Few Money Mistakes International Students should avoid while studying in Canada

Canada is one of the popular locations for international students to complete their higher studies. Students from all over the world wanting to gain a great education and secure their future visits to Canada. While studying a student should keep in mind many things, the main one is money mistakes. Everyone makes mistake with money sometimes, however, while you are studying abroad, and on a tight budget, you need to avoid any mismanagement and secure as much savings as possible.

After all, you don’t want to rely on your parents for day to day activities. A little bit of preparation and research can help you to be budget-conscious as an international student studying in Canada without sacrificing fun activities.

Below are five frequently made mistakes by international student studying in Canada and tips on how you can avoid them:

Paying Tuition without having knowledge of fee structure

Many students pay their fees without getting into details. Often there are several hidden charges which could be waived off or adjusted if it is dealt with properly. Canadian universities offer two to three season, each season might have different fee structures. It is important to look into these minute details which will help you to save some significant amount of money.

Students can gather information about this by research and talking to the existing or former students. This will not only help you to understand the tuition structure but also help you to know about the culture of the school you are visiting.

Wire Transfer while paying Tuition Fees

The majority of the student at Canadian universities pays their full tuition fee in advance as they sometimes are not eligible for loans or scholarships, or because they need not apply them. This process is usually okay but can become a huge problem if their international currency transfer does not reach their university on time or have any manual mistakes.

While doing international wire transfer a huge amount of charges are deducted as fee between the bank’s add up. This charge adds up to their tuition fee and becomes much higher as expected.

Fortunately, more services are now available in the market for students studying abroad providing the best rate for wire transfer and take minimum charges. One must make sure to research first and see how they can best transfer money directly and their university or college in Canada

Difficulties in understanding the Foreign Exchange Conversion rate

International students can be low on ready money. Foreign Exchange rates may affect the spending habit of a student between one country and another. Students coming to Canada with comparatively strong currency will not face any problem. Their spending power will be the same or even better compared to what they have at home. However, students coming from countries with weaker currencies will surely not want to overspend their means by keeping track of foreign exchange rates. There are several websites over the internet showing exact exchange rates. While buying anything they can refer to these websites, otherwise, they could find themselves running out of cash quickly.

Credit Cards and their Norms

While studying in Canada students can use a credit card if they are qualified. A credit card can help to manage basic expenses until the students can pay the full amount of their balance when they go return to their home country. Credit cards can be managed online, which gives ease to the students managing the card away from home.

However, Credit cards can be tricky and one should follow the payment cycle properly to avoid any late fees. Also when you are studying abroad in Canada, one can choose a Credit card with no transactional fee and also alert their card company while they return home. This way the company won’t deal with the transaction as fraudulent when it starts coming from another country.

Otherwise, the student can use a pre-loaded Multi-currency card from their home country. This will give them the freedom to use pre-paid amounts without the fear of overuse.

Not having a full understanding of Student loans

The majority of Canadian students take a loan from the government to fund their higher studies at least once during their higher studies. This being the reason, many international students studying in Canada think that the same loan is available to them as international student loans.

Sadly, these loans are only available to students who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents. One may be eligible for this loan if they are backed by a permanent citizen of Canada. This is a bit disappointing, thus make sure to research accordingly and get in touch with existing students to learn from their experiences.