HDFC Regalia ForexPlus Card Review

The HDFC Regalia ForexPlus Card is a convenient travel companion for frequent international travellers. While it is primarily loaded with USD, it can be used globally in any currency without cross-currency charges. This eliminates the need to carry cash or manage multiple currencies physically or digitally.

In this review, we’ll explore its features, fees, and whether it’s the right fit for your travel needs.

Charges

This card can be used at POS/Offline, ATM and even online in foreign currency.

Benefits

Lounge Access

• 1 complimentary lounge access per quarter within International airports in India until the card’s validity date.

Complimentary Insurance Coverage

• Protection up to ₹5,00,000 against misuse due to counterfeiting/skimming
• Road/Rail Accident Insurance (Death cover only) coverage up to ₹5,00,000
• Air Accident Insurance (Death cover only) coverage up to ₹25,00,000
• Loss of checked-in baggage cover coverage up to ₹20,000
• Loss of personal documents (only Passport reconstruction) coverage up to ₹50,000
• Loss of Cash in Transit coverage up to INR ₹60,000

How to Use?

The HDFC Regalia ForexPlus Card functions as a digital wallet, allowing you to load USD for seamless international transactions. With the flexibility to load and reload funds as needed, it’s a convenient option for frequent travellers.

While HDFC promotes this card as having 0% forex charges, it’s worth noting that a ~2.4% markup is already factored into their exchange rates, which tend to be slightly higher than Google’s rates. However, since the card has zero cross-currency charges, you can effortlessly use the loaded USD for transactions in any currency worldwide—just like magic!

5X Rewards

Earlier the HDFC Forex Card gained widespread popularity due to highly rewarding reload offers on HDFC Bank credit cards, including 1% cashback, 5X rewards, and even 10X rewards.

However, these offers were discontinued for nearly five years. Now, in 2025, HDFC has reinstated them. A 5X rewards promotion on forex load/reloads is currently active from January to March 2025 in which you can load your forex card using your HDFC Credit Card. The 5X reward points quota is separate from the SmartBuy quota which I have already confirmed from the HDFC Bank. You can get all the details regarding this offer from here.

Also if you load more than 1000 USD while getting the card then you get a waiver on the issuance fees as well which makes your ForexCard absolutely free. This offer can be accessed here and is running till 31st March.

My Experience

After seeing this offer in February I tried applying for the HDFC Regalia ForexPlus Card and the HDFC MultiCurrency ForexPlus Card which allows loading in 22 currencies.

Since my preferred currency was JPY (Japanese Yen) due to a planned trip I first tried loading JPY directly into the HDFC MultiCurrency ForexPlus Card but even though the bank states zero markup charges their exchange rates are quite high. Hence, I was losing around 2.5% upfront while loading. Whereas on loading USD the markup was coming around just 1.9%. Now the problem was that the HDFC MultiCurrency ForexPlus Card although it can be used in any 22 currencies interchangeably the bank charges a 2% cross-currency charge hence on loading USD and spending in JPY I would have lost more than 4% effectively if I included the taxes.

As you can see HDFC is charging 88288 INR for 1000 USD whereas the exchange rate on Google is around 86621 INR which is effectively a 1.9% markup of the exchange rate.

Then I switched my application to the HDFC RegaliaForex Plus card which has zero cross-currency charges and loaded it with more than 1000 USD so that I even escape the issuance fees of the card. So now I am sitting with 5X reward points on my HDFC Diners Club Black Metal and around 2.25% of Markup Charges(including GST). Now I can freely spend in any currency using this card without any worries of any additional charges.

I had requested a personalized card which was delivered to my nearby branch as per my request. It took approximately a week for the card to get delivered. I activated the card online and the same can be managed using their HDFC Prepaid Portal effortlessly.

Bottomline

These Forex cards including HDFC Regalia ForexPlus financially make sense only when such offers are running else you can simply use one of the cards listed in our The Best Indian Credit Cards for International Spends for all your online/POS forex spending. For cash withdrawal internationally I would still recommend the IndusInd Exclusive/Pioneer Debit cards which provide cash withdrawals at zero markup internationally. So basically you are withdrawing cash like locals while in a foreign land.

Have you used Forex Cards before? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Bhavye Goel

Chief Editor, TechnoFino.
Personal finance nerd! Physics enthusiast and trainer. When not into Physics, he is minting points and hunting for the next best credit card for himself.