Job Discussion Forums

[peas4luck]

Hi,

I've been working in China and am headed to Vietnam this week. I have a bank account in China and my ATM card has the UnionPay logo. I looked on the internet and apparently the card can be used in Vietnam.

Has anyone else been in a similar situation? My other choice is to wire the funds to my US account which is a whole lot of hassle and extra fees. Of course, that is much better than getting to Vietnam and not being able to access my money!

Any ideas or experiences greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Christy

[toiyeuthitmeo]

Bring CASH. You can change RMB at the airport. ATMs here support SmartLink (a co-op of VN banks) as well as Visa/Master, and finally each bank has it's own ATMs, including a few internationals like ANZ, which can be troublesome for cards of other banks. Your card probably WILL work somewhere, but it could be a big hassle. Just to give you an anecdotal example of ATMs here, I have a card issued by one of the biggest major Vietnamese banks, and some occasions in Saigon I've had to run all over town to find an ATM that will take my card-- and that is assuming there are no "Problems with Host" "Network Maintenance" or "Some guy used three different cards and took every last banknote out of me" problems.

[peas4luck]

Thank you! I went to my bank today and found out my card won't work outside of China. I could have gotten a card that will but I don't have enough time.

So I have two choices: wire the money to my US account and use my ATM card until I can set up a Vietnamese bank account or get travelers checks. It's not a terribly huge amount (10,000 rmb) but a big amount to me and I get really nervous traveling with cash. I haven't used travelers checks in over a decade and can't image those will be much easier than trying to find an ATM that works. Any thoughts?

Thanks so much for your response!