Why To Use Forex Cards When Travelling Abroad

Gone are the days when people carried travelerscheques when travelling abroad. With the latest advancements in technology, one can now benefit from plastic money even while travelling overseas.

Foreign exchange or Forex cards are prepaid foreign currency cards to make your foreign trip totally hassle-free and convenient. You can load this pre-paid card in your country and use it to withdraw money abroad from VISA/ Master Card/ American Express ATMs. Irrespective of the currency of the card, the cash will be in the currency of the country. Furthermore, one can also use these cards at merchant establishments accepting these cards.

Advantages offered by Forex card

More savings: Forex cards allow you the flexibility of spending as much as you need as compared to travelers cheques where the eniter amount needs to be encashed when you needed money
Widely acceptable: Forex cards are not just accepted in luxury restaurants or shopping malls, even taxis and local shops accept these cards
Safe and secure: Forex cards are quite secure as they come with a chip and pin feature to safeguard travellers against any fraud and comes with a backup card in the welcoming kit.
Reloadable: These cards are reloadable at anytime and anywhere. People can reload the card as many times they want within the validity period
Online transactions: The Forex Travel Card can be used for making online purchases and various transactions such as bill payments, booking air tickets, etc.
Retaining Forex Card after return: you can retain the Forex prepaid card only if the balance remaining on the card is less than US$ 2000. Else, the amount needs to be refunded within 90 days from the date of arrival.

The amount that can be loaded on a card should be done as per the Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 and prevailing Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations. The Forex prepaid card can be loaded with any amount up to US$ 10,000 or an equivalent in Euros in a year. Further, corporate travelers can load the card up to US$ 25,000 for a business trip to any country other than Nepal and Bhutan.

Even with the growth in usage of credit and debit cards, international Forex cards are turning out to be a more viable option for travelers travelling abroad. The real advantage of these cards lies in their ability to pack multiple currencies onto a single card.