Exchange new money for Tet: Exchange 1 million VND and receive 900,000 VND

On a group of residents of an apartment complex in Hanoi, a post accepting exchange of small change and new money for Tet received nearly 1,000 comments. According to the post owner, they will exchange money for free for the first 100 people who place orders, from the 101st person, the exchange fee is 5%, applied to money of all denominations.

Most commenters were willing to pay a 5% fee to exchange new money. These people said that in recent years, exchanging money has been quite difficult and the 5% fee is acceptable.

Tra My - a bank employee - said that every year, by the end of the year, she receives hundreds of messages from friends asking to exchange for new money.

Because of the custom of giving lucky money during the Lunar New Year, the demand for exchanging new money during Tet is very high. Most people want to exchange lucky money with denominations of VND 10,000 or more. In addition, a smaller group of people want to exchange small bills of VND 1,000, VND 2,000, VND 5,000 for use when going to pagodas.

New money exchange services are always "hot" near Tet (Photo: Tuyen Quang Police).

Tra My has no intention of providing money exchange services because most of the people who come to her are relatives and friends. Therefore, My often helps them exchange money without charging any fees.

She added that currently, each bank employee is usually only allowed to exchange between 50 million VND and 100 million VND for free (applicable to all denominations). If that bank employee wants to exchange more, he or she needs to buy this quota from a colleague for an amount agreed upon by both parties.

Tuan Minh - an employee of a large bank in Hanoi - said that normally, bank employees often use the exchange of new money as a way to thank loyal customers during the past year. Therefore, most bank employees make full use of their exchange quota. A few people provide money exchange services, while the rest often exchange for free for customers, relatives, and friends.

"If they do provide money exchange services, bank employees are quite secretive and don't want their colleagues to know because it would give them a bad reputation. This is not really supported," Minh shared.

Tuan Minh believes that at present, people should only ask friends and relatives who are bank employees to exchange new money with a sufficient amount. In addition, people should not exchange money with strangers to avoid paying too high fees, and even in many cases, being scammed.

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Bachelor of Law, legal consultant Ngoc Thao, said that according to Articles 12 and 13 of Circular No. 25/2013 dated December 2, 2013 of the State Bank of Vietnam, only the State Bank, branches, transaction offices of the State Bank, credit institutions, branches of foreign banks, and the State Treasury have the function of collecting and exchanging money that does not meet the standards for circulation.

Thus, according to legal regulations, there are currently only regulations on exchanging money that does not meet circulation standards, there are no regulations on exchanging old money for new money that still meets circulation standards.

For business entities that conduct business of exchanging money for profit, they may be punished for trading in illegal products.

According to Decree 88/2019 dated November 14, 2019 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the field of currency and banking, any act of exchanging new money or small change to enjoy the difference in percentage or exchanging money for profit is illegal and can be fined from 20 to 40 million VND. The above fine applies to individuals, while for organizations it will be doubled.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/kinh-doanh/doi-tien-moi-dip-tet-doi-1-trieu-dong-nhan-ve-900000-dong-20240126101111802.htm