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Issue 04 · Welcome back
The window we spent two issues on has closed. Here's where the money went.
A long gap since Issue 03 — my fault, and thank you to the few of you who wrote to ask where it went. Back to it.
This week: the RBI's dollar-and-rupee deposit window expired on 30 September and rates have fallen back harder than most people noticed, a bank quietly made every one of its credit cards zero-forex, and the repo rate moved on 7 October. Then Diwali on 8 November, where to eat in six cities before the good tables fill, and the two films the diaspora is about to argue about.
— Amish
What Changed
A window shut, a forex fee vanished, and the repo rate moved.
Three things since we last spoke, and all three change what you should do with dollars.
Banking · The window closed
The FCNR window expired on 30 September — and rates fell further than expected
The RBI's relaxation we covered in Issues 02 and 03 ran through 30 September 2026, and it was not extended. The promotional dollar rates went with it. HDFC's FCNR USD 1-year sat at the top of the market during the window; its current card, effective 1 October 2026, pays 3.35%. Across the majors, 1-year USD FCNR now runs roughly 3.3%–5.0% — a far wider spread between banks than during the window, and several of the big names sit below 4%.
→ The catch: if you were waiting for a better moment, you missed it. But the money has somewhere better to go — see The Deposit Desk below.
Cards · India
IDFC FIRST made every one of its credit cards zero-forex
From 9 September 2026, IDFC FIRST Bank removed the foreign-currency markup across its entire credit card range — and applied it to existing cardholders too, with no upgrade, no new card, no spending threshold and nothing to apply for. Cards that charged 1.5% or 3.5% now charge nothing. For anyone who spends in one country and pays in another, that is the single biggest recurring cost on a card quietly going to zero.
→ The catch: from 26 October most of those cards stop earning reward points on international spends — but not all of them. Ashva, Mayura, Gaj, FIRST Private, FIRST WOW!, WOW! Black and the IndiGo card keep earning. The Take below works out who actually wins.
Rates · India
The RBI moved the repo rate to 5.50% on 7 October
A 25 basis-point rise, and the first move in a while. Indian home loans are repo-linked, so anything you hold on a floating rate reprices within a cycle or two — and the rate cards lenders are publishing right now carry short expiry dates (ICICI's current one is explicitly valid only to 31 October). If you are shopping for an NRI home loan, the quote you were given in September is not the quote you will get in November.
→ Note these are two different stories. A repo hike pushes rupee deposit rates up. FCNR is a dollar product and is not repo-linked at all — it fell because the RBI relaxation lapsed, which is the rest of this issue.
The Take
Zero forex, and for seven of the cards you don't even lose the points.
The arithmetic is simpler than the marketing on either side of it.
Forex markup is the most reliably ignored fee in an NRI's life. It does not appear as a line item — it is baked into the exchange rate on the statement, typically 3.5% on an Indian card, plus 18% GST on the markup itself, which takes the real number closer to 4.1%. Spend ₹4,00,000 a year abroad on a 3.5% card and you have paid about ₹16,500 for the privilege, without ever seeing a charge for it.
So when a bank takes that to zero, the saving is large and certain. What IDFC FIRST is taking away in exchange — reward points on international spends, from 26 October — is smaller and less certain. Here is the trade in one line:
The arithmetic
For most cards it is not a trade at all — and for seven IDFC cards there is no trade
Start with the seven that are carved out. Ashva, Mayura, Gaj, FIRST Private, FIRST WOW!, FIRST WOW! Black and the IndiGo co-brand keep earning rewards on international spend after 26 October. If you hold one of those, you get zero forex and keep your points — there is nothing to weigh up. FIRST WOW! is the FD-backed card we already recommend to NRIs without an Indian credit history, so a good share of readers are in this group.
For the rest of the IDFC range, the sum is still lopsided: a typical Indian card returns 1–3.3% in points on international spend, against a markup of 3.5% plus 18% GST ≈ 4.1%. The fee you stop paying is larger than the points you stop earning, and it is certain, while points depend on redeeming them well.
→ Where it is genuinely close: a premium earner on another bank. HDFC Infinia runs 2% forex — roughly 1% net once Global Value cashback is counted — against about 3.3% base rewards, which is why it still works abroad.
Who this actually helps. If you live abroad and visit India, your Indian card is mostly for India — the forex change barely touches you. If you live in India and travel, or you are an NRI who keeps an Indian card for trips, this is a straightforward annual saving. And if you are the person who has quietly been eating 3.5% on every booking made on an Indian card from abroad, this is the best cards news of the year.
One correction I owe you. Our own cards page carried the wrong markup for the ICICI Sapphiro for months — we showed 2%, ICICI's own page says 3.5%. It is fixed, along with a handful of other fee figures. If you picked a card off that page earlier in the year, it is worth a second look.
→ Current fees and forex markups, now with the date each card was last checked against the issuer: the cards table.
The Deposit Desk
With the FCNR window gone, GIFT City is now the better dollar home — by a lot.
The gap was 50–75 basis points for years. At one bank it is now 185.
An IFSC Banking Unit at GIFT City takes the same dollars, from the same bank, with the same tax-free treatment for non-residents — and prices them under a different regulatory perimeter. For as long as I have been writing about it, that was worth half a point over a mainland FCNR deposit. The RBI window narrowed the gap further, because FCNR rates were temporarily allowed to compete.
Now the window has closed and FCNR has fallen back, while IBU rates have not. At HDFC, today:
HDFC · both legs from the bank's own rate cards
FCNR 3.35% · GIFT City IBU 5.20% · a gap of 185 basis points
On a $100,000 deposit that is $3,350 a year versus $5,200 — $1,850 extra, for about thirty minutes of fresh KYC at the same bank you already use. Held five years at those rates and compounded, the difference is close to $10,950.
