Axis Atlas - A great forex card Alternative?

[the_collector]

Hello Everyone!

It's been half a year since I've been using my axis atlas and I'm not sure why nobody is speaking about this!

Axis atlas has a dynamic currency conversion fee of just 1.5% + GST. Effective rate 1.77%.

This is on par with many high end credit cards that offer a lower forex fee of 3.5% + gst.

Now where is the benefit you may ask?

At the time of making a transaction in a foreign country, Instead of paying in the local currency of the country, select INR ( this would be considered as a DCC transaction instead of a forex one) and this would attract a fee of only 1.77%.

Reward Rate:

- On offline merchants abroad using POS and selecting inr / On online merchants that are international based and auto convert to inr ( agoda, klook, getyourguide, viator etc..):

DCC Fee - 1.77%
Reward rate assuming it's not hotel or airline mcc - 4%

Effective reward rate - 2.23%

- on offline/ online merchants with hotel/ airline MCC

DCC fee - 1.77%
Reward rate on hotel/ airline mcc - 10%

Effective reward rate - 8.23%


Note:

1. Higher effective reward rate on accor conversion
2. Always make sure in the message when you swipe or pay online that you are charged in "INR" , if the message has any other currency mentioned you will be charged with the full 3.5% + gst ( 4.13%) , effectively making it negative.

Would love to know your thoughts 👇🏻

 

[ENIAC]

Only you have to be vigilant and select INR when paying on POS

 

[the_collector]

Only you have to be vigilant and select INR when paying on POS

True, that's probably the only thing you'd need to be aware of.

I used to use idfc wealth as my backup forex card, but the effective reward rate is negligible. I'm replacing this card with the atlas as my backup. I'll reach my milestones faster too