Only for the frequent flyer

It’s that time of the year when people begin planning their summer holidays. Some look to travel abroad, while others plan for vacation within the country. For the former group of travellers, who would require several currencies, ING Vysya has launched its Visa Platinum Multi-Currency Forex Travel Card.

The card permits the user to load up to five different currencies. At the moment, if you are, say, going to Spain, Italy and England, you will have to get two prepaid cards - one loaded with euros for your expenses in Spain and Italy, and the other with pounds for use in England.

ING Vysya’s Travel Forex Card will let you load your card with US and Australian dollars, British pound, euro, and the Japanese yen. So, if you are going to Spain, Italy and England this summer, you can choose to fill your card with both euros and pounds. If you travelling to, say, Australia and America, you can fill it with, both, the Australian and American dollars. You can fill all five currencies at once if you so desire.

“As a traveller moves from one destination to another and uses the card, the card intelligently identifies the usage country and makes payment from the respective currency wallet. Any change in the exchange rate does not affect the cardholder as the rate gets locked at the time of uploading the card,” explains ING Vysya’s country head, retail banking, Uday Sareen.

He adds that if a cardholder overruns the budget of a particular currency, the card alternatively clears expenses by taking money allotted to the other currencies, thereby providing frequent travellers with a larger budget.

Since you will be locking in the currency rate at the time of purchasing your prepaid card, you can benefit against the frequent currency fluctuations and depreciating rupee.

Uttam Nayak, group country manager, India and South Asia, Visa, says, “It locks the value of the rupee at the rate on the purchase date and any fluctuation in currency exchange rates or rupee rate will not impact the traveller.”

So, while there is the facility to lock the rate of exchange for the multiple currencies, you will still have to pay ATM withdrawal charges overseas for every withdrawal, just like any other prepaid travel card. You will also have to pay a one-time fee of Rs 250 at the time of purchasing the card, says Sareen.

The amount you can fill or preload, is the same as any other travel forex card. The Reserve Bank of India has set certain limits. For instance, if you travelling for leisure, you are allowed to carry up to $10,000 in a financial year. So, in your multi-currency card, you can carry the currencies up to that limit.

According to the head of foreign exchange with a leading travel agent, one drawback of is that multi-currency pre-paid cards do not provide pre-swiping and blocking facilities at hotels.

Every hotel overseas asks the leisure traveller to swipe the card at the hotel for any expenses the traveller may incur during the stay. The swipe will be blank without any amount and signed by the traveller. At the time of checking out in case the traveller has not used any services the swipe will be reversed as NIL charges. If the traveller has used any services the hotel will debit that amount towards the swiped charge and claim the same from the bank.

For now, you can only load the five currencies the bank offers. So, if you were to, say, travel to Hong Kong, or somewhere in the Middle East or South America, you will still need to get prepaid cards that will let you load those respective currencies.

ING’s Sareen says they will keep adding more currencies, going forward.

Experts say the card is useful for frequent travellers. Say, if you take a holiday every year to America, Europe or Australia, this card will come in handy as you do not have to buy currencies all the time.

Or, if you travel a lot to these areas for business purposes, it is a good card to have as you can load it with up to five currencies, and RBI allows you to take $25,000 every trip you make. But do remember to carry a judicious mix of cash, travellers cheques, credit cards and travel prepaid card on your journey.