A screenshot of the Vietcombank mobile app. — VNS Photo Bo Xuan Hiep

Banks and telecom service providers have agreed to charge a fixed monthly SMS banking service fee of VND11,000 following an uproar among customers after the fee was hiked by up to seven times.

Tran Duy Hai, deputy director of the Department of Telecommunications, said: “The fee of VND11,000 per month is fixed regardless of the number of messages.”

The fixed fee would encourage the use of cashless payments, he said.

Many customers had complained after the fee was hiked in January to VND27,500-77,000 from the fixed VND11,000, saying they would stop using the service.

Banks have meanwhile been suggesting that customers should use digital services instead of SMS banking services, with some even waiving money transfer and monthly maintenance fees for the former.

MobiFone and VinaPhone charged VND820 (US$0.035) per SMS for financial transactions and VND500 for ads and customer care messages.

Viettel’s rates were VND785 and VND500.

For individual subscribers SMSs only cost VND99-350.

MobiFone, VinaPhone and Viettel claimed they charged higher SMS fees for financial transactions because they invested large sums of money in technology to ensure the security of the information.

Each money transfer or payment transaction needs at least two messages to be sent to customers, and customers have on average 15-20 transactions per month, equivalent to 25-30 messages. — VNS