→ The honest caveat: this gap is unusually wide at HDFC precisely because its promotional FCNR rate lapsed. At other banks it is narrower.
And at one bank it may have gone entirely. Bank of Baroda is quoted at 5.00% on FCNR USD at one year — the best of the eight banks we track, and level with its own GIFT City IBU rate. That figure is from a rate aggregator, not BoB's own card, and it is flagged as such on our table; treat it as a prompt to ring the bank rather than a number to act on. If it holds, the GIFT City argument simply does not apply there — which is not a flaw in the idea, just what happens when one bank prices aggressively on the mainland side. It is exactly why you check both legs at your bank rather than trusting a rule of thumb. Including ours — we have spent this month replacing that old "50–75 bps" line everywhere it appeared on the site, because it is no longer true.
→ Eight banks, FCNR against IBU. HDFC and Kotak are issuer-sourced; the rest are aggregator figures and the table says so on each row: the GIFT City comparison.
The Lifestyle Note
If you fly home once a year, this is the month — and here's where to eat.
The rain has gone, the heat has not come back, and Diwali is on 8 November.
The trip — the four good weeks. October is the only month where Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa are all pleasant at the same time. The monsoon has cleared, the winter smog has not yet settled over the north, and the light is as good as it gets. Navratri is under way as this lands, with Dussehra on the 20th. Dhanteras follows on 6 November and Diwali on 8 November, with wedding season starting immediately behind it. It is also the month that gets expensive fastest if you book late.
The plate — book these before you land, not after. Festival season fills the good rooms weeks out. Wherever you're going:
Where to eat · by city
Delhi — Indian Accent at The Lodhi is still the country's most internationally known table, and deserves it. For a drink, SIDECAR in Greater Kailash is the one that keeps turning up on world lists.
Mumbai — Masque in Lower Parel, for a tasting menu built entirely on Indian ingredient sourcing. Americano in Kala Ghoda if you want something shorter and louder.
Bangalore — Farmlore, a farm restaurant outside the city with a handful of seats a night. Karavalli for the coastal Karnataka cooking that ruins every other version of it.
Chennai — Avartana at ITC Grand Chola. A south Indian tasting menu, and some of the most quietly inventive cooking anywhere in India.
Goa — Hosa for modern south Indian, Gunpowder in Assagao for the version everyone's been going to for years.
Jaipur — Suvarna Mahal at the Rambagh Palace, if you want the room to do as much work as the food.
→ All of these need booking ahead in October. Most take reservations online now, including from abroad.
And if you are not flying in. Anything posted from the US or UK needs about three weeks to clear customs and reach a house before Diwali — so for 8 November it wants to be in the post within the next week or so. Ordering within India for delivery within India removes the problem entirely, and spares you the forex markup this issue has spent so long on.
→ The full list, by city and by category: top tables · bars and rooftops · Diwali gifting.
Extra Time
The cinema half of the year starts now.
A note for the half of the diaspora who still judge a trip home by what's showing.
Drishyam 3 is already out — Ajay Devgn back for the third time, released 2 October, and doing the numbers you'd expect from that franchise. If you're flying in for Diwali in November it'll still be on a screen somewhere when you land.
But the one actually worth planning around lands right in the middle of the festival. Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana — Part 1 — releases on 5 November, between Dhanteras and Diwali, which is the single biggest release window in the Indian calendar. Ranbir Kapoor as Ram, Sai Pallavi as Sita, Yash as Ravana, Sunny Deol as Hanuman, with Prime Focus and DNEG on the visual effects. It's out in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam simultaneously, which means it'll be in diaspora cinemas from Houston to Hounslow the same weekend. Advance bookings open on Dussehra, the 20th. Part 2 is slated for Diwali 2027.
Whether it's any good is a separate question, and one I'd rather not pre-judge — but it is the most expensive swing Indian cinema has taken at its own founding story, and the whole diaspora is going to have an opinion by December.
No money angle. That's the point.
From the Site
If a section above left you wanting more.
Banking · Rates
Five banks, each row taken from that bank's own FCNR rate card with the date it was checked. ICICI shows no figure, because ICICI doesn't publish one — a guess would be worse than a gap.
Cards · Corrected
Annual fees and foreign-currency markups for every card, now showing the date each one was last verified — including the ones we had wrong.
Invest · Rebuilt this week
The table behind this issue's Deposit Desk, rebuilt over the past few days: HDFC and Kotak from the banks' own cards, the rest flagged as aggregator figures, and Bank of Baroda's zero spread marked rather than buried.
★One Move This Week
Find out when your FCNR deposit matures — before it rolls over.
If you opened an FCNR during the window, it was priced when banks were competing hard. That window shut on 30 September. An auto-renewal will roll you onto today's card, not the one you signed — at HDFC that is 3.35% instead of what you were getting. Check the maturity date, and before you renew, ask the same bank what its GIFT City IBU pays on the same dollars. At HDFC that is one phone call worth about $1,850 a year on $100,000. → FCNR vs IBU, eight banks.
✦The Closer
Worth reading
Go to the rate cards themselves this week, not the comparison sites. HDFC publishes its FCNR card and its GIFT City IBU card separately, and the gap between them is the whole story of this issue. When I checked, the aggregators had Kotak's FCNR rate wrong by 75 basis points in one direction and 35 in the other — the bank's own PDF settled it. Read the source before you trust anyone's summary, mine included.
Question for next week
Where are your idle dollars sitting right now — FCNR, a GIFT City IBU, a US savings account, or nowhere in particular? Hit reply and tell me, and whether the window closing changes anything for you. Best 3 replies get a free Profiler PDF report.
Forward this to an NRI who'd find it useful. New subscribers get the back catalog.
Until Monday,
Amish
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