Reloading an HDFC Bank forex card means paying rupees to top up a plastic card that already holds foreign currency, at whatever rate the bank gives you that minute. The mechanics take about as long as any other transfer. The money side is where people get surprised, and almost all of it is written down in advance: four different limits apply at the same time, three separate charges can attach to a single reload, and two tax regimes sit on top of both.
Everything below comes from HDFC Bank's own card pages, the Reserve Bank of India's Master Direction on the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and the Finance Act 2025 amendments to section 206C(1G) of the Income-tax Act. We checked each of them on 2026-09-15. Where HDFC does not publish a figure, this page says so instead of filling the gap.
Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice.
The ForexPlus cards hold several wallets, one per currency, on the same piece of plastic. Loading happens at issuance. Reloading is the same operation performed later, on a card already active. Each reload is priced afresh, so the rate you saw in April has no bearing on October.
HDFC's terms also specify which reference rate applies in which situation. When you transact in a currency that is not loaded on your card, it uses the Visa or Mastercard wholesale exchange rate prevailing at the time of the transaction. When you convert between two currencies already sitting on the card, wallet to wallet, it uses the prevailing mid rate. Neither is the rate you were shown at the reload screen, and that distinction is where quoted and realised costs part ways.
Scale check: the Bank for International Settlements puts global FX turnover at $9.6 trillion a day in its April 2025 Triennial Survey. Your card is priced off that market, not off the mid rate on your screen.
HDFC's terms page covers three variants. The headline fees barely differ. The cross-currency markup row is where they separate.
| Charge | Multicurrency ForexPlus | Regalia ForexPlus | ISIC Student ForexPlus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card issuance fee | ₹500 + GST | ₹1,000 + GST | ₹300 + GST |
| Reload fee | ₹75 + GST | ₹75 + GST | ₹75 + GST |
| ATM cash withdrawal | $2 or equivalent | $2 or equivalent | $2 or equivalent |
| Balance enquiry | $0.5 or equivalent | $0.5 or equivalent | $0.5 or equivalent |
| Cross-currency markup | 2% | 0% | 3% |
| Back-up card | ₹100 + GST | ₹100 + GST | Service not available |
| Card replacement | ₹100 + GST | ₹100 + GST | Service not available |
Two details in that table deserve a second look. First, HDFC quotes the reload fee as applying per reload transaction, currency wise. Funding two wallets in one session is two reloads. Second, the student card carries the highest cross-currency markup of the three, which matters because students are the group most likely to be moving between currencies.
One availability note. HDFC's own Regalia ForexPlus page has carried a notice that the card is currently unavailable. Confirm it before you build a plan around its 0% markup.
HDFC's published terms list four limits, and reading them as four separate allowances is the most expensive mistake available to a cardholder.
Only the fourth comes from the regulator. The USD 25,000 is the bank's own ceiling on online reloads, not a FEMA limit, and mixing the two misleads in both directions.
The USD 250,000 under LRS is one allowance for everything. Tuition sent by wire, medical treatment abroad, gifts to relatives, overseas investments, and whatever you put on this card all draw down the same balance for the financial year, which runs April to March. Cards do not get their own quota, and a second card does not give you a second one.
Above USD 250,000 in a financial year, RBI requires prior approval. That threshold has been in place through successive revisions of the Master Direction.
The Multicurrency Platinum ForexPlus Chip Card supports 22 currencies, and HDFC publishes a separate withdrawal fee, balance enquiry fee, and daily ATM limit for each one. The limits are not uniform, which surprises anyone who assumed a global per-day figure.
