Exchange small change, new money: "Thirsty" for 20,000 VND denomination

As scheduled, the market for small change and new money near Tet is "feverish" due to the need to exchange new money to give lucky money to children during Tet according to traditional Vietnamese customs and to visit pagodas on the first day of the year. The story of every household, every person... racing to exchange small change and new money has become an immutable "rule".

Casual customers are almost never given priority by banks to exchange small money for Tet. (Source: Internet).

However, the amount of small change and new money issued by the State Bank of Vietnam in the last months of the year is limited, so the phenomenon of "thirst" for small change and new money still occurs continuously. Small denominations, especially from 5,000 VND or less, suddenly become a "valuable" item during Tet, especially in big cities.

Difficult to exchange small money at the bank

Earlier this week, the State Bank of Vietnam's Hanoi branch was bustling with activity as local commercial banks came to conduct transactions, including exchanging new money and small bills for both individual and corporate customers.

However, the State Bank of Vietnam, Hanoi branch, said that at the end of the year, the State Bank will focus on disbursing cash to commercial banks to ensure the structure of money in circulation, which only partially meets the people's demand for new money. Therefore, money with denominations of VND50,000 or less this year is said to be less than previous years, especially the scarcity of VND20,000 denominations.

This is because in previous years, the demand for new 20,000 VND bills was high, the State Bank spent a lot but after Tet, commercial banks returned it and the demand for this money was not high during the year. Therefore, if we continue to print new bills of this denomination, it will be a waste.

Many customers complain that they cannot exchange small bills at commercial banks. Ms. Nguyen Thuy Anh, an accountant for an import-export company, said that although it is a familiar business, this year the bank only allowed us to exchange half of the low-value bills (VND10,000, VND20,000) compared to demand.

Loyal customers are also having their credit limits cut, so it is not surprising that banks turn a blind eye to people’s need to exchange lucky money. According to a survey, major commercial banks such as Vietcombank, BIDV, Agribank, etc. do not exchange small change or new money for people in need.

"The bank only exchanges torn money and money that is not functional enough for circulation, but does not exchange new money or low-value money for lucky money needs," said an employee at the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) headquarters.

A director of a retail bank on Tay Son Street in Hanoi said that the bank does not have much new money, so it often sets out specific criteria for providing new money to customers, with priority given to customers with bank accounts and also allocating the amount according to different types of customers. This year, banknotes with denominations of 20,000-50,000 VND are quite small, because the allocation from the State Bank is not large.

An employee of a bank on Thai Ha Street (Hanoi) also informed that new 500 VND and 20,000 VND bills are still rare during the Tet holiday. Even employees and officers working in the bank are only allowed to exchange a certain amount of 500 VND bills. This person said that every year he usually exchanges for relatives and friends, but this year he did not dare to promise in advance because there are not many small denominations of 500 VND, 1,000 VND and 2,000 VND.

Black market fees remain "sky-high"

In fact, when commercial banks cannot meet the people's demand for new money, the black market will have a fee-based money exchange service. Currently, the internet is flooded with websites that exchange small change and new money with announcements inviting all kinds of denominations, even denominations that are rare in commercial banks.

Accordingly, the common exchange fee is 15-25%, even up to 35-40%. Nguyen Xi and Dinh Le streets (Hanoi) have long been famous for their small change exchange service. According to the reporter's observation, just a short distance from Dinh Le to Nguyen Xi, there are more than a dozen women "ambush" to do money exchange business. With denominations such as 10,000, 20,000, 50,000, 100,000 original polymer coins, unused, are exchanged at a rate of 10 "to" 9. With rarer denominations, such as 10,000 dong red paper money, 2 USD coins, the exchange fee is quite high, such as 10,000 dong at a rate of 13 "to" 10, if you take a lot, it will be reduced to 12-12.5 "to" 10.

Ms. Le Thi Cham, who specializes in exchanging money on this street, said that if you exchange a “decent” amount, regardless of day or night, you just need to call 15 minutes in advance and someone will bring the money to your home. According to her, the service will operate until the 30th of Tet, but the closer it gets to Tet, the higher the fee will be.

On the trays displayed at the stalls outside Huong Pagoda as well as many other temples, small change and hell money are sold together. Here, people do not say how many 500-dong bills can be exchanged for 100,000 VND, but their prices are already listed at 70,000 VND/shelf (100 bills) of 500-dong denomination, 120,000 VND/shelf of 1,000-dong denomination... Even the 200-dong bills, which seem to be unusable, are the most "expensive" in these places because they are considered to be unique at 30,000 VND/shelf.

After a period of asking acquaintances to exchange money without success, Ms. Vu Thi Dinh in Tay Ho, Hanoi had to accept to exchange small bills at Tay Ho Palace. “My relatives in the countryside and I are the only one living in Hanoi, so my uncles and aunts called to ask them to exchange some small bills for New Year gifts and to go to the pagoda, but for more than a week now I have been running around everywhere but have not been able to exchange. Now I have to accept the high fee, without it, “there is no way back home.”

“I thought I could save some money to spend at home for Tet, but I never expected to have to pay such a high fee. From next year onwards, I will have to ask my relatives to pay me back as soon as I receive the phone call,” Ms. Dinh lamented.

Another channel for exchanging small change that many people are looking for is online addresses. At the address Zinzon, the fee for exchanging small change of 500 VND (for over 100,000 VND) will be 25%, 1,000 VND will be 16%... An individual named Anh Tuan "advertises" that he will exchange with a "soft" fee: 5,000 VND, 10,000 VND, and the amount exchanged is from 3 million VND or more, the exchange fee is only 10%. If the delivery is to your home, the customer must pay for gas.

This year, lucky money according to the year of birth is also very expensive. Currently, some individuals providing money exchange services for Tet have launched a collection of lucky money in denominations of 50,000 VND and 2 USD according to the year of birth at unbelievable prices. 50,000 VND bills with the last serial number from 1945-1994 are being offered for 120,000 VND/bill; 2 USD bills with the last serial number from 1970-2000 are being offered for 250,000 VND/bill, nearly 6 times higher than the exchange rate according to the bank./.

According to (Vietnam+)