Payment via POS in Nghe An: Sales are still low

(Baonghean) - Cashless payment is an inevitable trend as technology develops, but people's cash spending habits have not changed much. In Nghe An, ATM cards have developed quite strongly, but POS card payment acceptance machines are very few.

Low POS payment turnover

According to the synthesis of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) branch in Nghe An province, the province currently has 1,850 units paying salaries via accounts, with a turnover of over VND4,431 billion. The province has 933 POS installed, 399 units accepting card payments. Since the beginning of the year, there have been 5,182 transactions with a turnover of over VND196 billion. Thus, the turnover of payments via POS accounts for a very small proportion compared to the turnover of salary payments via accounts in the area.

Customers swipe their cards through POS at Big C Vinh checkout counter.

Some units with the largest number of customers transacting via POS are Vietcombank Vinh branch, Vietinbank Nghe An branch. Vietcombank Vinh branch is one of the provinces with a large number of installed POS. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Son - Deputy Head of Service Department, Vietcombank Vinh branch said, our bank currently has 369 POS machines installed at 314 card accepting units, mainly concentrated in Vinh city, Cua Lo town and some districts with several locations installing card payment machines such as Dien Chau, Yen Thanh, Thanh Chuong, Nghia Dan, Quynh Luu, Con Cuong...

The units that usually install card payment machines are mainly supermarkets, stores, shopping malls, restaurants, and hotels. The transaction value via POS in the first 11 months of 2016 was 143 billion VND. “The investment cost for a card swiping machine is about 10 million VND, but to conveniently meet transaction requirements, we install the equipment for free for stores. The service fee is only collected from the store owner, not from the customer. The lowest is 0.5%, the highest is 3% of the payment amount.”- Mr. Son said.

Currently, Big C is one of the units with the highest POS payment turnover of Vietcombank Vinh. At Big C Vinh there are 21 machines, Vietcombank's card payment turnover alone is 12.7 billion VND. Ms. Bach Yen - Employee of this supermarket said that currently our card payment turnover accounts for about 10% of total turnover. The highest are Vietcombank, Vietinbank, SEA bank. POS payment turnover increased about 15% compared to 2015.

Customers and payment acceptance units are both apprehensive.

Although card payments bring many benefits to both cardholders and payment acceptance units, at many supermarkets and restaurants that have installed POS machines, the percentage of customers paying by card is still very small, mainly cash transactions. At the payment counter of IVY fashion, POS of many different commercial banks (CBs) are installed at the cashier counter so that customers can pay by many different types of cards. However, the staff here said that although POS machines have been equipped for a long time, customers paying by card only account for a very small number.

When using POS for payment, on the part of the store owner, it is to avoid counterfeit money, safe, and convenient when making other transactions, but in reality, not only customers, but also store owners are still hesitant. One of the reasons we found out is that many places do not want to pay by card, in addition to not wanting to give up discounts, is to avoid sales and generate business taxes for the tax authorities. Mr. Nguyen Van Tan in Hung Phuc ward said that last year he bought an Iphone at AT store, Minh Khai street (Vinh city) because he did not have enough cash, so he asked to pay by card, but the store staff said that if he paid by card, there would be an additional fee of about 1% of the total payment amount.

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Currently, banks charge fees from POS installation units, but these units pass these fees on to customers. Although this is against regulations and prohibited by the State Bank, the fact that it is still happening makes people afraid to use it.

Reality also shows that the promotion of POS payments at stores and businesses has had some changes, but the so-called “potential” fields such as hospitals, schools, public services, wholesale markets, small traders, etc. are almost rare. This is a shortcoming that the State Bank needs to coordinate with relevant agencies to have timely direction, research, expansion, and at the same time improve the quality of POS payment services.

The representative of the State Bank of Vietnam, Nghe An branch, said that recently, the State Bank has had many solutions to improve and promote POS services as well as encourage card users to pay via POS. The State Bank of Vietnam has urged local commercial bank branches to implement salary payment via accounts in combination with promoting non-cash payments and payments via POS. Commercial banks have reviewed, arranged and reasonably arranged the POS network to ensure effective operation. In order to increase the number and value of payment transactions, making POS payments a habit for cardholders, in the coming time, credit institutions will continue to develop and expand the network, install more POS in places with conditions and potential for card payment development.

Thu Huyen