Another bank sharply increased SMS Banking fees to a maximum of 550,000 VND/month

Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Joint Stock Bank ( Sacombank ) has just announced that it will adjust the fee calculation for automatic transaction notification service via SMS (SMS Banking) from September 1.

Accordingly, for accounts receiving 30 messages or less per month, the fee will remain at the old level of VND 16,500/month/account/phone number (including VAT).

For accounts receiving more than 30 messages/month, Sacombank will charge a fee based on the number of messages, the fee is 550 VND/message and the maximum fee is 550,000 VND/month/account/subscriber (including VAT).

In addition, Sacombank's fee for OTP authentication service via SMS is 11,000 VND/month/account/subscriber (including VAT).

Banks increase SMS Banking fees from September 1 and encourage customers to switch to receiving balance change notifications on digital banking applications.

According to Sacombank, this adjusted fee is still lower than the cost that the bank is paying to network operators. Explaining further about the maximum fee of VND550,000/month, the representative of this bank said that it is equivalent to 1,000 SMS messages and very few customers generate such a large number. If calculated on a per-message basis, Sacombank charges VND550/message including VAT, lower than some other banks.

To save SMS costs, Sacombank encourages customers to use the free transaction notification service on the Sacombank Pay or mBanking application and the mSign online transaction authentication method, which is both free and secure, limiting the situation of fake messages for fraud.

Another bank that also increased SMS fees from September 1 is the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade ( VietinBank ). Accordingly, the fee for customers' payment accounts that generate less than 15 SMS messages/month is 10,000 VND/phone number. If the customer's account generates more than 15 SMS messages/month, the actual fee will be calculated based on the number of messages at 800 VND/message (excluding VAT).

Previously, Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank ( VPBank ) announced a change in the SMS Banking fee schedule, with a fixed monthly package of VND 12,000/subscriber/month converted to an increasing fee schedule calculated based on the number of messages received each month. The highest level in the SMS Banking fee schedule is VND 70,000/account number/1 subscriber/month, applied when customers receive 101 or more SMS messages.

VPBank explained that the fee adjustment increases gradually according to the number of messages received to ensure customers who use the service with the criteria of using more - paying more.

According to banks, in recent years, banks have had to compensate for SMS Banking fees to telecommunication service providers. The Vietnam Banking Association has repeatedly sent documents requesting network operators to reduce SMS banking fees for banks but has not received any response. Therefore, banks have started to increase these fees, encouraging customers to receive free balance notifications via digital banking channels.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/kinh-te/them-ngan-hang-tang-manh-phi-sms-banking-len-toi-da-550000-dong-thang-20230826101528863.htm