Cards built for spending abroad.

Forex markup is a hidden tax on every international swipe. The market default is 3.5%, which on a ₹5 lakh international spend year adds up to ₹17,500 — roughly the annual fee of a premium travel card. A card with a 1.5–2% markup quietly saves enough to justify itself for anyone traveling abroad regularly.

The cards ranked here all sit at or below 2% forex markup. A 0% forex card is a rare find in India — they typically come with an invite-only premium tier or an NRI product. The achievable sweet spot for most applicants is a 1.5–2% markup paired with decent domestic rewards.

Don't conflate forex markup with Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC). Even on a 2% forex card, if you accept the merchant's offered local-currency conversion, you pay an additional 3–5% DCC markup. Always decline DCC and pay in the local currency; the card's native conversion beats the merchant's.

International rewards are the other side of the coin. Many cards earn accelerated points on international spend (often 2–5× the domestic rate), which offsets the markup further. We factor the realistic net cost — markup minus rewards — into the ranking, not the headline markup alone.