Many banks review to cancel cards, delete junk accounts

Nhiều ngân hàng đang rà soát để hủy thẻ, đóng các tài khoản không giao dịch - Ảnh: Q.ĐỊNH — Many banks are reviewing to cancel cards and close accounts that do not make transactions.

Previously, after the credit card debt increased from 8.5 million VND to 8.8 billion VND, Eximbank announced to its branches and transaction offices regarding service fees.

Accordingly, for customers' payment accounts that have not been used for a long time, have not generated any transactions and have a balance of 0 VND, the bank will not debit SMS Banking fees or account management fees. Meanwhile, according to banking experts, there should be "hard" regulations on the process of handling cards that have been discontinued for many years.

All kinds of "laughing and crying" about cards

After the public reported that the card debt of 8.5 million VND suddenly increased to 8.8 billion VND, Mr. Thanh ( Ho Chi Minh City) checked and was surprised to discover that he owed two banks nearly 5 million VND. Of which, one bank has collected a management fee from 2005 to now of about 4 million VND and an account at another bank has a negative 780,000 VND. "The bank requires full payment to delete the account," said Mr. Thanh.

Similarly, Mr. LB (Ho Chi Minh City) said he opened an account at Dong A Bank but has not used it for eight years. When he recently checked, the bank reported that he owed 250,000 VND! "Banks should delete inactive card accounts for a certain period of time, instead of just leaving them there and then charging fees," Mr. B. said indignantly.

After the 8.5 million VND card debt increased to 8.8 billion VND, Mr. Vinh Hung (Ho Chi Minh City) went to the bank to cancel his ATM card. After paying 50,000 VND to cancel the card as requested, Mr. Hung asked the bank to confirm in writing but was refused, only verbal confirmation, so he was quite worried.

"I don't know if the account has been deleted or not. Will I be asked to pay a card maintenance fee later?" Mr. Vinh Hung worried.

In fact, many companies require new employees to make ATM cards with the bank where the company does business. Therefore, when transferring to another company, employees often throw away their old ATM cards and use new accounts at other banks. This leads to the ridiculous situation of many employees being in debt to the bank, even though they no longer use the service.

Most customer debt comes from account maintenance fees. After a period of no transactions, depending on the bank, about 6-12 months, an additional account maintenance fee will be charged. Due to not paying attention to this policy, many customers will see their balance "disappear" or their account balances go negative up to millions after a long period of inactivity.

Meanwhile, with credit cards, users will have to pay an annual fee - a yearly fee to maintain the card. This fee varies from bank to bank, ranging from 120,000-500,000 VND/year, except for some places that have a free policy to "run" KPI.

Banks must review processes

A bank representative said that in cases where the card is not used for a long time, the bank still regularly interacts with customers through channels such as SMS, email, notification app... to ensure that customers are updated with the fee policy for cardholders.

For credit cards that have been issued but not activated or used, the bank will not charge any fees. For cards that have been activated but not used, an annual fee may be incurred or waived, depending on the policy of the product type the customer uses.

"The fee policy for each period is announced and consulted in advance during the card registration process and during the customer's card usage process," he said.

Meanwhile, a TPBank leader said that according to the bank's policies and terms, if the card is only temporarily locked, the annual fee will still apply. When the customer makes a final payment and requests to cancel the card, the annual fee will no longer apply. For cards that have not had any transactions for a long time, the bank will send emails/SMS and make phone calls to communicate with the customer.

"Before and after the State Bank's official dispatch, TPBank publicly posted the fee schedule and card-related fees as stated in the card usage terms. The fee schedules are regularly updated via email/statement sent to customers. If any, fees will be detailed on the customer's statement/sub-account," said a representative of this bank.

According to Mr. Tran Nhat Nam - a banking and finance expert, up to now, the State Bank has not yet had a general regulation on how long an account must be suspended, and commercial banks will have to close that account (junk account). Therefore, there are banks that apply the policy of "suspending" card accounts, not charging fees if that account has not generated any transactions for more than 12 months.

Meanwhile, many banks still "quietly" maintain cards and collect fees, showing "unprofessionalism" and unfairness.

According to Mr. Nam, ATM cards are not debt accounts, so they cannot have a negative balance. After the minimum balance (usually around 50,000 VND) is exhausted, it is unreasonable for the bank to continue deducting money. "The State Bank should have general regulations on the deadline for closing accounts or temporarily "suspending" accounts to avoid incurring costs for users," Mr. Nam suggested.

You should proactively cancel your card and close your account if you do not use it.

According to experts' recommendations, customers should proactively close both cards and accounts when not in use to avoid incurring costs.

"It should be noted that if you only close the card without closing the account, you are likely to be charged a management or maintenance fee," an expert warned. According to this person, no system can help people know how many accounts they have at how many banks. Therefore, each person should check by themselves, call the hotline or go to the transaction office to check and complete the procedure.

TH (according to Tuoi Tre)

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