Many parents of international students are often overwhelmed after their children get the school’s OFFER and student visa. Many children are studying and living abroad independently for the first time, what should they prepare for? What things should be brought and what things don’t need to be brought? How to deal with the special situation of children?
One of the most worrying things for parents is how to manage the daily expenses of international students. For example, how much money should I bring abroad? Should I bring cash, check or bank card? Do I need to get an international credit card or international debit card? Is it risky to give students a credit card? What if my child spends money frivolously? What if the credit card is lost or stolen abroad? These are the most common questions asked by our study abroad consultants and bank account managers.
1、Main and subsidiary card combination.
Parents can have a Visa credit card main card and give their children a supplementary card, so that the children can swipe the card abroad and the parents can make repayments within the country, saving the trouble of remittance, and the repayment of foreign exchange purchases made abroad will not take up their annual foreign exchange purchase quota.
The credit limit of the supplementary card can be flexibly controlled by the parents according to their daily study and living needs, and the usual limit can be set to meet the basic monthly living expenses.
Parents can choose to receive SMS alerts for each transaction, or receive monthly statements only at the end of the month, so that they can flexibly control the spending of the attached card according to the child’s independence.
Some parents worry about the high cost of using a domestically issued credit card for a long time abroad. In fact, by choosing a card in the currency corresponding to the study destination, swiping the card will not incur currency conversion costs (any currency conversion fees of 1%-2% charged by card organizations advertised online are misleading).
2. Credit + debit card combination for both spending and cash withdrawal.
Parents who are not comfortable with their children using credit cards can also give their children Visa debit cards, which, like Visa credit cards, can be used for both spending and withdrawing cash from ATMs, the difference being that the spending/cash withdrawal amount depends on the account balance and how much is spent.
Some banks also have debit cards in the form of a primary and secondary card, where the parents take the primary card within the country and the children use the secondary card outside the country. Parents can set the balance of the supplementary card flexibly through telephone banking, internet banking and other channels. For example, if the balance of the supplementary card is normally set to zero, the child will mainly use the credit card for spending, and when there is a need to withdraw cash, the balance of the supplementary card of the debit card can be temporarily adjusted, and the child can withdraw cash immediately abroad.
The combination of credit card and debit card makes the most sense because most debit cards are set by default to only support offline transactions in order to protect the security of the cardholder’s account funds, while credit cards are more applicable to online cardless transactions such as hotel bookings, airline tickets, online purchases, exam fees and registration fees, etc. Moreover, in case of disputed transactions or card theft, you will not directly lose your account funds as you would with a debit card. The card can be used for online cardless transactions such as hotel bookings, airline tickets, online purchases, exam fees and registration fees.
Exclusive benefits for studying abroad
In addition to the above security and convenience provided by Visa, Visa also provides families of international students with thoughtful benefits and privileges, such as discounts on applications to study abroad institutions, discounts on international airline tickets, etc.
Finally, I would like to remind parents that before their children go abroad, they should start to exercise their children’s ability to use credit cards, learn to use credit cards safely online and offline, keep credit card receipts, not to use other people’s cards indiscriminately, and not to lend their cards to others easily, and develop good card habits. In this way, when you arrive abroad, your child will start his or her new life smoothly!
