Sending money from the UK to Vietnam is one of the routes where the receive-side does more of the work than the send-side. If your family has a Vietnamese-dong bank account, Remitly, Instarem and Wise are close on price and the choice is easy.
If your family has a US-dollar account at their Vietnamese bank, the app has to send dollars, and that is a different send with a different price and speed. If your family collects the money in cash at a counter, a different set of providers opens up, and Wise does not do cash pickup.
Before you tap send, there are three questions to work through in this order: which account the money is arriving in, which channel gets it there cheapest, and whether your family member is going to hit Vietnam's bank verification threshold when they move the money on.
The three places the money can arrive
A dong bank account at Vietcombank, BIDV, VietinBank, Agribank, Sacombank, Techcombank or MB Bank is the right channel for a household running month to month on dong for rent, food and school fees. All the apps below support it. The pounds are converted to dong in the sending flow and the dong number arrives in the account.
A US-dollar account at a Vietnamese bank suits a family that wants to keep part of the money as savings in dollars and not spend it in dong this month. Vietnamese banks offer personal foreign-currency accounts that hold dollars without converting to dong on arrival. 
Vietcombank will credit an inward transfer in US dollars to a foreign-currency account and leave it in dollars until the account holder decides to convert.
Your family may want this to protect savings from a fall in the dong.
A cash pickup at a counter is the right channel for an older relative or a family in a rural area without an active account. Western Union and Ria pay out at partner counters on this route. Western Union says the cash could reach your family in minutes. Read the total cost on the screen and compare it with a bank deposit before you send.
There is also a fourth option: sending the money straight to the family member's MoMo wallet. Remitly will push a send directly into a MoMo wallet. Western Union offers a mobile wallet option in its send flow, so check that MoMo is listed. Remitly's UK page also lists ZaloPay, so check for it in the send flow if that is the wallet your family uses.
For a small everyday amount to a family member who spends inside the wallet, MoMo is a real option. For a monthly household send at the £300 size, the bank account is usually the better choice. Check the wallet's limits in the MoMo app before you send.
Why a family might want to receive in US dollars
The reason is not exotic. When the local currency slides against the dollar year after year, holding money in dollars protects it from that fall. The dong has slid: the 
World Bank's official rate averaged about 15,860 dong per dollar in 2005 and about 24,165 in 2024.
The catch, if you go this way, is that a dollar send is not the same as a dong send. Wise 
can send US dollars to a dollar account in Vietnam. It does this through Swift, the network banks use to send money between countries. Wise lists a Swift fee of $7.99 (about £6) per transfer on 4 November 2026, on top of its own fee, and says it can take up to 6 working days. The Wise price and speed further down this page are for dong. In any app, pick the dollar option, not the dong one. Send in dollars to a dollar account. Do not send dong to a dollar account.
What actually arrives on £300
The real exchange rate between the pound and the Vietnamese dong was around 34,680 dong per pound on the morning of 4 November 2026, per Wise's own rate page. On the day you send, look up this rate and compare every provider's quote against it. A quote close to it is a fair one, and a quote meaningfully below it is where the money is quietly being taken in a worse rate.
The amounts below come from the Wise price comparison on the morning of 4 November 2026, for £300 to a Vietnamese bank account. Each amount has the fee taken out of the £300.
- Wise: sends at the real rate and shows its fee on the screen. For a dong bank deposit the fee was £2.99, and 10,300,841 dong arrived. Wise says 77% of its transfers to Vietnam arrive in under 20 seconds and 95% in less than a day. It does not offer cash pickup on this route. Its US-dollar send to a dollar account is a separate send by Swift, with the fee and the wait given above.
- Remitly: the fee was £0.99, and 10,335,554 dong arrived. That comparison does not say how the sender paid, and Remitly's rate changes with how you pay. Its calculator showed about 34,216 dong per pound for a £300 debit card payment on the evening of 4 November 2026, so check the dong amount for the way you will pay. A new customer may get a better rate on the first transfer. There may also be no fee on that transfer, unless you pay by credit card. Bank deposit to Agribank, BIDV, MB Bank, Sacombank, Techcombank, Vietcombank and VietinBank; cash pickup; MoMo mobile-wallet delivery. Its UK page also lists US dollars on bank deposit to Vietnam, so check the dollar option in the send flow.
- Instarem: the fee in that comparison was zero, and 10,316,638 dong arrived. Read the fee in the app before you confirm.
- Ria Money Transfer: bank deposit and cash pickup. It is not in that comparison, so read the rate and fee in the app.
- Western Union: the cash-pickup answer, and a bank-deposit route. On a bank deposit the fee was £1.99 and 10,070,927 dong arrived, about 265,000 dong less than Remitly. It also offers a mobile wallet option in its send flow. Check that MoMo is listed.
- WorldRemit: bank transfer and cash pickup to Vietnam, and it says it can send US dollars to select dollar accounts. It is not in that comparison, so read the rate and fee in the app.
- Taptap Send: says it charges no fee on transfers to Vietnamese bank accounts, and that it earns a small percentage on the exchange rate. It is not in that comparison, so compare the dong amount in the app.
The exact fee and rate on the day you send will move a little, but the overall shape of the answer stays the same. For a dong bank deposit at the £300 size, Remitly, Instarem and Wise came within about £1 of each other. For a cash pickup at a counter, Western Union or Ria opens the channel Wise does not. For a send to MoMo, Remitly lists the wallet. Western Union offers a mobile wallet option, so check that MoMo is listed.
