Cash, Banking and Western Union In Vietnam

Bring Euros and change it here.

It's not difficult to open a bank account, keep away from government owned banks.

You can't send money out via WU.

Open your bank account with the vnd you have, or change it to Euros and take it home, no problem.

There are foreign ATMs Citibank, ANZ, HSBC and local.
They dispense dong.
Probably dollars or euros easiest to exchange. US$5000 limit in immigration w/o declaration.
Regulations

I almost never spend the dollars that I bring, but good to have for backup when you have a banking emergency. Or for buying a big thing.
Personally I don't bother with a local bank account - while in Vietnam do as the Vietnamese, I say (ie. don't trust banks, hoard cash and gold). But I am not working for a Vietnamese company for which you probably need a bank account here.

FYI search older threads for 'banking' and 'ATM'

Ok.

Thanks for info.

I do as Gobot explained.  Use my credit cards to get local cash from ATM's. Works pretty much every place.  Even while living overseas for extended times, I only got local bank account once, in Germany.

Here this is rally a cash society, so ATM cash is good.

I would not plan on putting money in bank and being able to take it with you. But that's me.

US expat in Da Nang here. I'm retired so I don't earn any money in Vietnam. Before I left the States, I opened an international account at Charles Schwab and they issued me a Visa debit card. It works at most large bank ATMs and they dispense up to 5 million VND a day; Schwab rebates ALL ATM fees and charges NO currency fees. We pay our rent with the Visa card and use online banking to pay it off each month.

If you're leaving the country with VND, just throw it in your shaving kit in carry on. It's highly unlikely they'll stop you for it.

Me, I don't like the banks, fees, restrictions and those wonderful conversion rates.  Profit - Profit - Profit.  I use bitcoin, it is internet based and international, all I need to find is someone to buy it wherever I am in the world, and I get the local currency.  If I wanted to move money out of Vietnam - the opposite applies, I buy some bitcoin with Dong and it's back on the internet

Using visa branded debit cards, you can withdraw money from your bank account abroad here in Vietnam at pretty much any banks ATM machine or inside the branch itself. If you withdraw money from the card inside the branch of the teller, it'll cost you 3%. If you withdraw from ATM, you're limited to up to two or $500 value per transaction. Most banks charge  ATM fees of up to five dollars per transaction. MB bank (which is owned by the military) does not charge foreign transaction fees and the exchange rate is almost parity with the market. The difference is negligible. That's who I use. Before leaving Europe, maybe you should find a bank that has an  Account that offers no foreign transaction fees when you're abroad.  Many people use dollars here, but you can go to gold shops at Ben 10 market and get a much better exchange rate than the official exchange rate. There's always a risk dealing with these. Make sure your euros for US dollars are clean and have not been written on with the pan; banks will not except them.

Thanks again for info dudes. I just need to get the dong into my head now and im all set.