International payments: how to cut forex fees and markups

Paying or getting paid across borders leaks money: for freelancers and founders billing clients in the US and Europe, families sending money between the UAE and India, and travellers losing a few per cent on every card swipe. I write as someone whose work and family span India, the UAE and the US.

If you travel for work, the Popcorn.Space eSIM guide covers the other recurring cost abroad: mobile data.

The aim is practical. Find where the money leaks, then close the leaks that are worth closing. Every fee and rate below comes from a bank, regulator or provider page listed in the sources. Where a provider’s figure depends on your residence or changes by the minute, the guide says so and shows you where to check.

Where the money goes

An international payment can cost you in three places:

1. The exchange rate. Most banks and many transfer services convert at a rate worse than the mid-market rate, the midpoint between buy and sell prices. The gap is their margin, and it is rarely shown as a fee.
2. Explicit fees. A transfer fee, a foreign transaction fee on a card, or a fee for receiving a SWIFT payment.
3. Intermediary charges. Banks in the middle of a SWIFT transfer can deduct their own fees. Emirates NBD’s DirectRemit terms, for example, warn that additional fees may be levied by the correspondent bank.

A transfer advertised as free can still be expensive if the rate is poor. Emirates NBD lists DirectRemit transfers to India as free, with a limit of INR 1,000,000, and also states that the prevailing exchange rate is applied at the time of processing. Free means no separate fee. It does not mean no margin.

The only fair comparison is the amount that arrives, for the same amount sent, at the same time.

Card spending abroad: the markup

When you pay by card in a foreign currency, your bank converts the amount and usually adds a percentage. The figures vary widely, even between banks in the same city. The companion guide, credit cards in India, the UAE and the US compared, covers the cards in detail; here is the cost side.

Card or bank	Foreign currency fee	Extra charges stated
Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Quicksilver (US)	None	None
All IDFC FIRST Bank credit cards (India)	0%	None stated
FAB Travel Card (UAE)	None	FAB says no scheme or bank charges
Emirates NBD credit cards (UAE)	1.99% including VAT	About 1.15% Visa, Mastercard or Diners processing fee
HDFC Infinia (India)	2%	GST, which HDFC applies to all fees and charges
HSBC UAE credit cards	2.1% including VAT	Up to 1.21% Visa or Mastercard fee
Mashreq credit cards (UAE)	2.89%	Visa or Mastercard charges as applicable
ADCB credit cards other than Traveller (UAE)	2.99%	About 1.15% network processing fee
Axis Bank Atlas (India)	3.5%	GST

If you spend abroad more than a few times a year, a card with no markup saves more than most reward programmes earn back.

Dynamic currency conversion: always pay in the local currency

At a shop in London or an ATM in Bangkok, you may be asked if you want to pay in your home currency. Saying yes is called dynamic currency conversion (DCC). The merchant’s provider sets the exchange rate, usually with a margin built in, and you lose your bank’s or network’s rate.

In the European Union, Regulation (EU) 2019/518 requires anyone offering conversion at an ATM or point of sale to show the total charges as a percentage markup over the latest European Central Bank reference rate before you pay, and to tell you that you can pay in the local currency instead. Use that number: compare it with your own card’s fee. On a zero-markup card, any DCC markup is pure loss.

There is now a second reason to decline: several banks charge their own fee on transactions abroad that are billed in your home currency.

Bank	Fee when you pay abroad in your home currency
HDFC Bank (India)	1.75% markup on transactions in Indian rupees at an international location, from 15 May 2026
Axis Bank Atlas (India)	3.5% on international transactions performed in Indian rupees, revised from 21 August 2026
HSBC UAE	1.05% including VAT on international transactions in AED, plus up to 1.21% scheme fee
Mashreq (UAE)	2.89% on AED transactions outside the UAE
ADCB (UAE)	2.99% foreign transaction fee on AED transactions (0% for the Traveller card)

How the choice plays out (illustration). Take a USD 1,000 bill. Let m be the merchant’s DCC margin, which you will only see on the terminal or receipt.

