ATMs keep breaking down despite higher transaction fees
ATMs keep breaking down despite higher transaction fees
Seven months after a program in which salary is paid via ATM was launched, many banks have increased their transaction charges, but workers are still having problems withdrawing their wages in cash.
A number of ATM booths in the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai Province have broken down recently, angering long lines of workers waiting to get their cash to cover daily expenses.
Truong Duc Hue, who works for a factory in Cu Chi District, said none of a dozen of ATM booths from several different banks he tried on the morning of September 11 were able to complete his cash withdrawal transaction.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Trang, a worker in Dong Nai’s Nhon Trach District, said the 10th day of every month is “an obsession” for her, as managing to enter an ATM booth and come out with cash is almost impossible, with all of the machines in the area packed with hundreds of workers.
“Several times the machine has given me the ‘out of cash’ message when it was my turn,” she said.
Even though it remains a real challenge for workers to withdraw their wages from ATMs, many banks, including like Vietcombank, Agribank, and BIDV, have increased fees for interbank transfers.
Losing money
Phan Van Hoi, a worker in Binh Duong, said he lost his entire June salary due to an ATM error and the irresponsibility of Vietcombank.
On June 18 he went to withdraw his wage at a Vietcombank ATM booth inside the Binh Duong Industrial Park. On his first attempt, the machine displayed a message saying the transaction was not completed due to an error.
Hoi thus switched to another machine at a different location, this time he was told his account balance was smaller than the sum he wished to withdraw.
The worker immediately rushed back to the first ATM, only to receive the same error message.
“I contacted the bank, and a month later they told me that the transaction was completed at the second machine and someone had taken my money,” he told Tuoi Tre.
“This is unreasonable. How could the second machine produce my money when it said I did not have enough money left in my balance?”
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