Making a bank transfer in Vietnamese Dong (VND)
Vietnamese dong (VND) is the sole legal tender of Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia. It’s considered one of the minor world currencies, although it still serves a vital role in e-commerce and finance. As such, you might find yourself in need of making a bank transfer in this currency.
It might be for an online purchase, for tourism purposes, for a Forex trading session, or for a variety of other activities. Fortunately, Vietnam is a growing, thriving economy with a developed financial sector. It makes financial operations in and to the country simple, and there are plenty of ways to conduct these.
So, what are some of the more popular means?
Online money services
Online money services, or online wallets, are a plethora of apps and websites that enable quick monetary transactions between accounts. They also offer a variety of bridges between their own system, the infrastructures of other services, and banks. As such, you can easily make a bank transfer using an online money service.
Such services are known for their relatively simple and streamlined functionalities. They typically don’t require any extensive information or lengthy procedures to create an account. To create an account on one of these, you’ll need to:
- Set up an account using an email, phone number, and password. At this stage, you’ll have to confirm the number with a text message code.
- Provide additional information for identity verification. It typically includes proof of address, ID photo, and your photo with your ID. It’s a necessary step required to combat money laundering. You typically won’t be able to use a high-end provider without completing such measures.
- Set up a VND balance. A number of top services allow you to create a VND account and switch between currencies. It’s important to make your transfers in VND because the conversion fees for a bank are often less lenient and transparent. At the same time, platforms like Wise don’t charge any conversion fees.
- Attach the bank info to make a transfer. It typically includes your IBAN and the bank’s BIC. Some other providers enable a card transaction, but these are scarcer.
While most providers follow a similar model, they differ in many small instances. Notably, not all providers support VND. Most Vietnamese banks are capable of converting at least the major world currencies into VND, but the fees can be exorbitant. It’s better to control the process extensively.
Money service pros
Money services like Wise, Revolut, PayPal (all available in Vietnam) have several distinct advantages when it comes to making a bank transfer in the local currency:
- Low fees. While you’ll still have to pay the destination bank some fees, especially because it’s likely going to be an international transfer, the services themselves charge very low commissions.
- Fast processing times. It usually takes at most several days for these services to process the payment. The rest is completely within the purview of the bank.
- Large number of supported currencies. While some top-tier providers, like Cash App, focus primarily on the major currencies, there are plenty of services that operate in VND (like Wise and Revolut).
- Lenient registration criteria. These services are often chosen specifically because it doesn’t take much time or effort to create an account here.
You’ll still need to make your pick. The best apps for VND transfers are, as you suspect, Wise and Revolut. They operate in VND, don’t take long to register, and have a generally pleasant user experience. There are plenty of other providers, including several local e-wallets, like MoMo or ZaloPay.
Crypto finance
Crypto is a good option for making a VND bank payment if you don’t want to bother with regulations. At this point, crypto is still not regulated and is largely a grey sector of the economy. Crypto trading is legal in the country, and it’s the second-largest market for cryptocurrencies in the world.
It’s recognized widely on many crypto services, which is why it’s possible to cash out your crypto right to a Vietnamese bank account. You can do it on most major exchanges and crypto wallets with little to no hindrance. The only necessary step is to set up an account, buy crypto, sell it, and withdraw the funds to a bank account.
Crypto pros
It seems shady, but the practice is completely legitimate. There are several important advantages to this approach:
- Speed. Crypto transfers are typically very quick, if not instant. It may still take the bank some time to process the payment, however.
- Low fees. Besides that trading spread and possible withdrawal fees, you won’t have to pay anything. These are very low.
- No taxation. Crypto income is currently not taxable in Vietnam, which means that the recipient won’t have to register the transaction in any way.
- Ease of registration. The process is incredibly simple, much simpler than even with e-wallets.
It’s probably one of the easiest options, although it’s still hard to fully trust crypto services. While the market is on the rise in Vietnam, and big crypto services are as trustworthy as they go, it’s still not a fully orthodox way to send money. The risks are higher, but they aren’t really high in the end.
Bank transfers
You can file a local transfer if you have a bank account in Vietnam. To do it, you need to be at least a legal resident with a 12-month permit/visa. It’s obviously a harder option, but also the most comfortable if you go through all that effort of opening a bank account.
If you plan on moving to Vietnam, it’s enough to say that you can open an account there as a mere resident in this country. The transfers are fast, cheap, and comfortable. However, it’s not really a relevant tip because traveling to Vietnam and getting a visa just to make regular bank transfers isn’t prudent. If you want to learn about it in light of moving to Vietnam, you likely already know enough.