| Currency | ATM cash withdrawal fee | Balance enquiry fee | Daily ATM limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| US Dollar (USD) | USD 2.00 | USD 0.50 | USD 5,000 |
| Euro (EUR) | EUR 1.50 | EUR 0.50 | EUR 4,700 |
| Swiss Franc (CHF) | CHF 2.50 | CHF 0.60 | CHF 5,000 |
| British Pound (GBP) | GBP 1.00 | GBP 0.50 | GBP 4,000 |
| Canadian Dollar (CAD) | CAD 2.00 | CAD 0.50 | CAD 6,600 |
| Australian Dollar (AUD) | AUD 2.00 | AUD 0.50 | AUD 6,800 |
| Japanese Yen (JPY) | JPY 250.00 | JPY 60.00 | JPY 580,000 |
| Singapore Dollar (SGD) | SGD 2.70 | SGD 0.75 | SGD 7,000 |
| UAE Dirham (AED) | AED 7.00 | AED 2.00 | AED 18,000 |
| Swedish Krona (SEK) | SEK 15.00 | SEK 3.50 | SEK 45,000 |
| Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) | HKD 16.00 | HKD 4.00 | HKD 38,000 |
| Thailand Baht (THB) | THB 63.00 | THB 16.00 | THB 178,000 |
| South African Rand (ZAR) | ZAR 22.00 | ZAR 5.50 | ZAR 67,000 |
| New Zealand Dollar (NZD) | NZD 2.50 | NZD 0.60 | NZD 7,100 |
| Omani Rial (OMR) | OMR 0.70 | OMR 0.25 | OMR 1,900 |
| Danish Krone (DKK) | DKK 11.00 | DKK 2.75 | DKK 35,000 |
| Norwegian Krone (NOK) | NOK 12.50 | NOK 3.25 | NOK 42,000 |
| Saudi Riyal (SAR) | SAR 7.50 | SAR 2.00 | SAR 18,600 |
| Korean Won (KRW) | KRW 2,400.00 | KRW 600.00 | KRW 5,800,000 |
| Bahraini Dinar (BHD) | BHD 0.75 | BHD 0.20 | BHD 1,800 |
| Qatari Riyal (QAR) | QAR 7.50 | QAR 1.80 | QAR 18,000 |
| Kuwaiti Dinar (KWD) | KWD 0.60 | KWD 0.15 | KWD 1,500 |
GST applies on these fees at the prevailing rate, and HDFC notes the daily limit can be lower if the ATM's own operator sets one.
The balance enquiry fee is the small insult people remember. Checking your balance at an ATM costs half a dollar in the United States and more elsewhere. Check it in the app instead.
Cross-currency markup is charged at 2% on the Multicurrency ForexPlus card, 0% on Regalia, and 3% on the ISIC student card. It applies when the transaction currency is not one already loaded on the card, and it applies equally to wallet-to-wallet conversions between two currencies the card already supports.
This is a stated percentage on the transaction amount, not a spread buried inside an exchange rate.
Currency conversion tax applies on load, reload, and refund transactions. Three bands, set by HDFC's published schedule:
Refunds being in scope is the part people miss. If you come home with money on the card and cash it back into rupees, that conversion is taxed using the same schedule. Anyone who budgets for the outbound leg only will be short at the other end.
GST applies on currency conversion and other fees at the prevailing rate, on top of the figures above.
Tax Collected at Source on foreign remittances runs under section 206C(1G) of the Income-tax Act, 1961. The Finance Act 2025 raised the exemption threshold from ₹7 lakh to ₹10 lakh per financial year with effect from 1 April 2025, and removed TCS altogether for education remittances financed by a loan from a financial institution as defined under section 80E.
| Purpose of the remittance | TCS rate from 1 April 2025 | Threshold |
|---|---|---|
| Education financed by a qualifying loan from a financial institution | Nil | Exempt regardless of amount |
| Education otherwise, and medical treatment | 5% on the excess | ₹10 lakh per financial year |
| Every other LRS purpose | 20% on the excess | ₹10 lakh per financial year |
| Overseas tour programme package | Treated separately: HDFC's page states 5% of the total amount remitted | Not counted inside the ₹10 lakh threshold |
Now the discrepancy. HDFC's own terms page still describes the pre-amendment position: 5% above ₹7 lakh, and 0.5% for education financed by a qualifying loan. The statute says ₹10 lakh and nil, and we found nothing else on HDFC's site reconciling the two. The statute governs what you owe; the bank decides what it debits. Where those diverge, ask for the computation in writing.
TCS is not a penalty and not a tax you lose: the bank collects it against your PAN and you claim credit when you file. It is still cash out now, and 20% on anything outside education and medical is a serious financing cost.
