Expenditure in Poland – Forex Card doesn't have Złoty

POST SUCCESSFUL TRIP UPDATE:
I had carried an HDFC Regalia Forex Plus card. You can load money in US Dollars to it and swipe it anywhere, in any currency. The conversion charges will only be applied when loading money, not while using it. ATM withdrawal costs $4 per transaction. My previous card (the one in my original question content) charged $2 per withdrawal but it would cost me double conversion charges. As I mentioned in the description, it had 23 currencies but it didn’t support Zloty, so I would be charged twice, once for loading money, depending on the currency I load, and then for conversion from that currency to Zloty. It could be any other country who’s currency is not supported by this card. The ATM withdrawal charges are irrespective of the amount you withdraw.

I had a successful trip, and didn’t need to withdraw any cash, any time. My Forex contactless card was accepted everywhere. I mean literally everywhere, including the machines inside trams, trains, restaurants, even small stores. I haven’t even seen the Polish currency! 🙂 I used the same card in UK and Germany, and most of the times didn’t need any cash. In my entire trip, I withdrew money only twice. Once in Derby to pay my Airbnb, and once in Itzehoe (Germany), to pay my taxi driver.

So anyone who stumbles across this post, don’t worry about cash or not in Poland, UK or Germany. It’s safe to withdraw a sufficient amount once and store it somewhere as a back up. Contactless works in most of the places.

Use card in ATM MACHINE to withdraw your cash in your location, or dispense your money with card in any super market which can accept your card or e-money

It is not a bad option these days to use your regular debit card (at ATMs) or credit card. Check with your bank about the foreign currency charges. Indian banks generally give your a good currency conversion rate but they do charge 2-3.5% foreign currency fee plus 18% (of the fee) GST. In my experience, credit card fees tend to be higher. Call your bank and find out that day’s Forex rate and the foreign currency fees applicable to your card(s).

I generally do try to get a Forex card and some cash as a fallback. Since you are not able to get zloty, carrying Euros/GBP as backup should be fine.

Hope you enjoy your trip!

Assuming that card works like a standard Visa/Mastercard, it will work fine. Whenever I have used my (GBP) Mastercard in Poland, the card machine has asked if I want to pay in Złoty or convert to GBP (and siliar in other countries with other currencies)

Note that the conversion rate is usually much worse than the Visa/Mastercard rate, so it’s generally better to pay in the local currency and let your card issuer do the conversion – but check their terms first to make sure they don’t charge a commission.

Generally a Visa card can be expected to work for (almost) every currency in the world. If the currency of the transaction is different from the currency the card balance is kept in, the issuer will seamlessly convert the money according to the exchange rate for the day.

You pay for this service in the form of slightly worse exchange rates than wholesale forex market quotes — but the rates on a credit/debit card will usually be better than what you can get at a brick-and-mortar foreign exchange counter.*

As far as I can see, the HDFC Multicurrency ForexPlus appears to be a Visa-branded debit card that can maintain balances in several different currencies. Presumably this allows you to bypass the bank’s own exchange rates for those currencies, and instead go seek your own fortune with a forex broker of your choice. But the bank’s description doesn’t seem to say those currencies are the only ones you can do transactions in.

For Złoty I would expect it works just like an ordinary Visa card, converting to one of the currencies you have a balance in.

*) The rates and fees page about the card explicitly lists a 2% markup for cross-currency transactions, so it is clearly possible. It’s a matter of temperament whether you consider 2% to be fair or a rip-off, but it compares quite favorably with the 7.5% markup over the ECB reference rate currently offered on Złoty by a random exchange counter in Berlin. (I tried to google for currency exchangers in Warsaw, but their websites all seem to be in Polish and the apparent spreads on them are so tiny that I think there must be a separate markup or transaction fee charged that I just don’t know how to look for).

Most businesses that take cards in Poland will allow you to pay in Euros. Withdrawing cash from ATM’s is also possible with Euro cards. The conversion rate may or may not be the best, but you can do that.