Hello, is there Anybody on this site that gets SS deposited directly into a VN bank?
If so, could you please PM me? I'm having some problems navigating the system and have a few questions, if you don't mind.
thanks,
danny - @surus
I haven't made the switch yet so I can't give personal experience feedback (so please don't write to me privately about the subject).
However, this thread I started back in 2018 has some useful info and links scattered among unhelpful posts:
/en/forum/asia/vietnam/761380-us-ssa-and-veterans-benefits-in-vietnam-update.html
I haven't seen Rick (Budman) active in the forum for quite some time, but he mentioned that he was going to start doing direct deposit with one account from America and possibly two other accounts if the first attempt was successful.
Initially he mentioned that Agribank was the default bank here and there wasn't any official word about any other bank accepting the program under the terms that the US government requires.
The lady at the federal benefits unit in Manila at the US embassy there has said that they cannot provide a list of banks that participate in the program and the US citizen must find a cooperative bank on their own.
One reason I haven't done it yet is that I can't get a teller at Agribank or ACB or Vietcombank to even acknowledge that they have the ability to accept the direct deposits according to the requirements of the US government.
Basically what's supposed to happen is the bank most allow The acceptance of their own currency (VND) which is exchanged from dollars at the mid-market rate electronically before the money ever hits the bank in Vietnam, and they cannot charge any fee for that deposit or further adjust the exchange rate.
All three banks told me that I am welcome to have my money sent from the United States and they would accept it, but when I try to get them to confirm that they are a participant in the direct deposit program with the US Federal government, I get blank stares.
I figure I just haven't gone high enough up in the organization yet to find someone who is knowledgeable about the program.
Since I already have an Agribank account, I would prefer to do it there, so I'm going to make another attempt soon to talk with somebody higher up the food chain there.
Wish I could be more help.
I was reading through the instructions the other day on the social security website, and it seemed to me that the rules might have changed and we might have the option to send the direct deposit in the local currency or in US dollars.
I'm getting really bad with those kind of forms these days, but if that's the case then I would prefer to send my money to a forex USD account so it doesn't immediately start losing value as VND.
Let us know if you get some of your issues figured out, and please consider coming back here and sharing them, as I'm sure it would be helpful to other folks including myself.
After all your profile is essentially anonymous.
Cheers!
O.B.
