How to ensure your international vacation budget actually reaches your destination

Indian outbound travel is booming. In FY2024-25, Indians made an estimated 31.7 million trips abroad, spending over $31.7 billion overseas, a 25% increase on the previous year. By the end of the decade, more than 50 million Indians are expected to travel internationally each year.

This is a mass movement of families, couples, and solo travellers choosing to see the world, and spending hard-earned money to do it. Yet for most of them, a portion of that budget quietly disappears before it delivers a single experience. Not through overspending but through poor payment choices, hidden card charges, and a lack of visibility over what is being spent and where.

But, there is a genuine reason for optimism. The Union Budget 2026 slashed Tax Collected at Source (TCS) on overseas tour packages from 20% to a flat 2%, returning real money to travelling families immediately.

And in December 2025, the Reserve Bank of India issued draft guidelines proposing full fee transparency on forex transactions, requiring financial institutions to disclose all charges and exchange rate markups before a transaction is completed.

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Together, these two shifts represent the most consumer-friendly policy environment for international travel that India has seen in years. But good policy is only half the picture. How you choose to spend abroad matters just as much.

A widely reported incident involving a co-branded multi-currency forex card saw thousands of Indian cardholders hit by unauthorised transactions, many of them on cards that had been inactive for years.

The incident is a wake-up call not just about data security but about the tools travellers choose and the level of real-time control those tools actually provide.

Whether you are boarding a flight this summer or planning ahead for later in the year, a few considered habits can make a material difference, both to how far your budget goes and how safe it stays:

• Always pay in the local currency of your destination: You will often be asked whether you want to pay in rupees or local currency at the checkout; always choose to pay in the local currency. This is because paying in rupees triggers Dynamic Currency Conversion, which allows the merchant’s bank to set the exchange rate, which is always worse than what you would see on Google. Choosing local currency means conversion is handled by your own card provider at a significantly better rate. This single habit costs nothing and can lead to meaningful savings over the duration of your holiday.

• Use a multi-currency card that converts at the mid-market rate: There are now forex cards in India, that allow you to hold and spend in multiple currencies from a single account, converting at the rate you see on Google, with no foreign transaction fees added on top. For travellers visiting multiple destinations, this eliminates the repeated conversion losses that stack up.
  
• Demand real-time notifications and instant card controls: Your card and provider should send you an instant notification for every transaction the moment it occurs, in the local currency and in rupees, so you always know exactly what is being charged and at what rate. Equally important are features that allow you to “freeze and unfreeze” your card instantly from your phone, when you might have lost your card or spot unusual transactions. This can be done instantly within the app without needing to call a helpline or wait for a bank to act on your behalf.
  
• Be strategic about cash: Carry only what you need for the first day or two, and withdraw locally in larger amounts rather than frequent small withdrawals, which attract repeated ATM charges from both your bank and the local operator. Avoid exchanging a large lump sum before departure, which locks you into a single rate regardless of how markets move.

• Review inactive cards before you travel: If you hold any old or rarely used travel cards, check whether they are still active and consider closing accounts you no longer need. Dormant cards with loaded balances are an underappreciated vulnerability. Consolidating to a single, actively monitored card is both simpler and safer.

Choosing providers who offer the mid-market rate, instant spending visibility, and genuine card control is how Indian travellers ensure their holiday budget, and their hard-earned savings, actually go where they intended.