Besides BIDV, which banks have increased SMS Banking fees?

(NLDO) - A series of banks have announced an adjustment of SMS Banking fees from a fixed monthly rate to an actual rate of 700 VND/message/month.

After the Lao Dong Newspaper published the article "Customers are 'shocked' by the skyrocketing SMS Banking fees", comments continued to reflect that not only BIDV but many other banks have also adjusted the balance change notification fee (SMS Banking) recently.

Mr. Hoang Tien (living in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City), a technology car driver, said that last October, he received a notification that the SMS Banking fee from an account opened at VietinBank was 220,000 VND. This fee has increased significantly compared to before. In particular, due to the nature of technology car driving, there are many trips where the fee is only a few tens of thousands of VND. If the SMS fee is calculated based on the actual occurrence, it will be very high, from several hundred thousand VND to millions of VND.

On forums and social networks, many bank account owners said they were charged several hundred thousand dong, even millions of dong, in SMS Banking fees.

From the beginning of October 2024, BIDV has adjusted the service fee for account balance change notification (BSMS) for regular customers to VND 10,000/subscriber/month for less than 15 messages. From 15 messages or more, the fee will be calculated based on the actual number of messages generated, which is VND 700/SMS message.

This bank also encourages customers to switch to receiving account balance change notifications via BIDV SmartBanking digital banking (OTT messages) completely free of charge.

Before BIDV, a series of other banks also increased SMS Banking service fees.

Many people still prefer to receive messages via SMS Banking even though banks encourage receiving messages via free Mobile Banking apps.

Vietcombank applies a fee mechanism and the maintenance fee for the proactive SMS service is 10,000 VND/month/subscriber if the customer generates less than 20 messages/month. From 20 messages/month/subscriber or more, this bank charges an actual fee of 700 VND/message.

From November 1, Vietcombank also stopped providing proactive SMS service for customers who have not fulfilled their service fee payment obligations within the last 3 consecutive months.

VietinBank also applies SMS Banking fee calculation of 11,000 VND/month/subscriber if the number of messages is less than 14. If it is 15 messages or more, the actual fee incurred will be 800 VND/message.

At Sacombank , customers using SMS Banking service will have to pay a fee of 15,000 VND/month/subscriber when the number of messages received is less than 30 messages. If customers receive more than 30 messages/month, the additional fee will be 700 VND/message.

VPBank is also one of the banks that recently changed its SMS Banking service fee schedule, applying a fixed fee of VND 100,000/payment account/subscriber/month and a fee based on the actual number of messages.

The fees will increase gradually according to the actual number of messages generated, under 15 messages is 10,000 VND; from 16-30 messages is 20,000 VND/month/subscriber...

If VPBank customers generate 101 or more SMS messages per month, the fee will be VND 100,000 and VND 700/message for 101 or more messages.

Along with increasing SMS service fees, banks also encourage customers to switch to receiving balance change notifications on digital banking applications (apps) to avoid fees. According to a commercial bank, switching from using SMS Banking fees to free on Mobile Banking apps will help save costs for both customers and banks.

"Because the fee that the bank charges is based on the fee announced by the telecommunications company and only charges for messages notifying of balance changes, while for other messages such as sending OTP codes, notifications of changes to personal information upon request, debt reminder notifications, etc., the bank itself pays the fee to the telecommunications companies" - a bank explained.

Recently, the Vietnam Banking Association and banks have repeatedly requested network operators to reduce service text message fees - which are currently charged about 3 times higher than normal text message fees.

Currently, network operators still do not reduce text message fees, and until now, this actual SMS fee is "fully charged" to customers according to the actual number of messages generated.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/ngoai-bidv-nhung-ngan-hang-nao-da-tang-phi-sms-banking-196241121151418444.htm