HSBC India drops forex markup to zero on every credit card until September 15, 2026

HSBC India has removed the foreign exchange markup on its entire credit card portfolio for one month, from August 15 to September 15, 2026, both dates inclusive. Every card in the range is covered, and the waiver applies to merchant point-of-sale spend and online foreign currency transactions alike.

Note the shape of this before you plan around it. It is a promotional window with an end date, not a repricing of the products.

What is covered

The waiver applies across the HSBC India credit card range, which the bank lists as the Premier, Taj, Live+, TravelOne and Platinum cards. Two cards in the portfolio, HSBC Prive and the HSBC RuPay Cashback Card, already carry no forex markup as a standing product feature, so nothing changes for them.

HSBC also states it does not levy a Dynamic Currency Conversion fee on its credit cards. That is a separate, standing policy and not part of this promotion. It matters because DCC is where the other issuers have been raising prices this month: Axis moves its DCC fee to as much as 3.5% on August 28.

The usual advice still applies even on a zero-markup card. When an overseas terminal offers to bill you in rupees, decline it and pay in the local currency; the exchange rate the merchant's processor uses is its own, and no issuer waiver protects you from it.

What a month of it is worth

The saving is straightforward to size, because a forex markup is a flat percentage of the transaction plus GST on that markup.

Those figures are the markup alone, before the GST charged on it, and they are illustrative rates rather than any specific card's published markup. Check your own card's schedule of charges for the rate that resumes on September 16.

Who this is actually for

Anyone with an HSBC card and a September trip already booked, and anyone paying for foreign-currency subscriptions or overseas tuition in the next four weeks. Front-loading a renewal or a large international purchase into the window is the whole play, and it is a real one.

Who it is not for: nobody should apply for a new credit card to catch a four-week promotion. Approval and card delivery will eat most of the window, and you would be holding the card for years on its ordinary terms.

What to do

If you hold an HSBC card, move any planned foreign-currency spend into the window and put a reminder on September 15. If you are shopping for a card whose selling point is low forex cost, judge it on its permanent rate rather than a promotion.

Rank cards on their standing forex markup rather than on a temporary waiver, then run your own spend through the matcher to see what else that spend should be sitting on.