Studying overseas can be an enriching but expensive experience for Indian students. With travel, tuition fees, accommodation, and living expenses all denominated in foreign currencies, costs can easily run into lakhs of rupees. However, smart students have discovered a simple yet effective way to save significant money – using student forex cards.
What is a Forex Card?
A forex card, likewise known as a travel card, is a prepaid travel card that lets you load numerous currencies to make payments and withdrawals overseas and in India. It works similarly to a debit card, is accepted worldwide, and can be easily reloaded.
Getting a Forex Card for Students
Students can apply for a multi-currency student forex card before travelling abroad. It is a quick online process requiring basic KYC documents and takes just a few days for card delivery.
Loading & Reloading Funds
Before the semester starts, students load international currencies they’d need over the next 3-6 months based on planned tuition, accommodation, & living expenses. This locks in favourable forex rates.
Making Payments
For large expenses like university fees and accommodation deposits, students can easily pay online via a Forex card by adding the virtual card to payment platforms like PayPal.
Withdrawing Cash
Students can use the Forex card at Visa ATMs worldwide to withdraw money in the local currency at wholesale rates if they need cash. This is useful when travelling to smaller towns.
How Forex Cards Help Indian Students Studying Overseas Save Money
Reload Anywhere
Forex cards allow students flexibility and convenience to add funds anytime, anywhere. Instead of carrying cash or travellers cheques, they can simply top up online via net banking or payment apps directly from India before travelling.
Once abroad, they can reload money instantly using international credit/debit cards or cash deposits to address urgent needs. This avoids expensive wire transfer fees or finding and carrying large amounts of foreign currency when travelling.
Multi-Currency
With expenses spread across tuition fees, rent, groceries, travel, and entertainment – students need access to different global currencies. Carrying multiple single-currency travel cards is inconvenient.
A multi-currency forex card lets students load USD for tuition, GBP for London, EUR for their Eurotrip, and AUD for Australia, all in one place with great inter-currency rates. This reduces the mental hassle of managing expenses currency-wise.
Students can even set up auto-pay from specific currency wallets for recurring expenses like fees, rent, etc.
Global Acceptance
Overseas markets often prefer cash or have fledgling digital payments infrastructure. But forex cards bearing the Visa logo reassure students of seamless acceptance at 150+ million offline & online merchants worldwide – from supermarkets, cafes & shopping to paying university fees.
This prevents students from having to carry cash for small everyday transactions. Acceptance at ATMs allows easy access to cash in times of need.
Best-in-class Rates
Banks charge high foreign currency conversion markups of approx. 3-5%. A forex card gives wholesale forex rates and zero conversion charges. Considering expenses of ₹50-80 lakhs throughout an overseas education, these savings translate to ₹1.5-4 lakh over 2 years. That’s 1 to 2 years’ worth of living costs for a student!
Conclusion
A multi-currency forex card is a simple innovation that saves Indian overseas students lakhs on currency conversion fees, DCC charges, exchange rate volatility, interest income, and more.
Smart students use student forex cards to plan their overseas education to maximise savings and get more bang for their buck abroad.
Now is the best time to apply for your student visa and prepare your Forex card for a comfortable and affordable life abroad!
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