A series of banks sharply increased SMS Banking fees, encouraging customers to switch to using apps

ANTD.VN - Many banks have increased the service fee for receiving balance change messages (SMS Banking), and at the same time encouraged customers to switch to receiving information via apps.

Most recently, VPBank has announced the application of a fee schedule for the service of receiving notification of changes via text messages (SMS Banking). Accordingly, the fee will be calculated based on the number of messages received each month instead of being collected at a fixed rate as before.

Specifically, from September 1, 2023, VPBank will adjust the SMS Banking fee from a fixed monthly package of VND 12,000/account number/subscriber to an increasing fee schedule calculated based on the number of messages received each month. The fee for the number of messages from 0-15 messages/account/1 phone number is VND 10,000/month; from 15-30 messages is VND 20,000/month; from 31-50 messages is VND 30,000/month; from 51-100 messages is VND 50,000/month and from 101 messages or more is VND 70,000/month.

The above fee schedule does not include VAT and does not apply to priority customers classified as VPBank Diamond and VPBank Diamond Elite.

Also according to VPBank, the bank will only charge SMS Banking fees for transactions with a value of VND 100,000 or more. Transactions with a value of less than VND 100,000 (minimum transaction amount) will not receive balance change notifications on the phone but will receive them on the VPBank NEO e-Banking app. The balance tracking service on the VPBank NEO app has been deployed by VPBank since the beginning of 2021 and is completely free.

“With this change, we hope that customers will switch to managing balance fluctuations on the VPBank NEO app (free for life) instead of using SMS banking (fee-based) as before, to help save costs for both customers and the bank. Because even with the increased fees, the bank still has to compensate for tens of billions of VND each year to pay telecommunications companies,” said a VPBank representative.

A series of banks sharply increased SMS Banking fees, encouraging customers to switch to using photo apps 1

Many banks increase SMS Banking fees up to 70,000 - 80,000 VND/month

In fact, VPBank is not the first bank to apply SMS Banking fees according to a progressive fee schedule. In the past 2 years, especially in the first quarter of 2023, due to the increasing loss when paying SMS Banking fees to telecommunications service providers, banks have simultaneously announced an increase in this fee, the highest level up to 70,000-80,000 VND/month.

For example, Eximbank, from April 1, in addition to the previous fee of 15,000 VND/month/account/subscriber, will charge an additional fee of 55,000 VND/month/account/subscriber for customers whose number of SMS banking messages fluctuates from 50 messages/month or more.

Or SeABank in early April also increased the SMS Banking service fee from 22,000 VND/month to 33,000 VND/month/subscriber for regular customers; from 11,000 VND/month to 16,500 VND/month for priority customers. The above fee is applied uniformly, regardless of the number of messages.

Similarly, VIB Bank also applies a fee of VND33,000/month/subscriber for the basic package; the savings package (only notifies balance changes for transactions with a value of VND500,000 or more) is VND16,500/month/subscriber.

Since the beginning of the year, TPBank has also applied a fee of VND11,000/month/subscriber for the basic package (notification of balance changes for transactions of VND500,000 or more). For customers registering 2 and 3 mobile subscribers to receive messages, the fee is VND27,500/month and VND49,500/month for the basic subscription package, respectively.

For the full SMS Banking package, the applicable fee is 22,000 VND/subscriber; 49,500 VND/2 subscribers and 82,500 VND/3 subscribers.

ACB Bank applies a fee of VND16,500/month for regular customers. For Eco, Payroll and other payment accounts, ACB charges VND9,900/month/subscriber/account. For priority accounts and business accounts, this bank waives SMS banking service fees.

For 4 state-owned commercial banks (Agribank, BIDV, Vietinbank, Vietcombank) and some banks with large market shares such as MB, the current fee is still 11,000 VND/subscriber/month. Previously, early last year, Vietcombank also applied a progressive SMS Banking fee schedule, with the highest fee up to 77,000 VND/month, but this bank later reduced it again when the banks reached an agreement on the fee with the network operators (11,000 VND/subscriber/month).

Some banks with low SMS banking service fees include: MSB, the fee for using this service is 8,800 VND/month/subscriber; HDBank, with a fee of 9,900 VND/month/subscriber.

With banks increasing SMS Banking fees, recently, customers have strongly shifted to receiving balance changes via apps.

According to banks, using the app not only reduces the risk of personal information being leaked, but it is also easy to track and manage even when transacting abroad without having to change phone numbers (roaming) like using SMS Banking. And especially, using the app is completely free.

Source link