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Jphasia wrote:

Hello, I am new here in Vietnam. Came to work last October.
I opened a bank account as soon as I arrived in Vietcombank for my salary deposit and it was quite forward. No issues.
However, I was recommended to open an account in either HSBC or Standard Chartered which seems easier banks for foreigner here. Especially for bank transfers oversees, customer services, english speaking...
Both of these banks came to my office. They are quite demanding to get new customers...they offer quite similar services, free this and free this...
I have 2 years work permit and 2 years TRC and local contract so no issue to open an account.
Any comments / preferences from either one of these bank?

I would stick with Vietcombank, seeing as your salary is paid into that bank they have everything on file and will be easy enough to do a transfer.

Jphasia wrote:

Hello, I am new here in Vietnam. Came to work last October.
I opened a bank account as soon as I arrived in Vietcombank for my salary deposit and it was quite forward. No issues.
However, I was recommended to open an account in either HSBC or Standard Chartered which seems easier banks for foreigner here. Especially for bank transfers oversees, customer services, english speaking...
Both of these banks came to my office. They are quite demanding to get new customers...they offer quite similar services, free this and free this...
I have 2 years work permit and 2 years TRC and local contract so no issue to open an account.
Any comments / preferences from either one of these bank?

I highly recommend SC from personal experience. I interviewed with both banks and found HSBC operates under stricter regulation due to being caught up in a money laundering scandal back in 2012. Since I was moving decent amount of money into Vietnam, I wanted assurance that I can move it back out without any issues. And sure enough, SC has been terrific.

In you are in HCMC, I have a great contact at SC in their D1 branch. She speaks fluent English. DM me if you would like her contact info.

Jphasia wrote:

Hello, I am new here in Vietnam. Came to work last October.
I opened a bank account as soon as I arrived in Vietcombank for my salary deposit and it was quite forward. No issues.
However, I was recommended to open an account in either HSBC or Standard Chartered which seems easier banks for foreigner here. Especially for bank transfers oversees, customer services, english speaking...
Both of these banks came to my office. They are quite demanding to get new customers...they offer quite similar services, free this and free this...
I have 2 years work permit and 2 years TRC and local contract so no issue to open an account.
Any comments / preferences from either one of these bank?

I had great service from Standard Chartered, they treat you very well as a priority customer. No waiting at the desk, they have a priority office within the bank with English speaking Relationship manager assigned to your account. Their Internet Banking site is easy to use too.
The only reason I changed to Sacombank was because of the low interest rate on term deposits at Standard & any of the International Banks.
Mind you I have no complaints about Sacombank either.

HSBC is prfererrable

Thanks all for the feedback. I made my mind already and will go with SC.
As I mentioned, both HSBC and SC came to our office  to make their presentations for expat banking, offering some special offers...
Most of our staff chose SC. I also found that HSBC was less flexible.
SC will come directly to my office to open the accounts. I don't even need to their branch.
Thanks

Useful insights, many thanks