"Junk" bank cards, who "scans"?

The situation of "junk" bank cards comes with unpredictable consequences.

“I already have accounts at two banks, but my neighbor invited me to open another account at the bank she works for to help her meet her targets, so I agreed out of respect. Then my son, when he was interning at a bank, asked me to open another account. Now I have up to five accounts at different banks,” said a colleague of mine. The situation of “junk” bank accounts and “junk” bank cards is as common as “junk” SIM cards and “junk” calls.

An article published in Thanh Nien newspaper in June 2023 cited data from the State Bank that the entire banking system nationwide has up to 51 million accounts that need to be reconciled and cleaned. If each of these accounts is issued a bank card, that means up to 51 million cards could be "virtual" (little or no use), accounting for nearly 40% of the total of more than 140 million domestic and international cards in circulation. In Hai Duong, there are nearly 5 million accounts, nearly 4 million cards At banks, how many are "virtual" accounts and how many are "junk" cards?

There has been a situation where criminals take advantage of "junk" SIMs and "junk" calls to impersonate fraudulent network operators. Vietnam in general, and Hai Duong in particular, have undergone a massive verification of genuine phone SIMs a few months ago to prevent fraud and "junk" calls and messages. But the results have not been as expected.

So what about "junk" SIMs, "junk" bank accounts, "junk" bank cards? When will banks "sweep" the junk? How to "sweep" when a large part of these "junk" accounts and "junk" cards are the result of the race to develop the network and "hot" customer base of banks for many years. Many people have dozens of bank accounts but only regularly use 1-2 accounts.

For banks, it can be said that the race to open cards is also considered a channel to mobilize capital with interest rates without a term when stipulating the minimum balance in each account. The balance in each account is usually not large, but when combined with hundreds of thousands, even millions of accounts, it is not small.

But customers may get into trouble if they just “click their tongue” to open an account without using it. Each account has a different annual fee or service registration fee. When the fee is collected and the account has no more money to deduct, the bank system will note it as a debt. Unless the customer never uses that account again, when there is a need to deposit money into that account, or open another account at the same bank, the system may deduct the remaining amount.

"Junk" bank accounts also have another dangerous consequence, which is creating a tool for criminals to exploit for fraud. Many groups of people have been arrested for illegally buying and selling other people's bank account information. Those who resell their own bank accounts are mostly students, low-income workers. They simply think that if they don't use the bank account, after selling it, they will no longer be related or have any trouble with that bank account. That thinking is wrong! Whoever opens the account will definitely be related to that person, even if the account is tricked into being used for bad purposes, the account owner will also be involved to some extent. And financial fraud, especially through bank cards that are not owned by the owner, is very common these days.

It is expected that from April 1, 2024, banks will apply facial authentication of account holders through the national population database when making transactions. The face when making transactions and the face stored in the chip of the chip-embedded citizen identification card must be the same. This is considered a solution to prevent fraud and scams related to bank accounts, a problem that has been a headache for a long time. In addition, banks need to research new solutions for customer development, avoiding the situation of "virtual" accounts and "junk" cards.

For customers, if you do not use an account, you should close it to avoid future problems.