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I was curios about this also and did some searching on the internet. What i found was that ATM's are limited for several reasons.
1. Stack limit
The bill presenter, the devise that spits out your money is designed to only hold a certain number of bills.

2. Bank set limits
This policy exists chiefly to protect the customer in case his card is used by an unauthorized person. It also limits the amount that a customer can be forced to withdraw in a criminal event.

If a machine is set up to dispense 50,000 vnd notes then that would be 40 for 2,000,000 vnd which is about the size limit for the bill presenter. so the 2,00,000 limit may just be a default set up inside the machine

I always go to the citybank and get 6 million. Plus there's no atm fee!

^ When is the last time you got 6 million from a Citibank ATM? I just checked last week and reported here that the new limit was down to 3 million, and was previously 8 million about a month ago.

2 days ago

I have an HSBC A?C and cand draw 9M.

Orange, which ATM location did you use? I'd like to try it with my card and see if the limit is the same. Then we can confirm that different ATM locations for the same bank may have different limits.

The one next to bui vien. I think the name of the street is de tham. Something like that. It connects bui vien to pham ngu lao. Crazy bufallo and go to bar are in that same street!

^OK. Thanks. I know that one. Next time I'm over that way, I'll check it, then go back to the ones in district 7 where I live and check them the same day. Will let everyone know what I find.

Commonwealth bank allowes you 9m. If i use HSBC need to use ot twice...i doubt the same bank has different limits?

^It's possible that limits are set based on the location of the machine. Someone who steals an ATM card or forces it's owner to make a withdrawal is more likely to do that in a remote location. So it's possible that ATMs in remote locations such as the one I use in Q7 have lower limits set than one in a high traffic area such as the Bui Vien / Pham Ngu Lao area. That's what I'd like to confirm.

Ok that makes sense..

Not to confuse the issue more but about two hours ago I was in Can Tho shopping. I stopped by Agri bank ATM and had a chance meeting with the assist mgr. I asked the question on the limits and he asked what kind of card I had. Showed him my Bof A debit visa card. Indicators are that if he have one of the bank cards linked to the ATM (ie; AGRI Bank card/AGRI ATM)you have a higher withdrawal limit. I asked him why the change after Tet and he responded it was directed by the VN Gov and he wasn't sure why.

Also, the centrally located ATMs are often set up to give out larger notes only (no 50,000 bills) so the stack limit would allow larger withdraws.

Parmyd wrote:

Today I had lunch with an HD Bank official, not a higher up mind you, and asked her about it. She told me that the government is cracking down and trying to track the foreign money coming into the country. Apparently there was alot of people avoiding currency laws by withdrawing large sums from some banks atm machines.

This doesn't make much sense as it is not limiting how much you can take out per day, just how much you take out at one time

VungTauDon said "This doesn't make much sense as it is not limiting how much you can take out per day, just how much you take out at one time" I agree and what's a little more confusing is that the bank on this end makes the same (almost) amount on each withdrawl, the State side back loses out because they only charge a set amount per withdrawal.

OK gang...
On the way home today, I stopped by the Citibank ATM in SunWah Tower on Nguyen Hue street in Q1. The limit there is 8 million, as it has been for the past 4 years I've been going there. I stopped going there about 6 months ago, when Citibank installed ATMs near my house in Q7, and they also had 8 million limits. As of about a month ago, those ATMs now have 3 million limits. So now we know for sure that different ATM locations for the same bank CAN have different limits.

Plus no atm fee, right?!

^Although most every ATM says there will be a fee, in my experience it's never deducted from the amount withdrawn from the machine. Instead, it's charged to your home bank, and your home bank deducts from your account. So, if the bank exchange rate is 20,800 VND / USD, then what comes out of my USA account is 8,000,000 / 20,800 = $384.62. Then add the local ATM fee, which is what? 30,000 VND? That amounts to $1.44 USD. So my bank statement will show a total USD amount of $384.62 + $1.44 = $386.06 for my 8 million VND withdrawal here. Additional to that is a flat $5 USD ATM usage fee charged to me by my home bank for every out-of-network withdrawal. That's why it's important to me to be able to withdraw as much as I can at one time, so that $5 fee is spread over more money I withdraw.

To put it another way, when I choose the 8 million amount shown on the ATM screen, I get 8 million VND. What happens after that is between Citibank and my home bank, but ultimately, I pay for it.

saigonmonkey wrote:

OK gang...
On the way home today, I stopped by the Citibank ATM in SunWah Tower on Nguyen Hue street in Q1. The limit there is 8 million, as it has been for the past 4 years I've been going there. I stopped going there about 6 months ago, when Citibank installed ATMs near my house in Q7, and they also had 8 million limits. As of about a month ago, those ATMs now have 3 million limits. So now we know for sure that different ATM locations for the same bank CAN have different limits.

Saigonmonkey,

Are you using a Vietnamese Citibank account or a foreign account? Most Vietnamese accounts the restrictions do not apply, It is only with foreign ATM cards that the 2-3 milion limit applies. As to why they are doing it is anybodies guess. I was told that it was a way to monitor the the illegal money flow but as VungTuaDon pointed out you can still withdraw 2 million at a time from the ATM with no problem. But it does appear to be a new government rule on foreign ATM withdrawals.

^ Foreign account. Wells Fargo NA. I get charged 5 bucks because it's not Citibank.

So I don't think the limit has anything to do with foreign or Vietnam. I think it's more of an ATM location issue, as I alluded earlier.

SO I just went to the citybank ATM in Da tham (close to crazy buffalo) with my portuguese debit card and got 8 million, no fee.

Hi OO...
A few days ago, I went to one of the Citibank ATMs near my house that I had previously said had only a 3 million limit. It's back up to 8 million now. If there WAS some kind of Vietnamese government intervention making the limits drop, maybe Citibank complained (?) and got theirs raised again (?). I don't know. The main thing is we can get decent amounts of money now, if we need.

saigonmonkey wrote:

Hi OO...
A few days ago, I went to one of the Citibank ATMs near my house that I had previously said had only a 3 million limit. It's back up to 8 million now. If there WAS some kind of Vietnamese government intervention making the limits drop, maybe Citibank complained (?) and got theirs raised again (?). I don't know. The main thing is we can get decent amounts of money now, if we need.

Thanks for the info. I guess I will drive down to HCMC on the first. I wonder if anyone knows whether Techcombank has upped their limit again?

I'm curious about Techcombank also. Agri ATM in Can Tho still only gave out 3mil last Friday. I didn't try a Techcombank ATM

Tried two ATM's today in Can Tho to see if they increased the withdrawal rate. Short answer no. AGRI 3mil, Techcombank still 2mil...

Don't know anything about any of this but I did go to a bank to get 6m VND. Boy was I surprised. As I recall it cost a little over $10 U.S. This was just one month ago.