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Relevance of Forex Cards during International Trips

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kumarvishwas

kumarvishwas

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Hey Guys,

I am travelling to Singapore this weekend and was in hunt for a Forex Card for general daily spends there on a weeks trip.

But most of the people I checked with having knowledge of Cards denied taking Forex cards and advised rather to use Credit Cards.

Now I own few cards as listed below(hotels/attractions already booked using Magnus), please suggest if I should use any of the below cards or opt for a quick forex card from HDFC(have a Imperia savings account) or BookmyForex(Offered for 0 as booked hotel using MakemyTrip) :

1. Magnus(2% forex markup fees) : Milestone completed
2. IDFC First Wealth(1.5% forex markup fees) : Running a 10x points offer on International spends
3. HDFC Regalia First : Someone recommended to check for Global Value Program

Require your suggestions on which card to opt for or use, majorly it is my first trip abroad so worried if credit cards might attract heavy forex and exchange charges with low usable bonus/ER points.

TIA…. 🙂
 
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These cards are sufficient for international trip. Looks like IDFC is good with 10x rewards and 1.5% Mark up. Yes HDFC GVP gives 1% cashback on 2% Mark up and hence effective rate is 1%. Cashback has a capping of1000 I guess per month. But HDFC is snail and by the time they activate it, you may return from travel 😂

Since you are traveling to Singapore, I guess now Rupay or UPI is also accepted in some shops. There is no mark up I guess. Please check the threads in this forum or contact @Abhishek012 who has written a thread about it.

Some shops may even offer to bill in INR like Dubai and please note it will attract DCC of 1% I guess but no Mark up since it is INR transaction out of country.
 
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thanixravindran said:
These cards are sufficient for international trip. Looks like IDFC is good with 10x rewards and 1.5% Mark up. Yes HDFC GVP gives 1% cashback on 2% Mark up and hence effective rate is 1%. Cashback has a capping of1000 I guess per month. But HDFC is snail and by the time they activate it, you may return from travel 😂

Since you are traveling to Singapore, I guess now Rupay or UPI is also accepted in some shops. There is no mark up I guess. Please check the threads in this forum or contact @Abhishek012 who has written a thread about it.

Some shops may even offer to bill in INR like Dubai and please note it will attract DCC of 1% I guess but no Mark up since it is INR transaction out of country.
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Yes but many banks are not enabled yet RuPay card for International transaction on RuPay's native network in Singapore, UAE, Bhutan, Bahrain, Nepal.

for RuPay JCB or Discover cards - you need to pay upto 3.5% bank markup fees.

UPI - After add your bank, If you see "UPI global" enabled option on your BHIM app or Phonepe app then your bank is supported UPI International transactions.
 
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Take a forex card as well few benefits

1 ) It’s good for atm withdrawals
2) A forex card comes with replacement card so in case you lost your primary card you can use the replacement card .

Use 0 forex markup or high RP cc for pos transactions , use a forex card to withdraw money

Take a 0 joining fee forex card from icici and load/unload the same from bookmyforex

You can thank me later 🙂
 
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phagocyte536 said:
I'm not knowledgeable on this, but how about 0 forex cards like OneCard, Fi (salary account) in case one doesn't have a positively rewarding card
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One card has 1% forex markup , FII is a debit card so it’s subjected to tcs
0% forex markup CC are few
Rbl world safari
Axis burgundy private
Idfc wow Cc
Niyo global CC
 
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anirban.choudhury said:
Yeah this is good too
I suggested iciic because their tech is good
But this one is also good
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Saw your other post where you mentioned "As of now if someone is interested in cashback returns and not airmiles ( which is Axis Reserve ) , IDFC Wealth seems to be really good as IDFC is offering 10x RP on forex transaction , wealth has a forex markup of 1.5% with gst somewhere 1.8% , 10x means statement credit if 2.5% of Rs 100 spend on forex , overall it’s a net profit of 0.7% on forex direct on statement credit which seems better than even 0% forex markup .", does it still stand true that it would be better to use First Wealth?

Cash won't be an issue as I have a friend there who'll provide me with sufficient SGD and I'll transfer the same INR to his Indian account and even if I have to take the cash out it might be maximum of 150 SGD, not more than that.
 
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kumarvishwas said:
Saw your other post where you mentioned "As of now if someone is interested in cashback returns and not airmiles ( which is Axis Reserve ) , IDFC Wealth seems to be really good as IDFC is offering 10x RP on forex transaction , wealth has a forex markup of 1.5% with gst somewhere 1.8% , 10x means statement credit if 2.5% of Rs 100 spend on forex , overall it’s a net profit of 0.7% on forex direct on statement credit which seems better than even 0% forex markup .", does it still stand true that it would be better to use First Wealth?

