The current service maintenance fee is 10,000 VND/month (11,000 VND including VAT). According to the new fee schedule, subscribers receiving fewer than 20 SMS messages per month will pay 11,000 VND/month including VAT, regardless of the number of messages received. For subscribers receiving more than 20 SMS messages per month, Vietcombank will charge based on the actual number of messages sent during the month, at a rate of 700 VND/message from the 21st message onwards. This means users will pay 770 VND/message including VAT.
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New fee schedule to be implemented at Vietcombank soon. (Screenshot).
Ms. Phan Cam Nhung (an office worker and online salesperson) said that online payments have become popular partly thanks to banks offering free money transfers. However, increasing the service fee for sending balance change notifications is tantamount to another form of charging for money transfers. This would hinder the progress of cashless payments for the public. The only consolation for customers is that this bank has stopped sending balance change notifications for transactions under 50,000 VND. Therefore, regular personal transactions such as breakfast, lunch, or a cup of coffee will not be affected, provided that the payment is only for oneself. Vietcombank is offering two methods of balance change notifications for customers to choose from: SMS notifications and app notifications. Vietcombank stated that if customers are currently using proactive SMS notifications and do not wish to continue the service, they can switch to receiving balance change notifications via the app for free. In early 2023, Vietcombank began raising its SMS Banking service fees, facing strong backlash. In February 2023, Vietcombank announced an increase in SMS Banking fees from 11,000 VND/month on a tiered system, potentially reaching 77,000 VND/month depending on the number of messages. Over the course of an year, users could potentially pay up to 924,000 VND in SMS message fees. Vietcombank stated that the tiered fee adjustment for balance notifications via SMS was intended to partially offset these costs and to better suit the needs of different customer groups. Not only Vietcombank, but a number of other banks also announced increases in SMS Banking fees. Following this, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the Vietnam Banking Association chaired an online meeting with banks and network operators to resolve the difficulties. At the meeting, commercial banks and telecommunications companies agreed on a flat fee of 11,000 VND per month (including VAT) with no limit on the number of messages when using cashless payment services.