YES Bank raises forex on almost every card it sells — SELECT takes 75 basis points in one step
From 15 June 2026 YES Bank re-priced foreign spend across almost its entire shelf. SELECT and ACE went 2.75% to 3.50%, Elite+ and Essence 2.75% to 3.00%, RESERV and First Preferred 1.75% to 2.00%. Only the invite-only top of the range — Private at 0.50%, Marquee at 1% — was left alone.
YES Bank’s consolidated MITC prices its forex hike the honest way — in a two-column table, the current rate beside a column headed “Foreign currency conversion charges Effective 15th June 2026”. Read the two columns together and the shape of the decision is obvious: the bank raised the markup on the cards ordinary people hold, and did not touch the ones it hands out by invitation.
The grid
| Card | Before | From 15 Jun 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| RESERV, YES First Preferred | 1.75% | 2.00% |
| ELITE+, Essence | 2.75% | 3.00% |
| SELECT, ACE | 2.75% | 3.50% |
| Prosperity Business | 2.50% | 3.00% |
| Prosperity / POP-CLUB / ANQ Phi tier | 3.40% | 3.50% |
| YES Private, Private Prime | 0.50% | 0.50% |
| Marquee | 1% | 1% |
A separate 1% dynamic-currency-conversion charge sits on top of every one of them whenever a foreign merchant bills you in rupees.
SELECT is the one to look at
Seventy-five basis points in a single step, from 2.75% to 3.50%. That is not a nudge; it takes the card from below India’s 3.5% norm to exactly at it, which means the markup has stopped being a reason to carry it abroad and become the reason not to. On ₹1,00,000 of foreign spend the change costs ₹750 — more than the card’s ₹599 annual fee, which YES waives at ₹1,00,000 of annual spend anyway. ACE takes the same 75 basis points on a ₹499 fee waived at ₹50,000.
And the product page still lists the markup the way it always did — as a feature.
What survives
RESERV at 2.00% is still one of the better numbers on the mass shelf: a ₹2,499 card, waived at ₹3,00,000 of spend, with twelve domestic and six international lounge visits a year. It is no longer 1.75%, which is what most of the reviews still say, and the card’s other problem is untouched — YES REWARDZ price at ₹0.25 with one transfer partner (Air India Maharaja Club at 15:1), so the points are trapped whatever the forex line says.
YES Private at 0.50% is the lowest markup any Indian credit card carries, and Private Prime matches it. Both are invite-only, both charge a joining fee in five figures — ₹50,000 and ₹20,000 — and neither moved. Marquee holds 1% behind a ₹9,999 joining fee and a ₹4,999 renewal.
That is the whole story in one line: at YES Bank, a low forex markup is now a super-premium feature, not a mid-market one.
Our take
If you picked a YES card for its markup before June, check which number you are actually paying. A SELECT or ACE holder going abroad is now paying the market rate plus a 1% DCC exposure, and there is no version of that which beats simply carrying a card built for it. If you are inside the YES stack and travelling, RESERV at 2.00% is the sensible floor; below that, the bank’s own answer is an invitation you probably do not have.
Sources: YES Bank, Most Important Terms and Conditions (consolidated MITC, version CMITC_V18_07082026 — the forex table carries both the old rate and the “Effective 15th June 2026” column). The PDF prints no announcement date, so this post is dated to the day the new rates took effect.