How To Pay International Education Fees From India
Table of Contents
How To Pay International College Fees From India
There are a few ways you can pay college fees in Canada or other countries from India
- Prepayment Before Arrival – Money Transfer
- Upon Arrival – Setting Up Bank Account
- Upon Arrival – Credit Card/Forex Cards
Some University asks for prepayment of first semester fees or a part of it. In most of the cases, the University provides bank details which you can use to send the money.
Example – University of the Fraser Valley
Since you are sending a lump sum of amount, you shall be careful about the hidden fees or the exchange rate. In general, people prefer to send money with the bank, which they are holding the account for a long time. This is not bad as you have developed trust with the bank but I feel it is not an economical option.
Bank offers a low exchange rate and there are also transfer fees involved so you end up paying more. In a few cases, you may be loosing 20,000–30,000 INR for a single transfer.
There are a number of online remittance companies offering CAD to INR transfer, but when it comes to INR to CAD, you may not find less number of companies offering the same. The same thing applies to USD or GBP, companies prefer sending money from abroad to India than from India to abroad. This may be because the former is more profitable to them or there is less regulation.
Anyway, here I am comparing the available option if you send, suppose 6,50,000 INR to CAD. Why I mention 6,50,000 INR because this is the upper limit to be sent at one go some online remittance companies. If the fees is higher than you can make more transfer.
1 – Transferwise (Offer – No Transfer Fee Up To 500 CAD)
Transferwise was found to be the cheapest and most reliable option of all. The customer rating at TrustPilot and Monito is exceptionally high (9/10), out of 50,000 or more reviews.
They also offer a locking period, meaning you can perform the transfer process and send the money in next 48–72 hours, with the same exchange rate. So if the exchange rate decreases, you won’t be losing money, if it increases then you can certainly cancel that process and opt for a new exchange rate and proceed to send your money then and there.
2 – Western Union
3 – ExTravelMoney
4 – InstaRem
Banks
1- State Bank of India
2- HDFC Bank
3- HSBC Bank
4- ICICI Bank
Final Conclusion
If you would see that the online remittance companies provide the exchange rate around 55.5–56.5, however, the bank provide an exchange rate which is high. This means you will have to pay more to buy the CAD in the bank then in online remittance companies.
Of all the options Transferwise was found to be the cheapest option. Please note that if you like to avail of the offer from Trasnferwise which gives relaxation on the transfer fees then you consider checking the link I shared above.
Hope it helps,
Cheers, and wish you a great start to your University life in Canada.
Paying College Fees in the USA from India
I believe you may have already got a seat for your study in the USA and I congratulate you on this. The next hurdle definitely would be to arrange the hefty fees and then to find a way to transfer it.
Don’t worry there are plenty of ways to do it, but you must act smart and find the cheapest yet reliable way to do this.
Now let’s see what are the option you are not already in the USA and want to pay the fees
1 – Forex Cards
- Buy a Forex card, reload the money and pay the fees
- Almost all the University now accepts online payment. So they may have a link and you can follow the link to pay your fees. You can choose the card option and pay using the forex card
- You can buy the Forex card from any bank near to you or online
- The exchange rate of the Forex card from the bank or online can be bit expensive when compared to transferring money directly to the University bank account.
2 – Demand Draft
- This option may or may not work for you. If you already have a friend or related in or near the University then you can make a DD following the details from the University Account and then send the DD to them to submit it to the University.
- This option can also be bit expensive providing the exchange rate which is not so good for DD.
3 – Transfering money online directly to the University
- I have seen that most people follow this option, as it is quicker and also the cheapest.
- You can find the details of the University account where fees need to be deposited and transfer the money directly to them via online remittance companies.
- The online process can be completed within 5 minutes and the transfer is usually made in 2–3 days. The first transfer may take 2–3 days but then the successive transfer is quicker. Please note that you may need to verify your address or identity if you are sending a big amount.
Lets now see, what are the available options to send money online and also via forex card, and demand draft
Here I am comparing the option with 6,50,000 INR to see which is the cheapest deal. I am choosing 6.5 lakh INR because, for some online remittance companies, this is the upper cap at one go. If you have larger amount then you can send them in batches.
1 – Tranferwise ( Offer – No Transfer Fee)
I found that Transferwise was the cheapest and the safest option available. If you are new to money transfer then you may not have heard of this. But if you look around the internet, then you would find there are more than 50,000 reviews of having a 9/10 rating at TrustPilot or Monito. They crossed 5 million customers in 2019 and had been in this service from 2010 onwards.
Please note that if you would directly go to Transferwise you may be seeing a bit expensive exchange rate but following the link I share will give you save you some money in terms of relaxation in the transfer fee.
2 – ExtravelMoney
3 – Western Union
4 – BookMyForex
5 – InstaRem
So among the online remittance companies, Transferwise performs the best. The entire process is online for Transferwise, whereas for others such as ExTravelMoney or Western Union you may need to visit the nearest center.
Let’s check if you buy the forex card or the DD, what is the exchange rate with the banks
State Bank of India
ICICI Bank
HDFC Bank
HSBC Bank
Overall Conclusion
Online remittance companies gave a better exchange rate when compared to Banks. The exchange rate at Transferwise was the cheapest at 75.62, meaning you need to spend 75.62 INR to get 1 USD, however, at a bank, it was around 76.5 or more. Among Banks, State Bank of India gave the best rate.
You May Also Be Interested In
- Money Transfer From USA to India – 10 Options Compared
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