[SingViet]

Some News About Life in Vietnam

Power cuts making ATM clients and banks weep
17:04' 03/04/2007 (GMT+7)
VietNamNet Bridge – Banks have been saying that the regular power cuts have been causing heavy losses for the banks’ ATM services, while people have been complaining about their ATM cards getting stuck in ATMs.
Cards stuck, money cannot be drawn out. In recent days, commercial banks have received a lot of complaints from clients about the ATM troubles caused by power cuts. ATM card holders cannot draw out money from ATMs, while their cards are getting stuck in ATMs due to unexpected electricity cuts. Dinh Kim Quoc Thai, Head of the Card Division under Eximbank, said that sometimes power cuts have occurred exactly when ATMs had just finished counting money. As a result, clients have not received the money, but the sums of money were deducted from their accounts. In this case, there is only one solution. The banks send staff to check the ATMs and report to the banks about the clients’ sums of money stuck in ATMs. “It is a very complicated procedure as there must be at least three bank staff and one police officer to settle every case,” Mr Thai said. “It takes us at least two days to tackle every case, and clients have no other choice than to wait,” he added. LMD, a card holder, complained that she had VND30mil in her account, and wanted to draw out VND25mil to pay for goods she had bought, but as she had trouble with the ATM, she could not make her payment on time, and she had to go to the bank several times before the case was settled. Troubles of this kind do not only occur with ATMs, but also with POS (points of sale). Clients have had to pay for goods in cash, while the sums of money were deducted from their accounts already. Vietcombank, which has spent a lot of money developing its ATM network, has been suffering most from the power cuts. In HCM City alone, Vietcombank has 240 ATMs. As the power cuts occur regularly, at least 10% of the bank’s ATMs are always out of commission. Other commercial banks are also facing the same problems. According to the HCM City Branch of the State Bank of Vietnam, there are 543 operational ATMs in the city, and 8,306 POS. It is estimated that 1.5mil cards are in use and several hundred thousand transactions are carried out with ATMs every day.The power cuts do not only cause big losses for commercial banks, but also for clients and people. Power cuts delay payments for water, telecommunications and goods, and cause heavy losses for the national economy as well.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Electricity and water cuts are situations that most people have to face while living in Vietnam. When i was staying in District Binh Thanh, there were power cuts almost every other week. They will cut from morning till evening. When i stayed Phu My Hung, it was better as they had back up power generators, but we still had to endure the situation of water supply cut. Its actually rationing la as the country doesn't have enuff electricity and water.