Why are forex cards more preferable over debit or credit cards or travellers’ cheque?

If you are wondering why and how to use forex card, these have voluminous advantages over cash, travellers’ cheque, credit and debit cards such as:

• Forex cards offer better exchange rates to send money abroad and for loading currencies than purchasing foreign currency as cash. Banks providing forex cards is the economical option.

• Forex cards are laden with foreign currency at locked-in exchange rates. Therefore they are resistant to the vacillation of currency value in the forex marketplace.

• Forex cards are more secure than carrying cash as they come empowered with chip and pin technology for securing the money in them. In case of forex card getting lost or robbed, it can be blocked instantaneously and the balance in it frozen. The secondary forex card issued with the original can then be started and funds will be relocated to it.

• Forex cards can be used to carry several foreign currencies simultaneously in a single card such as Australian Dollars (AUD), Euro (EUR), Hong Kong Dollars (HKD), Japanese Yen (JPY), New Zealand Dollars (NZD), Saudi Arabian Riyals (SAR), Singapore Dollars (SGD), Thai Baht (THB), United Arab Emirates Dirhams (AED), United Kingdom Pounds (GBP) and United States Dollars (USD).

• Forex cards have no supplementary charges when swiping at PoS counters overseas, unlike debit and credit cards. Also, debit and credit cards when used overseas work at inflated forex exchange rate and would cost you around 5 to 11% additional of the total transaction charge.

• Nil dynamic currency conversion fees. As forex cards are already laden with the native currency of a foreign nation, dynamic currency conversion (DCC) fee will not be valid when using them overseas. However, this fee will be there in the case of debit and credit cards. DCC would add an additional 3 to 5% charge to your transaction fee.

• Forex cards are universally acknowledged and accepted, unlike travellers’ cheque which has become an out-of-date payment tool. Also, forex cards can be used to extract money from an ATM nearby when out of the country. However, encashing travellers’ cheque is a gigantic trouble as you would have to find banks or business institutions ready to accept it. Even taxis in some nations overseas accept forex card as a payment technique. In fact, you can even use this card for online transactions overseas, like ordering items via e-commerce platforms overseas. This is conceivable as they work on either Visa or MasterCard network just like usual debit and credit cards.