Owning one or more bank accounts is a common practice for many people today. However, after incidents where many customers incurred millions of dong in bank fees despite not using their accounts, some people realized that not only bank cards, but even regular payment accounts have various fees automatically applied.
A checking account is a non-term deposit account at a bank used for services such as money transfers, cash withdrawals, bill payments, etc. This is the most common type of account and is therefore often understood as a "bank account".
Recently, banks have been competing to waive or reduce service fees, most commonly for opening accounts, using digital banking, transferring money, and withdrawing cash at ATMs. However, customers still have to pay some fixed fees when owning a bank account, most commonly management fees or account maintenance fees. This means that whether you open a bank card (debit card, credit card, etc.) or not, you may still incur fees.
Account management fees are recurring payments required to continue using the bank's account and related services.
Management fees at domestic commercial banks typically range from 5,000 to 11,000 VND per month. Many banks offer fee waivers if customers maintain an average account balance above a specified level. Some banks currently waive this fee unconditionally, including MBB, ACB, Techcombank, Timo,SHB , OUB, Woori Bank, etc.
Foreign banks tend to charge significantly higher account management fees, potentially reaching 100,000-200,000 VND per month. While both charge 200,000 VND per month, Public Bank customers only need to maintain an average balance of over 1 million VND to be exempt from the fee, while ANZ Bank requires up to 50 million VND – the highest in the entire banking system currently.
In addition, customers should pay attention to: Account maintenance fee. After a period of inactivity with no active transactions such as money transfers or receipts (excluding interest payments or fees deducted by the bank), usually around 6-12 months, the bank will charge an additional account maintenance fee. This fee aims to encourage and ensure customers regularly use their accounts. In addition to the account's operating time, some banks also require an average account balance.
Because they didn't pay attention to this policy, many customers were shocked to find millions of dong "vanished" from their accounts after a long period of inactivity.
Therefore, when you are no longer using the services of a particular bank, you should proactively close both your card and account to avoid unnecessary fees. Many people only close their card but not their account, leading to the bank charging them management or maintenance fees.
Currently, there is no database system that can help determine how many bank accounts and cards each person owns. The only way is to manually check from memory, call the hotline, or go to a bank branch to look up and close the account.
In that case, you may have to pay an additional account closing fee. Typically, if you close an account less than 12 months after opening, the bank will charge a fee of 20,000-50,000 VND. Some banks, mainly foreign-owned, may charge 100,000-300,000 VND for this procedure. Even with banks that waive account closing fees, you may still need to pay all outstanding fees before the procedure can be completed.
TH (according to VnExpress)Source
Comment (0)