Owes millions of dong in bank fees because of an empty account

Some banks still periodically charge fees for accounts that have been inactive for many years, leaving many people shocked to suddenly find themselves owing millions of dong in fees.

Following an incident where a customer owed 8.8 billion VND in credit card debt, many people proactively called their banks' hotlines to check their accounts and bank cards that had been opened years ago but were not used, only to discover outstanding fees amounting to millions of VND.

Recently, Ms. Thao (Ho Chi Minh City) called the Export-Import Bank (Eximbank) to check her long-inactive payment account and was surprised to be informed by an employee that she owed over a million dong in fees.

This outstanding fee includes a quarterly balance change notification fee of VND 49,000 and a monthly account management fee of VND 11,000, due to the account not maintaining sufficient balance from 2018 to the present.

Ms. Thao said that this was a mandatory company account opened about ten years ago to receive monthly salaries. Later, the company requested that she switch to a different bank account to receive her salary, but did not advise her to close the old bank account to avoid fees.

"Meanwhile, for many years, I haven't transacted using this account and haven't received any messages from the bank notifying me of monthly fees," Ms. Thao said.

In a social media group with thousands of members, many former employees of Ms. Thao's workplace also reported similar situations. Depending on the account package, services, and the number of years unused, some people owe fees ranging from several hundred thousand to millions of dong.

A customer's account was in the negative by nearly 2 million VND due to outstanding bank fees. (Photo: Provided by the subject) — A customer's account was in the negative by nearly 2 million VND due to outstanding bank fees. (Photo: *Provided by the subject)*

Another case is Mr. Huong (Ho Chi Minh City), after calling all the banks where he used to have accounts, he discovered that he owed fees to two banks: DongABank (a few hundred thousand dong) and Eximbank (over 1 million dong).

"The bank employee said that if I wanted to close the account, I had to pay this fee. If I don't pay, I'm worried that someday I'll be in debt of tens of millions of dong if they keep charging me this annual fee," Mr. Huong said.

In fact, customers who owe service fees are not considered to have borrowed from the bank, therefore it does not affect their credit history or classify them as bad debt. Furthermore, banks typically do not charge interest on these recurring fees.

It's very common for someone to have multiple unused bank accounts. Bank accounts opened to "support" acquaintances in meeting sales targets, or to receive salary payments from a previous employer but never used, are situations many bank account users encounter.

Currently, each bank has different policies regarding inactive accounts. However, most banks on the market, such as Vietcombank, Agribank , MB, MSB, HDBank, Techcombank, etc., have a policy of temporarily locking or closing accounts if the account holder does not transact and maintains a balance for 6 months to 3 years.

Temporarily blocking or closing inactive personal payment accounts helps banks avoid administrative fees while also protecting account holders from potential charges that may arise from not using or forgetting their accounts.

Quynh Trang

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