HDFC Forex Card Load 5X Reward Points Offer

5X Reward Points Offer

Make every online load and reload on your HDFC Bank ForexPlus Card more rewarding! Use your HDFC Bank Credit Card and activate the power of 5X Reward Points Multiplier on every transaction.

5X Reward points offer details

• Customers can earn 5X Reward Points for every Forex Card load/reload transaction made using eligible HDFC Bank Credit Cards.
• Minimum Transaction Value: Rs15,000 per transaction.
• Maximum Reward Points (RP): Customers can earn a maximum of 15,000 Reward Points per calendar month during the offer period.

• Offer Period:​

  The 5X Reward Points Offer is valid for load / reload transactions settled between 1st January 2025 and 31st March 2025.
• https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/offer_details/5x-rewards-points-offer/26166/Z2mkmWk%3D

• Card Type​	Base Earn Rate (1X)​	Additional 4XRP Capped at 15,000 RPs​	Total: 5X RP​	Max Spends for 5X​
  HDFC Bank Regalia First​	3RP/Rs.150​	12RP/Rs. 150​	15 RP/ Rs. 150​	187500​
  HDFC Bank Regalia​	4RP/Rs.150​	16RP/Rs. 150​	20 RP/ Rs. 150​	140625​
  HDFC Bank Regalia Activ​	4RP/Rs.150​	16RP/Rs. 150​	20 RP/ Rs. 150​	140625​
  HDFC Bank Regalia Gold​	4RP/Rs.150​	16RP/Rs. 150​	20 RP/ Rs. 150​	140625​
  HDFC Bank Diners Privilege/ HDFC Biz Power​	4RP/Rs.150​	16RP/Rs. 150​	20 RP/ Rs. 150​	140625​
  HDFC Bank Diners Black​	5RP/Rs.150​	20RP/Rs. 150​	25 RP/ Rs. 150​	112500​
  HDFC Bank Diners Black Metal/HDFC Biz Black Metal​	5RP/Rs.150​	20RP/Rs. 150​	25 RP/ Rs. 150​	112500​
  HDFC Bank Infinia​	5RP/Rs.150​	20RP/Rs. 150​	25 RP/ Rs. 150​	112500​
  HDFC Bank Infinia Metal​	5RP/Rs.150​	20RP/Rs. 150​	25 RP/ Rs. 150​	112500​

• The offer is applicable exclusively for load / reload of HDFC ForexPlus Cards done using an HDFC Bank Credit Cards: HDFC Bank Regalia First, HDFC Bank Regalia, HDFC Bank Regalia Activ, HDFC Bank Regalia Gold, HDFC Bank Diners Privilege, HDFC Bank Diners Black, HDFC Bank Diners Black Metal, HDFC Bank Infinia and HDFC Bank Infinia Metal Credit Card
• 5X reward points will be credited as: 1X reward points + additional 4X Reward Points. Additional 4X reward points are capped at 15,000 reward points per calendar month. 1X reward points will continue as is without any capping
• A minimum spend of Rs. 15,000 per transaction is required to be eligible for additional 4X reward points
• The limits are over and above the limits of HDFC SmartBuy

Issuance Fee Waiver Offer
There is another offer running on the issuance of an HDFC ForexPlus card where the joining fees get waived if you load a minimum of 1,000 USD or equivalent value of another currency. Check this out.

https://offers.smartbuy.hdfcbank.com/offer_details/forex-card-offers/10366/ZmOmmWk%3D

My Experience
Since I have an international trip planned next month to Japan I tried to apply HDFC ForexPlus Card (multicurrency card) and load some 2,00,000 Yen to the card to compare the actual reward rate. While Google is showing the exchange rate of 2L Yen equal to 112150 INR, HDFC is charging me some 1,16,695 INR including loading charges of around 195. It equates to a direct loss of approximately 4.01% since HDFC has higher Forex rates. But with a 16.66% (5X) reward rate on my Diners Club Black credit card, this deal is too good since it would leave me a net reward rate of 12.65% which handsomely beats even the reward rates of Axis Olympus and Axis Reserve. This is a good offer especially if you hold Diners Black or above credit cards.

Loading in USD is proving to be much cheaper since only approximately 2% charge is being applied so if you want to get a card then go for Regalia Plus Forex card since although it can be loaded only in USD but can be used to pay in any currency worldwide since it has zero cross currency markup charges.

 

[Harry1]

I was going through some of my forex Transactions and observed that visa is charging huge markup these days apart from usual bank charges. Checked current rates on Onecard app and Visa website, which provides live visa rates and it was indicating similar behaviour as well.