The UK bank
A UK bank shows you a fee, but it also sets its own exchange rate, and the statement will show the fee and not the loss on the rate. We have no current figure for a UK bank on this route. Ask your bank how many dong will arrive and compare that with the amounts above. If the bank's dong amount is lower, open an app instead.
The verification threshold your family may hit
There is one Vietnam-side rule to warn your family about. Banks and payment apps have to run a face or fingerprint check on an online transfer over 10 million dong. This covers a transfer to another person, or to another bank or payment app. It also covers moving money into or out of a wallet. Smaller transfers like these are added up during the day. When the total goes over 20 million dong, that transfer gets the check, and the count then starts again from zero. Ten million dong is about £288 at the rate above. Twenty million is about £577.
These limits are in 
State Bank of Vietnam Circular 77/2025 (in Vietnamese). It changes Circular 50/2024, in force since 1 January 2025. The check began under Decision 2345 on 1 July 2024.
The check applies when your family sends money out of the account online, not when your money arrives. If they move more than 10 million dong in one transfer, their bank app will ask them to complete a face or fingerprint check on their phone, and it will ask again on the next transfer over the limit. This is not a scam; it is the baseline the central bank has set. Warn your family before you send, so the message they get in the app does not spook them.
Where the money should go, if you are picking
For a UK-to-Vietnam family send of a few hundred pounds a month arriving in a dong bank account, use Remitly, Instarem or Wise, whichever you already have. They were close on price in the comparison above. Wise uses the real rate and shows its fee on the screen, if you want to see exactly what you are paying.
For the family that holds a US-dollar account at their Vietnamese bank, send in dollars, into the dollar account, so the money is not converted to dong. Ask your family for the account currency before you pick the app. If it is a foreign-currency account, check the dollar option in Wise, Remitly or WorldRemit for your family's bank, or ask your UK bank about a US-dollar wire, and read the Vietcombank receive page for the receiving side. In Wise, that is the US-dollar send by Swift, with its own fee and a wait of up to 6 working days.
For the older relative at a counter, without an account, Western Union or Ria Money Transfer at a partner counter is the right channel. It can cost more than a bank deposit. That is the price of the counter, not a mistake in the app choice.
For a family member who spends daily inside a MoMo wallet, Remitly pushes straight into the wallet. Keep in mind the wallet's own limits, and be ready to ask the family member whether they will spend it inside the wallet or move it into a bank account before you pick this channel.
The mistake to avoid on this route is choosing the wrong channel: sending dong to a dollar account, or sending to a bank account when the family was going to spend the money inside MoMo. Ask your family what their receive-side looks like before you send, then open the app that fits the answer.
Corrections
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said the check applies to any online transfer over 10 million dong, and to online transfers once the day's total goes over 20 million dong, and dated these limits to March 2025. The 10 million limit covers a transfer to another person, bank or payment app, and money moved into or out of a wallet. Smaller transfers are added up until they go over 20 million, and the count starts again after a check. The limits are now in Circular 77/2025, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page did not say that each amount in the comparison has the fee taken out of the £300. The page now says that.
- 2026-11-05: An earlier version of this page said a new Remitly customer may get no fee on the first transfer, and did not say the offer leaves out credit cards. Remitly's terms say it does not apply to a credit card payment, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page made claims about how many families and senders use each channel or prefer dollars, such as where "most family sends end up". We have no count for these, so they are cut. The page now says who each channel suits.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said the face-scan at 10 million dong only has to be done once per account. The check applies to each online transfer over the limit, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said to use Wise for most sends to a dong bank account, and gave a cost of about 0.4 per cent for the cheapest apps and 3 to 6 per cent for a UK bank. On 4 November 2026 Remitly, Instarem and Wise came within about £1 of each other on £300, so the page names all three. We have no current source for the percentages, so they are cut.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page named Western Union for sending dollars to a dollar account, and said a bank converts dong back to dollars for a small second fee. We could not confirm either, so both are cut. The page now points to the dollar options in Wise, Remitly and WorldRemit, or a US-dollar wire.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said no mainstream UK app reaches ZaloPay, that MoMo sends did not work three years ago, that WorldRemit offers mobile money to Vietnam, and that Ria has about 10,000 counters and a first-transfer promo code. Remitly's UK page now lists ZaloPay, and we could not confirm the others, so these lines are changed or cut.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Wise pays in dong only, offers no dollar payout on this route and is the wrong app for a dollar account. That was wrong. Wise can send US dollars to a dollar account in Vietnam by Swift, with a Swift fee and a wait of up to 6 working days, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page named State Bank of Vietnam Decision 2345 as the rule behind the check at 10 million dong, and called the check a face-scan. The State Bank says the Decision's contents now sit in Circular 50/2024, in force since 1 January 2025, and sources name face and fingerprint checks, so the page now says that.
- 2026-11-04: An earlier version of this page said Ria pays into MoMo and VNPTPAY wallets, named banks for Ria deposits and for Western Union and Ria cash pickups, described a 2023 Western Union flow inside the MoMo app, and said it is legal to use a foreign-currency account to hold savings in dollars. We could not confirm these, so they are cut. The page now says to check Western Union's mobile wallet option for MoMo.
Related reading
For the receive-side friction of a channel choice on other routes, the Ghana guide walks through the cash-out counter, and the Nigeria guide covers the parallel-market rate and the receive-side rules that decide whether the money actually reaches the person. On the same shape as Vietnam's dollar-account choice, the Sri Lanka guide covers the PFCA foreign-currency-account decision, and the China guide walks through the Alipay, WeChat and bank-card decision the same way.