale (POS) transactions, but it could cause you real headaches if you use it in a situation where you are getting an authorization for a future sale, such as using it for a hotel reservation.

You can end up in a situation where the final sale is not matched with the advance authorization, but both total amounts are at least temporarily withheld from your account.

If you are somewhat low on funds that can put you in a real financial squeeze, and it can take up to 14 days or more for a full resolution of outstanding charges and authorizations before your full balance is again available to you.

tunnelrat69 wrote:

I would like to know if a Wise MC debit card will work in Vietnam, my Visa works everywhere but thinking about opening a Wise account and getting a pre-paid debit card for travel expenses.   Tks

I've used it for atm withdrawal's pretty much every month since December 2019. For uk account holder, up to 200 gbp atm withdrawal is free. After that there is a small charge. 200 gbp works out about 6,000,000 Vnd.

I also use Wise borderless account to convert gbp to Vnd (good rate. Small fee) then transfer to Vietnamese local bank. usually really quick. Sometimes within minutes.

Not had the chance to use wise card for POS or hotel reservations. I use credit card for anything over 100 GBP.

Apologies if I've repeated the same here or elsewhere on another thread.

I send from Wise to Vietcombank and its in my Vietcombank account almost immeditly.

error. forget to select Quote thing (again) ... because i hv this idea that Reply means reply

... not having read EVERY post, and i sort of came in at @andybris ...

1. i hv in past checked out (transfer)Wise, and just recently again, and then had a disagreement w them because i strongly disagreed with HAVING to sign up BEFORE i could actually ask any due diligence or simply functional questions about if they could do what i wanted

and i got an incredibly arrogant and dismissive response (once i actually found a 'backdoor' way to send a message w/o creating an account), and they were totally dismissive of the concept that it might actually not only be customer-centric, but just plain sensible, to allow, indeed to encourage,  potential customers to ask any questions they want before opening an account.

(and they DO state that their card does not work in VN)

that said, on a more constructive and practical note, if you want to transfer money to VN from AU (or other countries), there is absolutely no doubt that HAI HA is by far the best, cheapest, and fastest service.

rate is very close to market rate, and for sm amount sent, there seems to be a  fixed fee of about $A3 (i can't recall more detailed fee structure).

they will deliver cash TO YOUR DOOR for no cost in most VN cities, or you can pick-up, or they will put in your VN or accepted int VN bank account

all very fast (incl bank transfer) - basically if i do request at evening, or even in the morning, i get sometime the next day to my door.

you can use AU debit card, or you can use the POLI payment option who take it straight out of your bank w/o a card.

a similar service is US-based RIA, which i hv used w similar results, but stopped because they started some new rule about what accounts could be used - that's right. stupid rule where i had to be IN the country of the bank account i used. like duh. but you can check it out yourself, espec if your bank is US.