Open a personal bank account - Comparison of banks offers

Interesting, I opened accounts with HD and ANZ and didnt have to show proof, as with all things here, there doesnt seem to be any consitency

Income proof? Ouch. How the hell do I proof the income when it's going to come from my clients abroad and I only live here . I can show them my company profile from Singapore government with my name on it though.

Direct deposit from outside of Viet Nam is okay, its when you make deposits from inside Viet Nam that a problem can start.

Since I don't have a bank account here, what I now do is that I just get my girlfriend to open me PayPal and transfer the cash from PayPal to her bank account. Reckon I can just transfer from her account to mine?

For HSBC, I had to provide my passport, visa, as well as a document signed and stamped by the police confirming my residence here in Vietnam. A word of advise: Get everything properly signed and stamped (easier said than done since no one here knows exactly what is proper...)

When I wanted to open an account, I went to all the local banks like Vietin and Tecombank. I couldn't open any account with them. I had a valid visa then and they asked for my passport and just told me that I can't have an account with them.

I went to HSBC and just gave them my passport and everything is done. Service is fine and all but you need to keep the average monthly balance of 3 mil or they will deduct 200k at the end of the month if you don't.

I'm not sure about other banks but the good thing about HSBC is they have a cash deposit machine so if you need to deposit cash then you can just do it over the machine instead of going to the counter and it makes things much more convenient and fast.

Mate,

What's your visa here? Which HSBC branch did you go to?

-- Sam

When I opened an account with HSBC I just had the 3 month visa. I went to the branch on Phan Dang Luu Street in Phu Nhuan District. The number is 49I-49H Phan Dang Luu.

Alrightie. So no work permit whatsoever, yes? When did you open your account?

Yea. No work permit whatsoever. Opened it about 7 to 8 months ago. Their staff speak good English as well so you don't have to worry about communication for sure though.

Does HSBC allow you to access your VN account from abroad? Say, if I had a USD account here, could I go back home and withdraw cash there without getting hit with a million fees?

Well from what I know, I don't think you can. The same concept as if you draw money from your account back home with the card in Vietnam. You still have to end up paying certain fees. I guess the same applies as well.

Another thing is that HSBC Vietnam does not have any relation to HSBC bank in your country I think. I did some transactions before to transfer some money from Singapore HSBC account to Vietnam HSBC account. I was told that I still had to pay the fees even though both were HSBC.

Budman1 wrote:

colinoscapee wrote:

Budman, not sure if its government owned banks that want that, but the banks I use have never asked for proof of income.

I've got accounts with VCB, Tecnobank and ANZ. They always have requested proof of income before accepting a deposit. Thought they all did.

Guess I've been lucky but I've never had to provide any documentation to deposit VND. I use several banks and cash deposits of US dollars are difficult to impossible.  It differs not only bank to bank but often branch to branch.  When I transfer money into Vietnam with Western Union ACB has refused to put the transfer into my USD account with them since they said I didn't have the documentation they required to show that the money came from outside of vietnam. Logic did not prevail. Some smaller branches of Vietcombank have given me hard times with cash deposits accompanied by the customs form showing I brought the money into Vietnam but in the end accepted the deposits.

I'm always charged 1000 VND for withdrawing from Vietcombank ATMs even though I have a Vietcombank account. I think withdrawing from other banks' ATMs incurs a 2000-3000 VND fee.

That's practically nothing and you don't even notice it missing from your account, but it does show up on your receipt, so saying that ATM withdrawals have no fee is misleading.

Vietcombank starting charging accounts VND1100 (VND 1000 fee + VAT) for ATM withdrawals at it's own ATM machines about 1/1/14.  So far I haven't been charged any fees for ATM withdrawals from ACB and Vietin accounts when using their own ATM machines.

You only needed your passport to open an acct with HSBC? No proof of residence? No Visa?

No proof of residency needed. Everywhere I've used my passport for identification except the post office the person checking the passport also checks for a valid visa.  Since I've always been here legally I don't know what they would do if you didn't have a visa (or visa exemption.) HSBC in Vietnam is a high cost bank, not like it was in Hong Kong or Singapore and there are no reciprocal benefits to a HSBC account elsewhere unless you want to deposit enough money somewhere to become a Premier customer.

ssuprnova wrote:

Does HSBC allow you to access your VN account from abroad? Say, if I had a USD account here, could I go back home and withdraw cash there without getting hit with a million fees?

I know this answer is late but the answer is "no" unless you are a Premier customer

I have a HD ATM account and find its great, I have withdrawn 20 million VND without a problem. The bank seems to be easy to get along with, they also own Vietjet and are a fairly young bank.

Sounds promising.  Just remember however that especially as expats we're likely to be unaware of the financial health of any bank and deposits are only insured to a maximum for 50 million vnd per individual.

Clarimonda wrote:

BANK NAME : ANZ (39 Le Duan, D1) (Australia &New Zealand bank)

ANZ is a great choice unless you are a US citizen, in which case you aren't allowed to open an account with them.

Why cant Americans open an account with ANZ.

TaunSgn had a very simple, well laid out request.

He did not ask for supplementary commentary.

It's his post and he explained why he needed it this way,... so why don't you good people just reply along the lines he requested. All sundry commentary, no matter how useful or otherwise, can be posted elsewhere, perhaps on a post you yourselves set up, ie personal experiences about banks in Vietnam and/or SE Asia. 

zwetschgen wrote:

TaunSgn had a very simple, well laid out request.

