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Is anyone else in a similar position? Where you basically have dong coming out of your eyeballs but can't pay off any of your very serious debts with it? And am I just royally screwed here or is there some kind of way around this?
Thanks a lot, everyone.
money banks payments (add tags) Why?
answered about 2 months ago by Stosskraft
I think this situation is quite bad right now but it really depends on your individual situation. I believe you can send VND to an outside account via wire transfer if you have the proper documentation, thought I haven't done this myself. I do transfer USD to my Canadian account and that requires a work permit, labour contract and proof of payment. Now I am not completely sure about this, but my bank did say I could transfer my VND into my Canadian account with the above documentation, but I cannot confirm it. You did not state your type of work and status...meaning do you have a WP and legal paperwork..meaning a Vietnamese Labour agreement (in addition to your company's contract) this will make a big difference to how easy you can get money out. Also you didn't say if your getting paid in USD or VND right now, but recently the VN government has passed/enforced a law stating the foreigners and Vietnamese should be paid in VND...plus alot of companies are using this as an excuse to hoard their USD and cash them in later...hard to tell. I think this recent problem is causing a lot of people to second guess staying and working in VN, there has been alot of negative press outside of VN about the economy here. good luck
answered about 2 months ago by jestert79
Yeah, basically the same position, except no debt, but I'd really like to take the money I've earned home! I'm on my way out in September. My problem is my school pays me through Vietcombank in VND. I went there to do a transfer to my US bank account and the woman (after checking with a supervisor) said I could only transfer $500. Confused, I just left. Maybe I should've asked more questions. There's the extra problem of the language barrier - I'm not sure if she misunderstood me. I have some other friends who tried transferring money and through some exchange rate horror they lost $2000, AND the money is now stranded at a bank in Germany. That bank won't talk to them because they said they only talk to other banks, but Vietcombank said they won't call them either. I have other friends who said they've transferred money with no problem at all, so maybe it just depends on the individual teller...
Vietcom bank is pretty much the worse and useless bank you can deal with. Jester, did you ask why there was a 500 limit on VND transfers? I am guessing you have the correct paper work, so how will you get your money home? I did a bank transfer on Monday with Agribank and had the funds in my account yesterday and it was over $500. So it might be worth checking out other banks..generally the Vietnamese banks charge less to do transfers..2% plus a transaction fee of 10-15$
answered about 2 months ago by Mike
One thing we have found is that you can never rely on banks or even Govt. Depts./Ministries to be fully conversant with the laws, and this explains a lot of variation across the board. A lot of our time is spent studying the laws and bringing people in these Depts. up-to-speed so that we can get things done, otherwise we are continually blocked at each turn. Therefore, the lesson we have learnt is to be fully up to-date with the laws/regulations. Re the currency issues, unfortunately this is a fact of life when one ventures overseas. Usually the decision is made when the positives outweigh the negatives. If a stage is reached when this is reversed, then its time to ship out, move on. We do some business in Malaysia, and a surprise for us now is that a lot of things are now cheaper in Malaysia than Ha Noi. Time for a re-evaluation I'm afraid!!!!
answered about 2 months ago by Aaron
Stosskraft, to answer your question, my salary is quoted in dollars but I'm paid in dong (pretty common I think) at the bank's exchange rate. For the past year I've simply taken my dong to the exchange, grabbed my dollars, deposited them in my HSBC account and transfered them to my BoA account in the States. Simple (sort of). I was under the impression that you couldn't transfer VND to an overseas account. Am I wrong about this? Also, I have a labour contract, requisite paperwork, et cetera. And Mike, as for leaving, I've got a plane ticket home in December, at which point I'll obviously be reevaluating my return, but not until then. Thanks all.
answered about 2 months ago by loominpapa
Aaron, you're correct in saying you can't transfer VND overseas. It has to be converted into another currency. Recently I've heard of people transferring $CDN and GBP to the USA because Vietcombank won't allow transfers in $US either though... You can't wire transfer VND either. Western Union transfers can only be made with $US, and I assume that's the same with Moneygram.
