Credit Card with Forex Charges v/s Prepaid Cards

[a.c]

Hi Team,

I have the below mentioned cards. I have an international trip coming up next month, since I exhausted the Infinia 1L limit of GVP I moved a single transaction to test Diners Conversion Rate (I knew it is high but never knew it would be that high), while the net is still positive it charges 1% over and above the VISA conversion charges.

Now my question is does it make sense to pay higher raw amount (in terms of monetary value) to gain net positive rewards (I can redeem it at 1:1 via smartbuy), or is it better to get a prepaid card load in some USD and route all transactions via that (looking at thomascook, saviforex prepaid cards).

1. HDFC Infinia (GVP Enabled)
2. HDFC DCB (GVP Enabled)
3. Onecard
4. IDFC First Wealth

P.S: Though what I found interesting is that I did a test transaction in CHF on DCB, this time the conversion rate was even better than VISA 😲 , do I just pay in CHF till the 1L limit of DCB GVP is also hit? Not sure if this will continue or how the reward rate would change.

Regards

 

[a.c]

@TechnoFino / mods
Not sure if it sits in forex or credit cards section, please move as appropriate

 

[sunit123]

Please search the forum...there are numerous threads on this topic...

 

[a.c]

I did search and then I enabled GVP for DCB since there is no information anywhere regarding its currency conversion markup over the interbank rates.
I did a few experiments in both CHF and USD, both indicate completely opposite results.

Hence the question if folks know if GVP is even worth it on DCB or not.