Three Vietnamese banks introduced or revised account fees in quick succession in August. Local outlet Kenh14 reported the news on August 3, covering MSB (Hang Hai Commercial Bank), ACB (Asia Commercial Bank), and VIETBANK (Vietnam Thuong Tin Bank). Short-term travelers are barely affected, but residents living and working with a local account, and anyone using SMS notifications through a Vietnamese company, will see real costs. Which accounts, how much, and from when? Here's a rundown with yen conversions, along with the points to check and ways to avoid the charges.<\/p>\n
The yen conversions in this article are calculated using 10,000 dong \u2248 60 yen<\/strong>(1 dong \u2248 0.006 yen, based on early August 2026 rates). Exchange rates move daily, so treat these as rough guides.<\/p>\n The bank most likely to affect the largest number of residents is MSB. On its digital account app \u201cTNEX,\u201daccounts with no deposits or withdrawals made by the user for 12 consecutive months<\/strong>will be charged a 20,000 dong (about 120 yen, VAT included) monthly management fee starting August 20. The fee is collected on the 20th of each month.<\/p>\n The key point is that it's judged by whether the user themselves moved the account. System-driven movements like automatic loan repayments, interest deposits, or automatic fee deductions don't count as \u201cactivity.\u201d In other words, it's aimed squarely at \u201cdormant\u201d accounts with no salary, transfers, or direct debits at all. Flip that around, though, andsending a transfer or payment from TNEX yourself even once a month is enough to avoid the fee<\/strong>. Anyone who has moved back to Japan but kept the account open, or who has left an unused secondary account dormant, should either use it once before August 20 or decide to close it.<\/p>\n ACB revised its international debit card fee schedule starting in August, addinga charge of 5,500 dong (about 33 yen, VAT included) per failed payment transaction<\/strong>. Read just the headline and it sounds like \u201cyou get charged every time a payment fails,\u201d but in reality it only applies when all three of the following overlap.<\/p>\n Failures count as cases such as insufficient balance in the linked account, exceeding the spending limit, or a suspended card. The target is the situation where a low-usage card gets rejected dozens of times by overseas services \u2014 essentially a failed subscription-signup retry loop. If you suspect your card keeps getting declined for ad spend or app charges, the practical fix is to stop leaving automatic retries running against an insufficient balance.<\/p>\n What VIETBANK changed is the pricing for itscorporate<\/strong>balance-change SMS notification service. The target is company accounts rather than personal accounts, so this applies to people running a business in Vietnam. First, for August and September, it's a flat 50,000 dong (about 300 yen, excluding VAT) per month. And thenusage-based pricing tied to the number of messages sent, starting October 1<\/strong>takes over.<\/p>\nMSB: From August 20, 20,000 dong (about 120 yen) per month for accounts left dormant for 12 months<\/h2>\n
ACB's 5,500 dong fee only applies when \u201call three conditions\u201d are met<\/h2>\n
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VIETBANK's SMS notifications switch to usage-based pricing in October, capped at 200,000 dong (about 1,200 yen)<\/h2>\n