I am about to travel internationally. Need suggestions

[thomas.lunakutty]

Hello all

Going to be traveling internationally, and have been doing some research on various threads on here and different Indian Credit Card related sub reddits. Here's what I have learnt.

Without going into HNI accounts , I see there are a couple of 0 forex debit cards and credit cards.

From my understanding,

• For international ATM withdrawals, one should not use credit cards as they charge advance fee/ high interest etc, and therefore I will need a debit card
• Scapia seems to be a popular credit card. The other credit cards discussed (IDFC First Wow, Niyo SBM etc) seem to be secured credit cards? I don't know ahead of time how much I will pay therefore will not know how much FD to book?
• Fi seems to be a popular debit card with the infinity / salary option. They do have a Rs. 100 per international ATM fee. They also have 2% UPI cashback? (Right now, I don't have any credit card or fancy debit card, I just use my SBI salary account and PhonePe)
• The other option for debit card seems Indie with 0 international ATM fee, and apparently I can just load a large amount, get the higher end card, then withdraw the amount back?
• Fi and Scapia are both backed by Federal, and apparently if you have Fi already they won't give you scapia. How about the reverse? Can I get scapia first, and then later Fi?
• Finally, with debit cards, there's some transaction fee/TCS that gets charged when you make online purchases which get refunded in 10 days or so?

So I am kinda confused. I would like to have both a credit card for international transactions outside the country, international transactions online in India and a debit card for international ATM withdrawals.

If I do an ATM withdrawal from my debit card, will I be charged the TCS fee or whatever and will that too get refunded in 10 days or so, or does it only apply for online transactions?

If I get Scapia first, can I get Fi later? Or across all neo banks that use Federal bank , I am allowed to have exactly 1 product?

 

[nrj1007]

TCS is not refunded in 10 days. You need to adjust the TCS when you file ITR. It's kind of advance tax.

 

[R!ppEr]

why not check the bookmytrip forex card? provides good fx rates as well

 

[manit]

I had recently used AU zenith+ for expenses in Vietnam. Forex charge is 0.99+ gst but you get 2% rp (1Rp=1Rs) on international transactions. Plus if you spend 75k in a month you will get additional 1k RP.

 

[Dragon_slayer]

I used mangus CC few months back as the reward rate covered all the fees and gave some ROI as well. I would still suggest getting a forex card from a good bank, as I have noticed that most CC get blocked on first transaction in foreign land and then unblocking it is a huge pain.

 

[nrj1007]

I used mangus CC few months back as the reward rate covered all the fees and gave some ROI as well. I would still suggest getting a forex card from a good bank, as I have noticed that most CC get blocked on first transaction in foreign land and then unblocking it is a huge pain.

Hdfc and SBI apps have option to update your foreign trip plans. I have used HDFC internationally and never experienced blocking. I have HDFC DCB which gives 3.33% cashback +1% extra cashback on international txns after activating Global Value Program. And forex charges are 2.36% inc GST.
Acceptability of DCB is not good though so I use my Niyox debit card which offers 0% forex charges.

 

[image]

most CC get blocked on first transaction in foreign land and then unblocking it is a huge pain.

Is it a good idea to do an online transaction of US$ 1-2 (or in currency of planned country) to avoid this?

 

[Dragon_slayer]

Is it a good idea to do an online transaction of US$ 1-2 (or in currency of planned country) to avoid this?

For magnus , it didnt worked, as the card kept getting blocked at stores, then online tx and even for metro payments ( In USA ). I had to email them and then it got fixed in few days.

 

[aayusharyan]

Hello all

Going to be traveling internationally, and have been doing some research on various threads on here and different Indian Credit Card related sub reddits. Here's what I have learnt.

Without going into HNI accounts , I see there are a couple of 0 forex debit cards and credit cards.

From my understanding,

• For international ATM withdrawals, one should not use credit cards as they charge advance fee/ high interest etc, and therefore I will need a debit card
• Scapia seems to be a popular credit card. The other credit cards discussed (IDFC First Wow, Niyo SBM etc) seem to be secured credit cards? I don't know ahead of time how much I will pay therefore will not know how much FD to book?
• Fi seems to be a popular debit card with the infinity / salary option. They do have a Rs. 100 per international ATM fee. They also have 2% UPI cashback? (Right now, I don't have any credit card or fancy debit card, I just use my SBI salary account and PhonePe)
• The other option for debit card seems Indie with 0 international ATM fee, and apparently I can just load a large amount, get the higher end card, then withdraw the amount back?
• Fi and Scapia are both backed by Federal, and apparently if you have Fi already they won't give you scapia. How about the reverse? Can I get scapia first, and then later Fi?
• Finally, with debit cards, there's some transaction fee/TCS that gets charged when you make online purchases which get refunded in 10 days or so?

So I am kinda confused. I would like to have both a credit card for international transactions outside the country, international transactions online in India and a debit card for international ATM withdrawals.

If I do an ATM withdrawal from my debit card, will I be charged the TCS fee or whatever and will that too get refunded in 10 days or so, or does it only apply for online transactions?

If I get Scapia first, can I get Fi later? Or across all neo banks that use Federal bank , I am allowed to have exactly 1 product?

You can also look into Jupiter. Idk how soon you are travelling, but if you are able to get to their Pro upgrade. you get 0 Forex upto 25K/month.
Regarding Fi and Scapia. Go for Scapia since it's LTF. But yes, with Fed's 1 card policy, you can't get Fi CC. You can still use their DC for 0 Forex upto 50K/mo.

Also, a tip. DO NOT OPT FOR ATM CONVERSION (Specially in Europe). Always decline that choice, there are some ATMs which will not allow withdrawal without paying those charges, do not interact. There are many scammy ATMs like that. However, exception being good countries like Japan. Their conversion actually ends up cheaper than non converted charges.

Regarding Credit Cards, it might be a wise choice to do POS Txns on CC instead of Cash. But depends on what cards you have.

With Federal's debit product, you can have as many as you want. I hold Jupiter and Fi, both

 

[thomas.lunakutty]

Thanks for all the info folks.