Guides
20 guides. The arithmetic ones are built around the same worked example: 2.4 billion dong borrowed over twenty years at 6.9% for the first twelve months and 11.5% afterwards, and every figure they quote comes out of the same engine that powers the loan inspector, so you can reproduce any of them yourself. The ones on the law and on buying the property cite the decree, circular or article they rely on, so you can check those too.
The promotional rate is a price for one year of a twenty year contract. Working out the other nineteen takes ten minutes and changes the decision more often than people expect.
The worked example on this site uses a 6.9% promotional rate. In the autumn of 2026 that is at the bottom of the market. Here is where rates actually are, and what the higher numbers cost.
It is the internal rate of return on the bank’s side of the deal, and it is the only figure that lets you put two different offers side by side honestly.
Borrowers negotiate the promotional rate. The margin is worth far more and is negotiated far less often.
A tiered fee that falls year by year sounds mild. It is the reason paying a loan off early is frequently the wrong move in years one to three, and obviously right from year six.
It sits in a fee appendix, it is usually one sentence long, and it is frequently larger than the early repayment fee everyone does read.
Credit life cover is a reasonable product. Paid as a single premium at drawdown and financed at the loan rate, it is one of the most expensive things in the contract.
Three repayment structures, one advertised rate. The choice between the first two is a real trade-off. The third is not a choice at all.
Interest-only is genuinely useful when you are paying rent and a mortgage at the same time. It is dangerous when nobody has worked out what happens in month thirteen.
Approval is a statement about the bank’s risk appetite. Affordability is a statement about your life. They are assessed against different numbers.
Preferential loans for social housing are real and cheap, but they come through three channels with different rates, different time limits and, for the cheapest, a capital quota that ran out this year.
You do not need to be a lawyer to read a credit agreement. You need to know which eight things the State Bank requires it to say, and to notice when one of them is missing.
Your rate is fixed and your balance falls smoothly, yet the interest line jumps around. That is not an error. It is Circular 14/2017, and knowing it lets you check every statement.
A home loan application is decided partly on a record you have probably never seen. It is free to look at once a year, and it is worth looking before the bank does.
An off-plan purchase is two contracts running on two timetables: the developer’s payment schedule and the bank’s drawdowns. The law protects the buyer only on the first, and only if the papers are right.
The deposit is not the only cash you need at signing. On a 3.5 billion dong flat the costs around the price add up to between about 40 and 105 million dong, depending on who you buy from, and more if the seller’s tax is passed to you.
Ownership is allowed and fairly clearly defined. Finance is where most foreign buyers get stuck, and the reason is one sentence in the State Bank’s lending circular.
The document is not written to deceive you. It is written for a credit committee, which is why the things you care about are scattered across four appendices.
None of these are difficult questions. They are simply questions nobody asks, which is why the answers are rarely volunteered.
Every bank advertises a promotional rate to borrowers who switch. Whether switching pays depends almost entirely on which month you do it in.
Two more places to look: the glossary of loan terms for anything on an offer sheet you do not recognise, and the frequently asked questions for the short answers.