Chaos in exchange fees for lucky money, be careful of scams

Fees doubled

On February 4, on a social networking site named HL, it was announced: "Exchange money until the 30th of Tet, the closer to Tet, the higher the fee." Mr. HL provided a table of fees for exchanging new lucky money for some denominations compared to 2 weeks ago. The 1,000 VND denomination increased from 10 to 20%, the 20,000 VND denomination increased from 6 - 8% to 15 - 20%, the 50,000 VND denomination increased from 7 to 8%... the fee increased sharply, double or triple the previous fee. Other denominations such as 2,000 VND, 5,000 VND, 100,000 VND, 200,000 VND still have the same exchange fee of 10%, 4% and 3% respectively.

On the currency exchange forum in Thu Duc City (HCMC), a person named LD posted that he had 4 bundles (each bundle is 100 bills) of 20,000 VND and 3 bundles of 100,000 VND denominations to exchange for the same 5% fee for "fast transaction". Thus, to exchange a total of 38 million VND in new money, the customer would have to pay 1.9 million VND in fees.

Loạn phí đổi tiền lì xì, cẩn trọng lừa đảo- Ảnh 1. — New currency exchange fee increased

Compared to previous years, each denomination has increased by 1-10%. This year's market is characterized by a chaotic exchange fee for 20,000 VND bills. A person named HN reported that the exchange fee for 20,000 VND bills is 13%, 100,000 VND bills is 3%, some places reported 20%, some 15%, some 13%. Some banks said that the new 20,000 VND bills are very rare this year, many people could not exchange even 1 wad. Meanwhile, large denomination bills such as 100,000 VND and 200,000 VND have been available since early. Denominations of 10,000 VND and 50,000 VND have appeared more in recent weeks.

On some social networking sites, there are some people who offer to exchange a few thousand 200 VND bills, but most of them are old bills. The fee for exchanging 200 VND bills is also sky-high. Specifically, with a volume of nearly 5,000 200 VND bills, the price of the whole lot is 1.4 million VND, 400,000 VND higher than the real value, equivalent to 40%. Most of the money exchange points inform that they will deliver for free if they are near the address, otherwise they will order Grab delivery for a fee.

In addition to the new banknotes, the prices of banknotes with dragon images of other countries or souvenir money with dragon motifs have also increased dramatically. Macao's 100 denomination banknotes with dragon images cost 150,000 VND/10 pieces (2 weeks ago, they were about 400,000 VND/100 pieces); the pair of Australian gold and silver coins with dragon images increased in price from 60,000 VND/pair to 90,000 VND/pair, some places sell them for 150,000 VND/pair; Bhutanese dragon coins 1 Ngutrum combo of 5 pieces cost 150,000 VND, 10 pieces cost 250,000 VND, 20 pieces cost 450,000 VND...

Particularly for the 2 USD denomination, which is often favored by the market in recent years, the fee has decreased on the days before Tet, from 60,000 VND/note to 55,000 VND/note. However, the 2 USD denomination has been transformed quite richly and diversely by services, such as the 3D gold-plated bill with the image of a dragon on the left and right of the bill to celebrate the upcoming New Year of the Dragon. The full set of products including the 3D gold dragon 2 USD bill and red envelopes costs 135,000 VND/set.

Beware of scams

Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh - Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) Ho Chi Minh City branch said that the demand for payment and circulation of goods and currency at the end of the year often increases, this is an objective law, credit institutions strengthen payment work; monetary work - treasury, ensuring to meet the cash demand in terms of quantity, structure and quality of money for circulation of goods and currency. At the same time, through cash collection and payment operations, improve the quality of money in circulation; collect, exchange and select money that does not meet the standards for circulation.

Mr. Lenh emphasized that only the State Bank branches in provinces and cities and credit institutions are allowed to collect and exchange money that does not meet the circulation standards. Therefore, all acts of collecting and exchanging new money or small change from individuals and other organizations to enjoy the difference; and unauthorized exchange of money online are violations of the law and must be prevented and strictly handled. The State Bank hopes that relevant agencies and sectors will promptly report and inform to prevent and handle promptly. At the same time, inform people to be fully aware of the policy as well as prevent related legal risks.

Agribank has just issued a warning that in the days leading up to Tet, the exchange of small change and new money becomes more bustling due to the tradition of giving lucky money as lucky money. Taking advantage of this need, many money exchange services have appeared on social networks with attractive offers such as "low exchange fees", "real money commitment", "original series of money"... causing many people to fall into the situation of "losing both money and health".

Agribank has issued warnings about the new form of money exchange scam that is currently being "offered" widely on websites, Facebook, Zalo, TikTok... Depending on the quantity and denomination of money, the exchange fee will be different. Users will receive home delivery nationwide. In addition to the service of exchanging new money and small change, the above addresses also advertise the exchange of rare coins with a value many times higher than the actual face value. For bills with beautiful serial numbers, the selling price can be up to millions of dong.

In addition to having to pay extra money exchange fees, there have been many cases where users only received fake money, embezzled money, incorrect serial numbers, and old, worn-out money. Some people even lost all their deposits and had their communication cut off. Agribank recommends that people and customers do not exchange money illegally; proactively prevent and avoid the schemes and tricks of subjects who take advantage of money exchange activities for the purpose of profiteering and defrauding property.

According to Decree 88/2019 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.

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