Fi Card Review – 4 Things Making It The Best Forex Card

Fi Money Review – Fi Card Review

A key hassle to sort when travelling abroad is foreign currency, either in cash or a forex card. I’ve been through the horror of exchanging money last minute at the airport and being charged a hefty markup. I shifted to forex cards and even then the experience was not as pleasant. The fact that you have to hold foreign currency by buying it at a specific rate, the awful user interfaces of these websites and hidden charges some or other way.

“Fi” Neobank Fintech Startup apparently ended all my woes at one go. I have been using this card extensively for past 6 months and I recently took it to my 1.5 month long backpacking trip to Vietnam and Thailand. Here’s a breakdown of my Fi Card Review, does it live up to the hype?

What is Fi Card or What is Fi Money?

Fi Money or also know as just “Fi” is a zero balance digital savings bank account in collaboration with Federal Bank that gives you an International Visa Card which you can also use as a forex card that charges zero markup on overseas transactions. The entire bank account is a pleasant online experience via an app on your smartphone. On that app you can track your transactions, make transfers, control debit card usage and limits.

Opening An Account

It has to be called one of the smoothest bank account opening experience. Very different from traditional banks where you have to fill long manual forms. Just install the app, fill in few details and your Aadhar number, you are good to go. Entire KYC procedure is carried out on the app itself. That too in a very seamless manner. The Free International Visa Debit card is shipped automatically and would soon be delivered on your address. The App is available on both Android and iOS.

International Visa Debit Card

The account offers an elegant and modern looking International Visa Debit Card with Tap to Pay functionality. As already demonstrated on above image, the key features of this card include Zero Forex Markup, Wide Network of Supported ATMs, Transparent Schedule of Charges and No minimum balance requirement.

When I was using this card in Vietnam and Thailand, I did not face any issue in terms of it being supported at different POS machines or even international bank’s ATMs. I in fact linked it to Grab Taxi App and was able to take cabs easily without hassle of cash payments. When you are in a foreign country, you prioritise saving currency notes over card because not all places accept cards but you do not want to miss out use the card in places where they do accept it without any surcharge.

Issue with Traditional Banks and Forex Cards

Almost all Debit Cards and Credit Cards from traditional banks in India charge a forex markup of 3.5% + GST which comes up to about 4.13% and that is a steep charge which will quickly add up to a major chunk of money that you spend in your trip abroad. And it is a charge which brings no value, you’d wish for ways to avoid this charge. Which is why people tend to use Forex Cards and Currency Notes exchanged in India to incur the least charges in conversion.

A major problem with Traditional Forex Cards is that there is a lack of transparency in charges and the fact that you have to hold foreign currency in the card at a fixed rate in which you bought it. On top of it, there is a painful procedure of loading it and unloading it.

Is Fi Card Truly Zero Forex Markup?

Absolutely, it helps you transact on Point of Sale Machine Accepting vendors and even ATMS at VISA Crossover rates at that point of time. For easier understanding, if you have an international VISA card even on your traditional bank, they charge 3.5% + GST i.e 4.13% on top of the exchange rate that VISA offers them. Whereas Fi helps you transact at the crossover rates it self.

You can check and verify your spend and deductions for purchases made from Fi Card on the Visa conversion calculator which is a live convertor for crossover rates. Fi Offers first International ATM withdrawal or balance enquiry free but additional ones are charged INR 100 per transaction. Please note that the bank to which the ATM belongs charge their own fee for withdrawal. This could be a fixed fee or a percent charge.

One very important thing to keep in mind is that

ATMs in any country offer the choice to opt in to using their conversions rates. Always, I repeat Always tap on No when prompted to opt into these conversion rates. You’ll end up losing a lot of money in unnecessarily your money being charged for conversion twice.

What do these prompts look like –

You can read a detailed article by the family without borders on how Foreign ATMs can trick you into losing a lot of money in conversion charges just to withdraw your own money.

Forex Hack For ATMs Abroad

Always try to find ATMs that prompt charging you a fixed withdrawal fee instead of one that prompt a percentage based charge for withdrawal. And it is always better to withdraw large amount of money at once instead of smaller amounts stretched over multiple withdrawals.

Let me illustrate this with an example – Suppose I want to withdraw 10000 Thai Baht using the Fi Card from ATMs in Thailand. In first time I withdraw 10000 THB at once and in the second time I withdraw 5000 THB twice.

• Fixed Withdrawal Charge in Most ATMS in Thailand – 220 Thai Baht
• Fixed International ATM Transaction Charge by Fi – 100 Rupees
• Conversion Rate – 1 THB = 2.223289 INR as per Visa conversion calculator at 10:30 AM – 23/06/22

Type	Withdrawing 10000 at once	Withdrawing 5000 Twice
ATM Charge	10000 + 220 charge = 10220 THB	5000 + 220 = 5220 THB
Conversion Rate by VISA	10220 * 2.223289 = 22722 INR	5220 * 2.223289 = 11605 INR
Withdrawal Fee by Fi	22722 + 100 = 22833 INR	11605 + 100 = 11705 INR
Money Being Charged For Once	22833 INR	11705 INR
Money Being Charged For Twice	Not Applicable	23410 INR
Effective Conversion Rate	22833/10000 = 2.28 INR for 1 THB	23410/10000 = 2.34 INR for 1 THB

Wrapping Up – Fi Money App Review

As a conclusion for Fi Card Review, it can be safely said that Fi is one of the earliest Neo Bank startups in India and their promise of Zero Forex Markup is true. It holds good, especially for POS transactions abroad. However, for ATMs there’s a small fee of INR 100 per transaction which is understandable. My experience with the card in my 1.5 month long backpacking trip across Vietnam and Thailand was really smooth and I would totally recommend you to give it a shot. This card however has a big competitor i.e. Niyo Global Forex Card. I will be coming up with a blog on the review of that one soon.

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