Card	Pay in USD	Pay in your home currency (DCC)
IDFC FIRST card	0% markup	m plus any fee your bank charges
HDFC Infinia	2% plus GST	1.75% plus GST, plus m
Axis Atlas	3.5% plus GST	3.5% plus GST, plus m
Mashreq	2.89% plus network charges	2.89% plus m

For a zero-markup card the local currency is clearly cheaper. For the others, DCC only comes out ahead if the merchant’s margin is smaller than the difference between the two columns, and you cannot see that margin until the terminal shows it. The default stays simple: pay in the local currency, and at ATMs decline the conversion offer.

Multi-currency accounts: Wise and similar

Multi-currency accounts let you hold several currencies, convert at or near the mid-market rate, and receive money through local account details instead of a SWIFT transfer. Wise is the best-known example. What you can do depends heavily on where you live.

Pricing, where available. On Wise’s pricing page for UK residents, receiving domestic (non-SWIFT) payments in currencies including USD, EUR and GBP is free, while receiving a USD wire or SWIFT payment costs a fixed USD 6.11 per payment and a EUR SWIFT payment costs EUR 2.39. Prices differ by country of residence, so check the page for your own address.

Residents of India. Wise’s help centre says people in India can hold money in their account only when travelling overseas. Indian businesses get a separate service: international clients pay into Wise account details in 24 currencies, the money is converted automatically and sent to your Indian bank account, and you receive an e-FIRC (the electronic certificate of the foreign inward remittance) by email. Wise says it charges the equivalent of USD 2 per transfer to issue the e-FIRC, the maximum per transaction is INR 2.5 million, and balances cannot be held.

Residents of the UAE. Wise received final licences from the Central Bank of the UAE in October 2025. As of this check, its help centre does not list the UAE among countries where you can hold money, and says people with a UAE address cannot get USD account details. UAE residents can send money from AED after verifying with an Emirates ID.

Residents of the US. USD account details are available to most US addresses; Wise’s help centre lists Nevada as an exception at the time of writing.

Before choosing any provider, confirm three things on its own help pages: that you can open an account at your current address, which currencies you can receive locally, and if you can hold a balance or are converted on arrival.

Stablecoin-funded cards are sometimes sold as a cheaper route. Crypto debit cards compared sets out what they cost and the tax questions they raise.

Getting paid by foreign clients

Invoicing basics

• Invoice in the client’s currency if they prefer it, and give them local account details where you have them. A US client paying by a domestic transfer to USD account details avoids SWIFT altogether.
• If SWIFT is unavoidable, ask the client to pay all sending charges (the “OUR” option on their transfer form) so intermediaries do not deduct fees from your invoice amount.
• Track what arrives, not what was sent. Record the conversion rate and fees for each payment; your accountant will need them.

For a wider list of money habits for freelancers and founders, see money tips for freelancers and founders.

Freelancers and companies in India

Payments for services exported from India arrive through the banking system and are usually converted to rupees. Two points matter:

• Keep the paperwork. A FIRA or e-FIRC from your bank or payment provider is your record that the money came from abroad. Wise’s Indian business service issues one per transfer.
• Consider an EEFC account. The RBI allows resident foreign exchange earners, including individuals, to keep export earnings in an Exchange Earners’ Foreign Currency (EEFC) account at an authorised bank, to avoid converting to rupees and back. The RBI’s FAQ attaches conditions, including when each month’s credits must be converted to rupees, so ask your bank how the current rules apply to you.

Freelancers and companies in the UAE

The dirham is pegged to the US dollar; the Central Bank of the UAE’s published rate was 3.6725 dirhams per dollar on 1 September 2026. Invoicing US clients in USD therefore carries little currency risk. Euro invoices still move with EUR/USD.

India-specific rules: LRS and TCS

The Liberalised Remittance Scheme (LRS)

Under the RBI’s LRS, resident individuals can remit up to USD 250,000 per financial year (April to March) for permitted current and capital account purposes. The RBI says the total foreign exchange purchased from, or remitted through, all sources in India during the year must stay within that limit, and a PAN is required.

