Send Money from the USA to Vietnam

Measured on the full cost — the transfer fee plus the exchange-rate margin — Instarem is cheapest on this corridor at $1,000, across the 5 providers we hold checked figures for. Revolut advertises no transfer fee here, which looks cheaper and often is not: a provider with no fee recovers it in the rate, and the margin is usually the larger of the two costs. The cheapest provider also changes with the amount you send, so compare the final sum that arrives in Vietnamese dongs rather than the headline fee.

At $1,000, Instarem is the cheapest of the 5 providers priced at that amount on this corridor: about $7.00 all in, or 0.70% of the amount sent. Remitly is next at about $8.99. That is the fee plus the exchange-rate margin that applied to a transfer of that size — priced at $1,000 specifically, not worked out from a measurement taken at some other amount. It covers a bank transfer; cash pickup and mobile wallet payouts are priced separately. The margins were measured by Wise's comparison service rather than published by the providers themselves, and other providers here may be cheaper and are not priced this way.

Delivery ranges from minutes to a few business days depending on the provider and payout method. Western Union, Wise, Revolut and Taptap Send can deliver within minutes when you pay by debit card. Bank-funded and economy transfers typically take one to three business days but usually cost less. Transfers sent outside banking hours or over a weekend may not settle until the next working day.

Across the providers we compare, the available payout methods are MoMo, UnionPay, bank deposit, cash pickup, mobile wallet, home delivery, card payout and airtime top-up. The most widely used options in Vietnam are bank deposit and cash pickup. Bank deposit to a Vietnamese account is normally the cheapest route; cash pickup is widely available through bank branches. Not every provider supports every method, so check the table above before you commit.

No. Western Union, Remitly, Sendwave, WorldRemit, Xoom and Xe Money Transfer offer cash pickup in Vietnam, so your recipient can collect the funds with valid photo ID and the transfer reference number. That said, bank deposit and cash pickup generally cost less than cash collection.

Providers rarely give you the mid-market rate — the reference rate you see on Google or Reuters. Instead they add a margin, typically between 0.4% and 4%, and keep the difference. That margin is often larger than the visible transfer fee, which is why a "no fee" service can still be more expensive overall. For USD to VND, compare the quoted rate against the mid-market rate to see the real spread you are paying.

Yes, provided you use a licensed provider. Every service listed on this page is regulated in the USA under FinCEN and state money-transmitter licences, which requires safeguarding of customer funds and identity verification. Send only to people you know personally, keep your transfer reference private, and be sceptical of anyone pressuring you to send money urgently to someone you have not met.

Yes. Each provider sets its own transfer limits, which vary by how much identity verification you have completed and how you pay. Larger transfers may require additional documentation such as proof of source of funds. For transfers above roughly $10,000, a specialist foreign-exchange broker will often beat an app on rate.

State Bank of Vietnam Circular 27/2025/TT-NHNN (effective Nov 1, 2025) requires international electronic transfers of USD 1,000 or more to be reported to the SBV - a disclosure requirement, not a transfer block. Sendwave serves this corridor with one method only: USD cash collected at a Sacombank branch counter. It cannot be taken from an ATM, and there is no bank-deposit option. Taptap Send offers no cash-pickup-location service in Vietnam - only bank transfer, MoMo wallet, or Sacombank courier delivery to the recipient's address. Western Union publishes daily caps on this corridor: USD 4,300 per day to bank accounts and USD 2,500 per day to Vimo mobile wallets. USD cash is genuinely available here, unlike most corridors: Sendwave pays USD at Sacombank counters, Taptap Send delivers VND or USD to the door, and WorldRemit can deposit USD to a Vietnamese bank account. MoMo is the wallet that matters on this corridor - Remitly, Taptap Send and Xoom all pay into it, while Western Union uses Vimo instead. The dong is on a deliberate, managed slide rather than a float: the State Bank of Vietnam targets roughly 3-5% depreciation a year and steers the rate inside a tolerance band. It weakened about 3.5% against the dollar through October 2025 at the official rate, and analysts expect another 4-5% across 2026, with the currency already sitting near the top of the band. Two practical consequences. A fixed dollar amount buys more dong as the year goes on, so a standing monthly transfer drifts in your recipient's favour. And there is a persistent gap between the official rate banks quote and the unofficial street rate — around 26,100 versus roughly 27,120 per dollar in December 2025 — which is a large part of why dollars hold their appeal locally and why this corridor still supports genuine USD payout when most do not.