E.g. current USD to INR visa rate as per one card is 88, compared to Google rate of 86.78. A huge markup of 1.4%. This used to be 0.2-0.3% few years back.

On the other hand, mastercard is 87.54, a markup of 0.9%.

HDFC is charging 88.41. So, that's effectively 0.5% markup above Visa rate and 1% markup above mastercard rate.

But again when we will pay a different currency from this usd, visa/mastercard will again charge some markup, but surprisingly, here the markup is almost nil and matching very closely to google rates.

So, net it is about just 0.5%/1% markup compared to a zero forex indian visa/mastercard credit card for any currency for regalia card.

Exchange calculator - https://www.visa.co.in/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

Mastercard Currency Converter | Currency Exchange Rate Calculator

Mastercard currency converter tool calculates foreign exchange rates for all the major currencies worldwide to enable cross-border purchases and ATM transactions.

www.mastercard.us

 

[sravanbrahma]

I was going through some of my forex Transactions and observed that visa is charging huge markup these days apart from usual bank charges. Checked current rates on Onecard app and Visa website, which provides live visa rates and it was indicating similar behaviour as well.

E.g. current USD to INR visa rate as per one card is 88, compared to Google rate of 86.78. A huge markup of 1.4%. This used to be 0.2-0.3% few years back.

On the other hand, mastercard is 87.54, a markup of 0.9%.

HDFC is charging 88.41. So, that's effectively 0.5% markup above Visa rate and 1% markup above mastercard rate.

But again when we will pay a different currency from this usd, visa/mastercard will again charge some markup, but surprisingly, here the markup is almost nil and matching very closely to google rates.

So, net it is about just 0.5%/1% markup compared to a zero forex indian visa/mastercard credit card for any currency for regalia card.

Exchange calculator - https://www.visa.co.in/support/consumer/travel-support/exchange-rate-calculator.html

Mastercard Currency Converter | Currency Exchange Rate Calculator

Mastercard currency converter tool calculates foreign exchange rates for all the major currencies worldwide to enable cross-border purchases and ATM transactions.

www.mastercard.us

I load forex cash, I'll not use it and utilise 5x for load and later withdraw to my account. I hope it's still a good deal ? Even if we withdraw cash in ATM in foreign country and get it exchanged, it's still a good deal I guess. I agree forex is of no use in general.

 

[Harry1]

I load forex cash, I'll not use it and utilise 5x for load and later withdraw to my account. I hope it's still a good deal ? Even if we withdraw cash in ATM in foreign country and get it exchanged, it's still a good deal I guess. I agree forex is of no use in general.

I don't know and don't plan to do it either 😅. But I predict about 5% loss in loading and unloading. I don't know if it it will even allow unloading to a different account than source.

 

[basant]

I just applied for regalia forex card @ 88.05 with 1000 usd loading online paid by dcb metal.Lets see how long it takes to reach.

 

[cardblaster]

Got my personalized Regalia forex card today. The process was seamless of collecting from the branch with all the documentation as advised in the acknowledgement email. Key point to note is once you activate the card it will show 0 balance initially and the amount will be loaded automatically in 2 working days. This is for safety purposes by the bank.

 

[Harry1]

Got my personalized Regalia forex card today. The process was seamless of collecting from the branch with all the documentation as advised in the acknowledgement email. Key point to note is once you activate the card it will show 0 balance initially and the amount will be loaded automatically in 2 working days. This is for safety purposes by the bank.

When did u get sms for card dispatch?

 

[cardblaster]

When did u get sms for card dispatch?

Today afternoon only and the branch is v near to my place so took it right away. The branch people told that they also received today itself so the message is pretty prompt I guess

 

[Harry1]

Today afternoon only and the branch is v near to my place so took it right away. The branch people told that they also received today itself so the message is pretty prompt I guess

I didn't get any sms. But got a call few mins back from branch saying it has arrived. Will pickup tomorrow.

Edit: Just now got sms too.

 

[sharad131]

waah....sab log forexpati ho rahe hai 🙂

 

[meharshsanghavi]

Got my personalized Regalia forex card today. The process was seamless of collecting from the branch with all the documentation as advised in the acknowledgement email. Key point to note is once you activate the card it will show 0 balance initially and the amount will be loaded automatically in 2 working days. This is for safety purposes by the bank.

Yes @

bikramnitj​

Please share some time
When did you Apply?
When did you get the Sms to go to the bank?

 

[Harry1]

Got card activation sms. Still no sign of delivery. Mine was personalized regalia card with delivery at branch. Not able to add in mycards either via last 4 digits. And no email received as mentioned in sms.

