Many banks charge fees for accounts with insufficient balance.

Illustration photo.

In order to encourage customers to use digital banking services, reduce operating costs and manage "forgotten" accounts, many banks have just announced adjustments to account management fees and added some new charges from today.

Accordingly, banks are applying fees based on minimum balances and account activity, and tightening SMS Banking service fees to encourage customers to receive balance change notifications via mobile applications, a free form that helps reduce operating costs.

Specifically, Vietnam Export Import Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Eximbank) has just announced new account management fees and SMS Banking fees applicable to individual customers from December 1, 2025. According to the new regulations, accounts maintaining an average balance of less than VND 500,000/month will be charged VND 11,000/month, instead of the previous free threshold of VND 300,000. The bank also started charging VND 90,000/quarter for SMS Banking services for Gold and Platinum customers, except for those using the Combo Casa package.

Similarly, since December, Vietnam International Commercial Joint Stock Bank (VIB ) has also implemented a new fee for inactive accounts. Payment accounts that have not generated any transactions for 12 consecutive months will be charged VND10,000/month (excluding VAT). If the balance is not enough to cover the fee, the bank will deduct the remaining amount, the remaining amount will be waived. VIB also recommends that customers close their accounts if they are no longer in use to avoid incurring costs.

Not only Eximbank and VIB, many other banks also apply a fee policy based on the balance level. For example, Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank ( Sacombank ) applies a fee of VND 6,000/month for accounts with an average balance of the previous month under VND 500,000, starting from July 11, 2025. Other service packages at this bank such as payment accounts with payment cards, Alert-Automatic transaction notification via Sacombank Pay, Sacombank Pay, Alert SMS-Automatic transaction notification... have fees ranging from VND 10,000 to VND 20,000/month depending on the balance condition. Only accounts opened on Sacombank Pay or secured overdrafts are still free.

Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development ( BIDV ) currently charges VND5,000/month for accounts with an average balance of less than VND2 million; VND3,000/month for accounts with an average balance of VND2 to VND10 million and is free for accounts with a balance of VND10 million or more.

Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank (VPBank) requires Autolink payment accounts to maintain a balance of at least 2 million VND to be exempt from fees, if lower, it will incur a fee of 10,000 VND/month. Meanwhile, Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) only sets a minimum of 50,000 VND to waive account management fees.

Overall, the fee adjustments show that banks are moving to a usage-based and account maintenance-based fee model, which both encourages customers to proactively manage their balances and reduces the number of “forgotten” accounts in the system.

Along with adjusting fees, the banking industry is also promoting the synchronization and standardization of customer data. The latest update from the State Bank shows that as of November 14, 2025, more than 136.1 million personal records and more than 1.4 million organizational records have been biometrically verified via chip-based CCCD cards and the VNeID application. 57 credit institutions and 39 payment intermediaries have enabled CCCD authentication directly on mobile applications; 63 credit institutions have deployed CCCD readers at counters, and 21 units have integrated VNeID into business processes.

Data standardization not only creates a foundation for electronic identification but also helps banks manage accounts effectively, improve transaction safety and limit fraud. Initial results from the Information System to support management, monitoring and risk prevention for customers (SIMO) with more than 1.7 million warnings and more than 567,000 transactions actively stopped by users have shown the positive impact of data standardization.

Adjustments to fee schedules and efforts to standardize customer data show that the banking industry is moving towards a smart management model, encouraging customers to use digital services, reducing operating costs and enhancing transaction security, while creating a solid foundation for electronic identification and fraud prevention in the system.

Comment (0)