MyFinCards

Forex Markup Calculator

Your card charges a percentage on everything you spend in a foreign currency, and 18% GST is charged on top of that percentage. Work out what it actually costs you over a year, and which cards in our catalogue would cost you less.

Markup figures verified 7 March 2026

Manual Entry (set the markup below)

94 of 303 cards have a published forex markup on file. The rest are not listed rather than guessed.

₹1,50,000
₹10,000₹20,00,000
3.5%
0%5%

Forex Charges Per Year

₹6,195

on ₹1,50,000 spent abroad, at an effective 4.13%.

Per Month

₹516

GST Alone

₹945

Switching to 811 Dream Different Credit Card (zero markup) would save ₹6,195 a year after its annual fee.

18 cards in our catalogue charge no forex markup at all. GST is charged on the markup, so a 3.5% card really costs 4.13%.

Cards That Would Cost You Less

Ranked by what you keep after the annual fee, on ₹1,50,000 of international spend.

CardMarkupAnnual FeeYou Keep
811 Dream Different Credit Card
Kotak Bank
ZeroFree₹6,195
All Miles Credit Card
HDFC Bank
ZeroFree
waived above ₹1,00,000
₹6,195
Corporate Platinum Credit Card
Kotak Bank
ZeroFree₹6,195
FIRST WOW!
IDFC FIRST Bank
ZeroFree₹6,195
HORIZON Credit Card
Axis Bank
ZeroFree
waived above ₹2,00,000
₹6,195

Worked Example: ₹1,50,000 Spent Abroad

You spend ₹1,50,000 internationally over a year on a card charging 3.5% forex markup. GST is charged on the markup, not on the purchase, so the real rate is 3.5 × 1.18 = 4.13%.

Markup charged

₹5,250

₹1,50,000 × 3.5%

GST on the markup

₹945

18% of the markup

Total for the year

₹6,195

₹516 a month

The markup is not on your statement as a separate line

Most issuers fold the markup into the converted rupee amount, so a ₹10,000 purchase abroad simply appears as ₹10,413. Over a year at your spend that is ₹6,195 you never see itemised.

What is this Calculator?

It converts a markup percentage into the rupee figure you actually pay over a year. The markup is charged on every foreign-currency transaction, and because GST is levied on the markup rather than on the purchase, the headline percentage always understates the real cost by 18%.

How to Use It

1

Pick your card, or set a markup manually if it is not listed.

2

Set what you spend abroad in a year — trips, subscriptions and overseas online purchases all count.

3

Read the yearly cost, and the GST portion of it.

4

Check the table of cards that would cost you less after their annual fee.

What Counts as Foreign Spend

Not only trips. Any transaction billed in a foreign currency attracts the markup, including overseas SaaS and cloud bills, international flight bookings made on foreign sites, and purchases from sellers who settle abroad. A subscription billed in rupees by an Indian entity does not.

Expert FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

It is a fee your issuer charges on any transaction in a foreign currency, expressed as a percentage of the amount. Most Indian cards charge between 2% and 3.5%. It applies to purchases made abroad and to online purchases billed in a foreign currency, including subscriptions.
Yes. GST at 18% is levied on the markup itself, not on the transaction amount. A card advertising a 3.5% markup therefore costs 3.5 × 1.18 = 4.13% of what you spend. On ₹1,00,000 spent abroad that is ₹4,130, of which ₹630 is GST.
Only if the merchant bills you in a foreign currency. Netflix India and Spotify India bill in rupees, so no markup applies. AWS, OpenAI, Adobe and most overseas SaaS bill in US dollars, so the markup and its GST apply every month.
Yes. A number of cards charge no foreign currency markup at all, and several of those carry no annual fee either. This calculator lists the zero-markup cards in our catalogue and ranks them by what you would keep after their annual fee.
Usually not. Most issuers fold the markup into the converted rupee amount, so the transaction simply appears larger than the exchange rate alone would suggest. The GST on the markup is sometimes shown as a separate line, sometimes not.
On top of it. The issuer first converts at its own reference rate — which is itself typically a little worse than the mid-market rate — and then applies the markup percentage to the converted amount. The two costs compound.
No. A zero-markup card with a ₹5,000 annual fee only pays for itself above a certain level of international spend. This calculator ranks alternatives by net gain — the markup you avoid minus the new card's annual fee — rather than by markup alone, so a fee-free 2% card can outrank a zero-markup card that charges a fee.
Yes, and a separate cash advance fee and interest from day one usually apply as well. Cash withdrawal abroad is almost always the most expensive way to use a credit card.
If a terminal abroad offers to bill you in rupees — Dynamic Currency Conversion — the merchant's rate is usually far worse than your issuer's. Decline it and pay in the local currency, even on a card that charges a markup.
From the fee schedule published by each issuer, recorded per card in our catalogue. Cards whose markup we have not yet verified are left out of the list rather than assumed to charge the market rate, so the comparison only covers cards we hold a published figure for.