Bonus credit of up to 50 percent will be a thing of the past from March 1.
 |
| Hundreds of people queued at mobile payment card agents on Wednesday to buy cards before a new regulation which lowers the promotional value cap for prepaid subscribers takes effect. From March 1, telecom service providers will not be allowed to offer bonuses of more than 20 percent under promotions to prepaid subscribers. The current cap is 50 percent for both prepaid and post-paid mobile subscribers. |
 |
| Many subscribers spent millions of dong on cards on Wednesday, as telecom firms launched promotions offering customers their last 50 percent credit bonuses. |
|
| Some people waited for hours to buy top-up cards, and many shops sold out. |
|
| Due to the influx of customers, many shops organized queuing systems to serve customers in turn. |
|
| Some customers bought more than 10 payment cards each. |
|
| Customers were eager to take advantage of the last promotion. According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, the new limit for prepaid subscribers aims to promote post-paid subscriptions and minimize the use of prepaid SIM cards to send out spam messages, a method often used by advertisers. |
|
| A wholesale trader in Hanoi’s My Dinh District said that over 10 retailers had ordered 100 cards each. Two-thirds of the cards they ordered had a face value of VND100,000 and upwards. |
|
| A mobile payment card shop in Hanoi’s Dai La Street said it sold more than 300 cards on Tuesday and Wednesday, 40 percent of which had a face value of VND500,000.
Source: Anh Minh, Nguyen Ha |