i use wise to transfer money to my Gf account and withdraw for free. all i pay is the conversion costs which is 45 baht so i do high amounts each tine usually 10-20k
just looking at the different embassy sites right now. it appears pricing is slightly different too. manila requires 6 months payslips, i didn't see anything on hanoi or HCM about payslips just the 500k. same with vientiane. Vientiane is also 10k baht where Vietnamese embassies are listed at 340 USD which currently is around 11,800 baht. I need a visa to enter both laos and Vietnam so i think laos might be better for me rather than HCM. Ill be applying in a few months i think.