He did not ask for supplementary commentary.

It's his post and he explained why he needed it this way,... so why don't you good people just reply along the lines he requested. All sundry commentary, no matter how useful or otherwise, can be posted elsewhere, perhaps on a post you yourselves set up, ie personal experiences about banks in Vietnam and/or SE Asia. 

Maybe you missed the bit at the bottom of the OP's request, other comments, so thats exactly what was given.

EricSchmeric wrote:

Clarimonda wrote:

BANK NAME : ANZ (39 Le Duan, D1) (Australia &New Zealand bank)

ANZ is a great choice unless you are a US citizen, in which case you aren't allowed to open an account with them.

What??? I've had a account with them for over 7 years.

I have no idea why. I was in there less than a week ago trying to open an account only to be refused on account of my nationality. I have dual citizenship and asked if I could open an account on my other passport, the manager refused. I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought about their policy, especially since I already have an ANZ account in another country.

She told me that it was their new policy and I suspect it might have something to do with the IRS. Who knows? You're probably alright if you opened an account with them here in the past although I wouldn't press the issue too much with them because they are very obtuse.

Why would you be talking to the bank manager about opening an account, seems they would have more important matters to deal with then account openings

If you must know...I didn't get very far with the staff and was quite infuriated by the treatment I received so I took it up with the manager.

So the manager told you that they dont open accounts for Americans.

First the staff and then the manager. Are you going anywhere with this?

Yes I am, banks are not allowed to refuse a customer upon nationality, there is more to it. So why dont you spit out exactly why they wont give you an account.

Why don't you go down to ANZ, tell them u are American and see for yourself.

I certainly will and Im sure there will be more to it then just because your an American. If this hits the media, how will ANZ bank feel discriminating against Americans in the same way Vietnamese were singled out at Poipet border crossing.I know that there is more to this then what you are implying.

I welcome you and anyone else to go and independently verify this information.

The first thing I was asked when I went in to open an account was for my nationality. When I told them USA, the girl at reception immediately told me that I was ineligible. I told her that I also have another passport and one of her colleagues told me that I still couldn't open an account. I spoke to someone else who repeated the same line of BS. Finally I talked to the manager who informed me that even if I opened an account with my other passport, it would still show up that I was American on their computer.

I'd personally love for the media to get wind of this, not only is it a stupid policy but the staff were also very unfriendly (not that I was much friendlier). I was never given a concrete reason as to why I couldn't open an account. Everyone just kept repeating that it was their (new) policy.

Well maybe you need to let the VN media know, as they kicked up a big stink when Vietnamese were discriminated by the Thai government.

My friend is American. He came to ANZ to ask about opening an account 2 months ago. He was explained that they couldn't offer bank account to US citizen anymore due to Confidential policy: US government can require the bank to provide them US citizen's account information/report (and even deduct from account without owner's permission the amount they request for tax purnishment for example), the bank must follow. This is against the bank confidential policy (to protect customer info) which must be applied for all customers consistently. My friend was advise to double check with the policy in US also. However he doesn't have time to do it.
He also has Viet Nam citizenship (ID) which has just been issued. He is a Viet Kieu. He asked to open account with it. However the female staff advised to not do that. If he hide US citizen info from them, just show VN ID he can open account because they are not police to investigate. But in the future if US government finds out it will be a big problem for him, then the bank has to follow the request from government if any. The female staff knew my friend is American already so she couldn't ignor it.

The problem happens in some banks in Singapore & Hong Kong also.
My friend is ok with that as the girl was patient to explain clearly. If you are not happy about the policy & the staff you can ask them for more clarification.

Thanks for the clarification Clarimonda. I wish the ANZ employees had just 1/10th as much class as you. That would have made my experience there so much more pleasant.

BANK NAME : HD Bank
DOCUMENTS NEEDED TO OPEN THE ACCOUNT: Just passport
FEES TO OPEN THE AC/ (VND):Small to none if I remember rightly
MINIMUM BALANCE (USD or VND): -
INTERNET BANKING (Yes/No/Comment): Yes, works well
DEBIT CARD PROVIDED: Yes, Visa debit card
CREDIT CARDS AVAILABLE: I believe so
FEES FOR ATM WITHDRAWAL: From HD atms: nothing
EASY TO USE (ATMs, branches, English, ...): Not too many atms around, English was passable at my small branch.
OTHER COMMENTS: Very easy to set up an account. So far I've had no issues with their service. No problems withdrawing cash. Can't comment on depositing cash though yet sorry.

Yes that is correct. As of the beginning of the year, it was determined by VN banks that the US government was too intrusive into people's personal business so, VN banks closed the door on them.

VN banks accounts are structured a little differently. For example, if one has accounts that need to be paid on in the U.S. and you want to do it online, there are no "Routing Numbers"...so, it will not work. Maybe HSBC or CITIBANK is different but for me personally, these banks are very closely associated with China.

If you are employed in Viet Nam, it may be better to have a direct deposit set up with your employer so that there are no concerns from the bank (or government) as to where the source of your money is coming from. This way you have verifiable proof that it's coming from a legitimate source.  This can also help if you choose to wire money to another country to avoid a lot of paperwork/questions.