Your HDFC Bank Prepaid USDVRG Card ending with XXXX1234 has been activated. As per RBI guidelines the card is enabled to perform only ATM and POS transactions. To enable Online payment and Contactless feature log on to HDFC Bank Prepaid Card NetBanking. Refer email sent for more details.

Card delivered at branch. Got a call from branch informing the same. They asked to come with original passport only. No other documents. Also, got sms shortly afterwards.

Intimation! Your HDFC Bank MCY is ready at XXXX branch. Visit with ID and address proof within 90 days to collect and avoid destruction.

 

[mj01]

Card delivered at branch. Got a call from branch informing the same. They asked to come with original passport only. No other documents. Also, got sms shortly afterwards.

Intimation! Your HDFC Bank MCY is ready at XXXX branch. Visit with ID and address proof within 90 days to collect and avoid destruction.

Is there home delivery option for existing HDFC customers?

 

[vishalgupta2]

I applied for Multicurrency card using Infinia (supplementary card). I loaded USD 1010 and the issuance fee was waived automatically during transaction. As I applied for card with Name, it will be delivered to the branch in 5-6 days. There are 3 key currencies I use all the time so will load USD 1k equivalent in the other currencies once I get the card.
As per my calculations, Infinia monthly limit of 15k gets hit a little over 1000 so will have to do another transaction in March with Infinia (another 1k USD) and 2 transactions using my DCB (1 this month and 1 in March).

This will get us to about 60k points for about 3.6L of spend, which is much better than what I currently get on Olympus (8points / 100)

 

[Ash8]

Key point to note is once you activate the card it will show 0 balance initially and the amount will be loaded automatically in 2 working days. This is for safety purposes by the bank.

Now what is this new condition? What will people do if their card is activated today and are travelling tomorrow?

 

[Ash8]

Is there home delivery option for existing HDFC customers?

They seem to have removed now on the website. May be got too much traction with this offer.

 

[shadow28]

My analysis of both the Forex cards:

On paper, Multicurrency Platinum ForexPlus is better because it has a lower joining fee and ATM transaction fee. So, if you are using the full amount on the card on the trip, it makes sense to go for it. Otherwise, if you have leftovers, Regalia ForexPlus is better as you can use it for other currency transactions without any charges in your future trips. So, based on your use case, pick the card that is better for your travel needs.

Cross Currency Fee: The fee to convert one currency to another. Let's say you load the card with 100 USD but now paying 50 Dihrams at Dubai airport, a fee would be charged to convert USD to Dihrams.

Regalia ForexPlus Card:
1) Joining fee 1000 + GST
2) ATM Fee: USD 4 + GST per transaction
3) Lounge: 1 per qtr
4) Cross Currency Charges: 0

Multicurrency Platinum ForexPlus Card:
1) Joining fee 1000 + GST
2) ATM Fee: USD 2 + GST per transaction
3) Lounge: None
4) Cross Currency Charges: 2% + GST

Common Charges for both cards
1) Reload Fee: INR 75 plus applicable GST per reload transaction
2) Load or Withdraw Charges

Up to Rs 1 lakh	0.18% of the gross value or Rs45 - whichever is higher
Rs 1 lakh – Rs 10 lakhs	Rs 180 + 0.09% of the amount exceeding Rs. 1 lakh
> Rs. 10 lakhs	Rs. 990 + 0.018% of the amount exceeding Rs. 10 lakhs

PS: I personally took Regalia ForexPlus Card as my loading currency has always been USD and I get the flexibility to shop in other currencies during layovers without the worry of loading new currency and unloading it again.

Let me know if I should make this a post and add more details for benefit of everyone.

Thanks for the analysis! One small correction though, the joining fee of the Multicurrency ForexPlus Card is Rs 500, not Rs 1000.

 

[shadow28]

What if I withdraw cash from Regalia Card.. Is there any benefit when compared to Multi currency card

Nope, in fact it's worse than the Multicurrency ForexPlus Card in terms of ATM withdrawal fees. Regalia forex card has a $4 ATM withdrawal fee whereas the Multicurrency forex card has a $2 withdrawal fee (for USD; it's similar low amounts for other currencies as well). Regalia forex is a better option if you're going somewhere cards are widely accepted and you don't need to use much cash.

 

[shadow28]

They seem to have removed now on the website. May be got too much traction with this offer.

I still see the option for home delivery but it's only available for non personalized forex cards.

 

[vishalgupta2]

I still see the option for home delivery but it's only available for non personalized forex cards.

+1

I also saw the home delivery option, which vanished once I choose personalized card

 

[Yugi]

Thanks for the analysis! One small correction though, the joining fee of the Multicurrency ForexPlus Card is Rs 500, not Rs 1000.

Thanks, fixed it