Tax collected at source (TCS)

TCS is tax a bank or tour operator collects in advance when you send money abroad. Budget 2026-27 proposed lower rates for education, medical treatment and overseas tour packages. Standard Chartered India’s published notice says the revised rates apply from 1 April 2026 under the Finance Act, 2026, and sets them out:

Purpose	First ₹10 lakh in a financial year	Above ₹10 lakh
Education funded by a loan from a financial institution	Nil	Nil
Education or medical treatment (other funding)	Nil	2%
Any other LRS purpose (investments, gifts, family maintenance and so on)	Nil	20%
Overseas tour package	2% from the first rupee	2%

Two practical points:

• International credit cards used abroad are outside LRS. A Ministry of Finance release of 28 June 2023 said transactions through international credit cards while overseas would not be counted as LRS and would not be subject to TCS. Standard Chartered’s current notice repeats this “until further notice”. The same notice applies the revised TCS rates to forex cards and to debit card payments made overseas.
• TCS is not a fee. You can claim credit for it when you file your income tax return. It does tie up cash until then, so large remittances are worth timing.

UAE remittance options

From the UAE, the main routes to India, Europe or the US are:

• Your bank’s own transfer service. Emirates NBD’s DirectRemit, for example, lists transfers to India as free, with a limit of INR 1,000,000, while transfers to Europe cost AED 25 each from 1 September 2025. The rate applied is the bank’s prevailing rate.
• Exchange houses. Another common route. Use only providers licensed by the Central Bank of the UAE, and compare their quoted amount received.
• Online providers. Wise lets UAE residents send from AED after verification with an Emirates ID.

Whatever you use, compare the amount received on the same day for the same amount, and check whether the quote is guaranteed or “indicative”.

Worked example: sending USD 1,000 from the US to an Indian bank account

This snapshot comes from Wise’s own comparison page on 11 November 2026, for USD 1,000 sent from the US to INR and paid by bank transfer or ACH. Wise collects these quotes itself and is one of the providers compared, so treat it as a starting point and check each provider’s own quote.

Provider	Exchange rate	Total cost as Wise calculates it	Recipient gets
Remitly	93.6558	USD 2.02	₹93,655.79
Western Union	93.5234	USD 3.43	₹93,523.43
Wise	93.8449	USD 6.85	₹93,202.06
Wells Fargo	91.0100	USD 30.21	₹91,010.01
Chase (US)	90.9086	USD 36.13	₹90,454.03

What it shows:

• The gap is about ₹3,200, or roughly 3.4%, between the best and worst outcomes on the same USD 1,000.
• The big banks’ cost sits almost entirely in the rate. Wise counts their margin against the mid-market rate as part of the “total cost”.
• The provider with the best rate did not deliver the most money. Wise’s rate was the highest shown, but its fee meant two remittance services delivered more rupees on this route and amount.
• Quotes move. They were collected at different times, and some services price first transfers differently, so recheck on the day you send.

The same USD 1,000 spent on a card abroad

Using the fee schedules above, the bank charges on a USD 1,000 foreign-currency purchase, before any exchange rate difference, look like this:

Card	Bank fee	Plus
US cards with no foreign transaction fee, IDFC FIRST, FAB Travel	USD 0	Nothing stated
Emirates NBD	USD 19.90	About USD 11.50 network fee
HDFC Infinia	USD 20	GST on the fee
HSBC UAE	USD 21	Up to USD 12.10 scheme fee
Mashreq	USD 28.90	Network charges as applicable
ADCB (other than Traveller)	USD 29.90	About USD 11.50 network fee
Axis Atlas	USD 35	GST on the fee

Over USD 10,000 of foreign spending a year, the gap between the top and bottom of this table is around USD 400.

Ways to stop the leaks

• Compare the amount received, not the advertised fee.
• Pay in the local currency at shops and ATMs; decline conversion offers.
• Use a zero-markup card for foreign spending and check the network fee on UAE cards.
• Give clients local account details where you can; if SWIFT is needed, ask them to pay sending charges.
• In India, keep a FIRA or e-FIRC for every foreign payment and ask your bank about an EEFC account.
• Track your LRS total for the financial year; TCS starts above ₹10 lakh, and you can claim credit for it in your return.
• From the UAE, use licensed providers and compare quotes on the same day.
• Recheck every fee once a year: several changed during 2026.