Near Tet, the fee for exchanging small change is advertised from 15% to... 200 times

It's been a long time since people have seen the 100 - 200 dong notes, yet there are places that sell brand new 100 dong notes for 20,000 dong.

Illustration photo

Usually, at the end of the year, the service of exchanging small change and new money is popular again. Because for a long time, Vietnamese people still have the custom of giving lucky money, giving lucky money at the beginning of the new year and the custom of going to the temple, so the need to exchange new money and small change is very large.

With only one month left until Lunar New Year, the black market for small change is starting to become bustling due to the high demand from the people. On social networks, forums, and websites, there are bustling advertisements, all of which guarantee that the money is 100% new, unused, and still has the bank seal intact.

Pretending to be a person who needs to exchange new money with a denomination of less than 20,000 VND at a place advertising "Cheap New Money Exchange" in Hanoi, the writer was offered a fee of 15% for exchanging money with denominations of 2,000, 10,000, and 20,000 VND, but the fee for exchanging money with smaller denominations, such as 2,000 VND, was up to 25%.

The most interesting thing is the 100 dong note. In today's cash transactions, it has been a long time since people have seen this denomination in circulation. Even the 200 dong to 500 dong denominations are rare. However, there are still places selling "frozen" 100 dong notes.

Because the denomination is so small, the exchange fee is extremely high, you have to pay 20,000 VND to exchange a 100 VND bill, the ratio is 200:1. If you buy 10 bills or more, the price drops to 15,000 VND per bill.

Knowing the high fees, many people still exchange new money for Tet, some exchange tens of millions. Ms. N. Hoa (Hoang Mai) said that she asked her friends who work at the bank to exchange money, but because the demand for exchanging new money at the end of the year is very high, in the end she still had to go to the black market to exchange money.

According to information from the State Bank, in the past few years, on the occasion of Lunar New Year, this unit has hardly printed any more notes with denominations of less than 5,000 VND but only supplied a sufficient amount of money for people's needs. By not printing small denomination notes during Tet, the budget has saved thousands of billions of VND each year.

While banks say they have difficulty supplying small bills, many people wonder why black market money exchange points still have a full supply, with all denominations and quantities available?

Strolling through the currency exchange market, this year there are also new coins appearing. Some places are selling gold-plated $2 coins with a picture of a Rooster printed on them, issued by the US Treasury Department on the occasion of Tet 2017, for 400,000-500,000 VND/set.

2017 gold-plated $2 Rooster-shaped bill (photo: internet)

According to the introduction of these organizations, after the success of printing and issuing the $2 goat-shaped bill for the year of the Goat and the monkey-shaped bill for the year of the Monkey, the US Treasury Department has once again launched the $2 rooster-shaped bill to meet the demand for gifts during the Tet holiday.

According to Cafef