One practical point from HDFC's terms: GST on conversion, TCS, and other taxes is debited from your account the next working day, not netted out of the reload when you confirm.
HDFC's terms set out two conditions under which a request is rejected and reversed back to your account.
The second condition gets far less attention than it should. These cards are issued against a declared purpose: travel, study, medical treatment, business. A card issued for a holiday is not automatically the right vehicle for a tuition payment, and the bank can decline the reload on that basis alone.
Nothing on the card warns you before you hit either wall. Track your own LRS utilisation across every remittance you make in the year, not only the ones touching this card.
The Reserve Bank of India publishes the monetary penalties it imposes on banks, and HDFC Bank appears more than once. Three of those orders concern KYC, which is the layer of compliance sitting directly beneath every card discussed here.
Imposed for non-compliance with RBI directions on KYC and anti-money laundering norms and on the reporting of frauds. The background matters: RBI had received a reference from customs authorities about certain importers submitting forged bills of entry to the bank for foreign currency remittance. The penalty came under section 47A(1)(c) read with 46(4)(i) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.
Imposed for non-compliance with RBI's KYC directions following the statutory inspection with reference to the bank's position as on 31 March 2023. RBI sustained two charges: the bank did not categorise certain customers into low, medium, or high risk based on assessment and risk perception, and it allotted multiple customer identification codes to certain customers instead of a unique customer identification code each.
Imposed for contravention of section 19(1)(a) read with section 6(1) of the Banking Regulation Act, and non-compliance with RBI directions on interest rates on advances, outsourcing of financial services, and KYC. Among the sustained charges, the bank had outsourced the function of determining compliance with KYC norms of certain customers to its outsourcing agents.
Two framing points belong beside those numbers. First, RBI repeats the same caveat in each release: the action rests on deficiencies in regulatory compliance and is not intended to pronounce on the validity of any transaction between the bank and its customers.
Second, none of these orders concerns the ForexPlus card. They concern institution-level KYC and compliance. They matter here because the card is activated only after KYC documents have been fully verified, and failures at that layer are what delay issuance in the first place.
Anyone can apply. You do not need to hold an HDFC Bank account, and HDFC says so on its eligibility page.
The card is activated only after those KYC documents have been fully verified. Plan backwards from that if you are applying close to a departure date.
Insurance cover published on HDFC's eligibility page includes misuse through counterfeiting or skimming up to ₹5 lakh, road and rail accident cover up to ₹5 lakh, air accident cover up to ₹25 lakh, loss of checked-in baggage up to ₹20,000, and loss of personal documents up to ₹50,000.
What we could not confirm: no HDFC page describes funding a reload from a non-HDFC account through UPI or NEFT into a collection account, so this page makes no claim about that route. If a branch says it works, get it in writing.
Twenty-two on the Multicurrency Platinum ForexPlus Chip Card, listed individually above with their own fees and ATM limits.
₹75 plus GST per reload transaction, charged per currency, plus currency conversion tax in whichever band you fall, plus TCS if your year-to-date LRS usage has crossed ₹10 lakh. Three separate pots, not one fee.
Yes, subject to what remains of your USD 250,000. The LRS allowance covers all permissible purposes combined for the financial year, and the wire-transfer and the card reload share it.
We could not confirm this from HDFC's own pages, in either direction, so this page makes no claim about it. Nobody should discover the answer to this one at a hotel desk at midnight.
The transaction clears at the card network's wholesale rate prevailing at the time, with a 2% cross-currency markup on top for the Multicurrency ForexPlus card, 3% for the ISIC card, and nothing for Regalia.
Yes. Currency conversion tax is levied on refund transactions as well as loads and reloads, using the same three bands.
Four checks, roughly twenty minutes in total, and you will know more than any aggregator page does.
When a bank page and the statute disagree, the statute governs what you owe and the bank governs what gets debited. Where those differ, get the computation in writing before you accept the figure.
Last reviewed 2026-09-15. Nothing here is financial, legal, or tax advice. If you find an error in anything above, particularly in the currency tables or the TCS rates, tell us and we will amend it with attribution.