Cash won't be an issue as I have a friend there who'll provide me with sufficient SGD and I'll transfer the same INR to his Indian account and even if I have to take the cash out it might be maximum of 150 SGD, not more than that.
Click to expand...
Yes in cash is not an issue you can go ahead with idfc wealth
 
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@anirban.choudhury

I am planning to travel to Europe and had same question on how to manage the forex..
For most spends i will swipe magnus or dcb as reward rate is more than forex mark up but for cash i was wondering what to do.. was wondering should i open indusind exclusive account for 0% markup debit card.. but want to avoid hassle of opening new bank account if possible..

1) any axis debit card with low forex? I currently have burgundy debit card
2) i am travelling to europe to countries which don’t have euro as currency (swiss, norway etc) so do the forex cards don’t have any markup for this or are they loaded in euro so again i will have forex
 
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Abhishek012 said:
Yes but many banks are not enabled yet RuPay card for International transaction on RuPay's native network in Singapore, UAE, Bhutan, Bahrain, Nepal.

for RuPay JCB or Discover cards - you need to pay upto 3.5% bank markup fees.

UPI - After add your bank, If you see "UPI global" enabled option on your BHIM app or Phonepe app then your bank is supported UPI International transactions.
Click to expand...
Do we need to enable international in card settings or upi Bhim app alone will work?
 
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CVR said:
@anirban.choudhury

I am planning to travel to Europe and had same question on how to manage the forex..
For most spends i will swipe magnus or dcb as reward rate is more than forex mark up but for cash i was wondering what to do.. was wondering should i open indusind exclusive account for 0% markup debit card.. but want to avoid hassle of opening new bank account if possible..

1) any axis debit card with low forex? I currently have burgundy debit card
2) i am travelling to europe to countries which don’t have euro as currency (swiss, norway etc) so do the forex cards don’t have any markup for this or are they loaded in euro so again i will have forex
Click to expand...
Not sure about axis debit card with low forex , apart from exclusive DC , RBL signature plus DC also has 0 forex markup if you don’t have a RBL account then rather than opening new account for 0 markup DC , I would strongly to take a multi-currency forex card instead to avoid any markup fees plus an added advantage would be along with primary card you will also get a replacement card . Opt for a 0 issuance fees based multi currency forex card to mitigate against any cross currency markup ( iciic charges 3.5% plus gst ) like ICICI platinum and then use Bookmyforex to load/unload without any charges at best possible rate
 
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anirban.choudhury said:
Not sure about axis debit card with low forex , apart from exclusive DC , RBL signature plus DC also has 0 forex markup if you don’t have a RBL account then rather than opening new account for 0 markup DC , I would strongly to take a multi-currency forex card instead to avoid any markup fees plus an added advantage would be along with primary card you will also get a replacement card . Opt for a 0 issuance fees based multi currency forex card to mitigate against any cross currency markup ( iciic charges 3.5% plus gst ) like ICICI platinum and then use Bookmyforex to load/unload without any charges at best possible rate
Click to expand...
but forex card u need to decide today how much forex u want.. and most forex cards have euro usd sgd etc but not Scandinavian countries so again there will be cross currency from euro to those currencies?
 
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CVR said:
but forex card u need to decide today how much forex u want.. and most forex cards have euro usd sgd etc but not Scandinavian countries so again there will be cross currency from euro to those currencies?
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Yes cross currency charge of 2-3.5% gst will be charged , also nowadays most of the currencies are there for loading in multi currency .
 
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anirban.choudhury said:
Yes cross currency charge of 2-3.5% gst will be charged , also nowadays most of the currencies are there for loading in multi currency .
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thanks.. which will be best multi currency forex card in your view? axis multi currency doesn’t have scandinavian currencies
and for debit card with zero markup, indusind exclusive looks good option?
 
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CVR said:
thanks.. which will be best multi currency forex card in your view? axis multi currency doesn’t have scandinavian currencies
and for debit card with zero markup, indusind exclusive looks good option?
Click to expand...
Yes i too recommend IndusInd dc
Fx cards once u forget to cancel after use they will charge for non usage which is unnecessary
 
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CVR said:
thanks.. which will be best multi currency forex card in your view? axis multi currency doesn’t have scandinavian currencies
and for debit card with zero markup, indusind exclusive looks good option?
Click to expand...
Please avoid debit card during abroad. Several years ago, I had a nightmarish experience when one of my friends debit card was compromised in UK and getting a replacement and money back was painful. At least don't use your primary debit card.
 
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