Here’s my case, i’m going to do my Masters in the UK and will be paying 12,500 pounds in tuition, plus more for books and dorm fees. I’ve discovered that I am able to pay my tuition in 2 equal installments and that I can pay with a credit card…
I’m thinking that I’ll be able to rack up some awesome points/rewards from a credit card company. I wouldn’t use my Canadian credit card since the exchange is pretty bad, plus I don’t like the current point program…
So here’s my problem…how do i harness this potential payment into some air miles earning opportunity?..Can I get a UK credit card as a student or Canadian? Which credit card offers the best rewards per buck? Any other ideas?
BTW i’ll be paying the credit card bill with my loan payment, and i’m most interested in flight ticket rewards flying between the UK and Canada.
Not a bad idea but I don’t know why using your Canadian credit card wouldn’t be practical?
I regularly pay all my bills with a US credit card, no matter where I am or what the currency is. The exchange rate only hits you when you transfer the money (NTD$ I presume?) into that account.
[quote=“rocky raccoon”]Not a bad idea but I don’t know why using your Canadian credit card wouldn’t be practical?
[/quote]
Because credit cards charge you a percentage fee for using a different currency, usually 1% to 3%. That adds up when making a big purchase like a year’s tuition.
I don’t know if you can get a card there as a non-citizen, but I do know that it will take some time. You will probably have to provide 2 proofs of address (i.e. bills sent in your name to a UK address) and jump through a few more hoops too before they will let you apply, if they let you at all.
[quote=“Indiana”][quote=“rocky raccoon”]Not a bad idea but I don’t know why using your Canadian credit card wouldn’t be practical?
[/quote]
Because credit cards charge you a percentage fee for using a different currency, usually 1% to 3%.[/quote]
Thanks Indiana I didn’t know that. I just checked and saw that a Taiwan Rail payment I made in Sept with my Visa did have the 3% charge to it. I hardly use it in Taiwan but will definitely keep that in mind for future payments.
Since I usually work in USD with my loan payments, I think I’ll look into doing the same thing the OP is hoping to do. Instead of having the monthly payment taken right out of my US savings acct, I’ll try and pay with the credit card and then just pay my balance as usual.
Maybe talk to the UK university’s accounting department? Maybe they could sort you out or arrange some sort of payment option dealing with the currency issue? You are their “customer” so hopefully they can try and understand your situation.
Yeah, I found out the hard way about the percentage charged for overseas charges…when my husband and I were getting ready to study in Australia a couple years back and were in Taiwan, we had to pay for our first semester’s tuition by credit card as it was the only way to pay from overseas before we arrived in Aus. The fee we had to pay for that transaction was hundreds of US$…I had never realized that credit card companies did that before then, as I rarely used my card except for the occasional Amazon purchase or whatever. It was a big surprise.
Good idea OP if you can find a credit card. Back home I NEVER used cash, instead I paid everything, insurance, mortgage, bills, cigs, etc with my Visa that accrued United Airlines miles and at the end of the month I just paid the balance due. No interest, no charges, but a shitload of mileage. Got tons of valuable freebies, flights and upgrades by doing this for 4 years.
[quote=“OKao”]Thanks, I’ll talk to the university to see.
I’ll also see if there is a bank in Canada where you can transfer your credit card to the UK…maybe that’s possible.[/quote]
Good luck. You have a good idea and I called my student loan company to see if I could pay off my debt with a credit card. It would definitely be nice to get the miles out of the deal.
But then they informed me that there’s an usd$8 charge for each credit card payment. I didn’t know this. Now I can see why they like squeezing that kwikpay from my checking account every month!
They said that it is to prevent people from putting all their debt on credit cards and then filing bankruptcy. In the States, student loans aren’t wiped out if you file bankruptcy.
So the moral of the story is you’re definitely on the right track if you can pay via credit card and get all of the miles from it up front.
You might get a credit card but there’s no way you’ll be able to turn up and immediately get a GBP12,500 limit! This is an enormous amount of credit, especially given the current lending climate. I’m a UK citizen but I was in a similar situation because my family have zero credit, I was out of the country enough to be classed as non-resident, plus I’m self employed. In my experience you will get maybe GBP750-1000 tops if you build up an immaculate credit history.
Still, you can try… the first thing is to get one or two utility bills arranged in your name which should be easy. Then you go and open a student bank account. These activities will be registered with the credit reporting agencies which means you now actually exist.
After a few months try applying with Capital One who probably have the lowest credit standards without charging 100% APR. They will give you maybe a GBP100 limit. After 6-8 months of immaculate spending and payment history (you can’t just leave the card idle, you have to make purchases then pay off the whole balance) they will let you upgrade you credit limit to GBP500-750. Then after another 6-12 months you can have a go at a better card with your bank.
Is all that worth it? You would have to be in the UK for over 5 or 6 years to get any kind of decent credit score.
[quote=“rocky raccoon”]But then they informed me that there’s an usd$8 charge for each credit card payment. I didn’t know this. Now I can see why they like squeezing that kwikpay from my checking account every month!
They said that it is to prevent people from putting all their debt on credit cards and then filing bankruptcy. In the States, student loans aren’t wiped out if you file bankruptcy. [/quote]
That’s funny… that $8 charge is really going to stop those dastardly no-gooders
I just got a huge cash refund from my tw credit card. I never really bothered looking at the details because I just pay it off every month but I discovered that I get double or triple points for gas purchases and automatic payments (i.e. 90% of my spending). I figured I should get more proactive about these reward schemes so I’m changing to an Eva Air card with all kinds of funky benefits.
Still, you can try… the first thing is to get one or two utility bills arranged in your name which should be easy. Then you go and open a student bank account. These activities will be registered with the credit reporting agencies which means you now actually exist.
After a few months try applying with Capital One who probably have the lowest credit standards without charging 100% APR. They will give you maybe a GBP100 limit. After 6-8 months of immaculate spending and payment history (you can’t just leave the card idle, you have to make purchases then pay off the whole balance) they will let you upgrade you credit limit to GBP500-750. Then after another 6-12 months you can have a go at a better card with your bank.
Is all that worth it? You would have to be in the UK for over 5 or 6 years to get any kind of decent credit score.[/quote]
Wow, I didn’t know that the UK was so strict on the credit.
My ex gf was a mortgage loan officer back in the States. Right when I graduated college and started receiving a lot of credit card applications I was a little confused on what to do.
She told me that I could just lie on the application and then I’d be granted a high line of credit. I said that I was making usd60,000 a year. I was only 21.
But she was totally right and they didn’t even verify anything. My new platinum card came in the mail 1 week later with a 7500 limit.
After about 3 years of being responsible and paying it all off it was up to around 13.5k limit but I just realized that it’s now unlimited.
This is one of those loopholes that can benefit someone if they’re not foolish about their debt. It’s also shows how lax certain financial institutions really are. It’s almost like they want to give people the opportunity to fail and lose a lot of money. :America:
[quote=“OKao”]Here’s my case, I’m going to do my Masters in the UK and will be paying 12,500 pounds in tuition, plus more for books and dorm fees. I’ve discovered that I am able to pay my tuition in 2 equal installments and that I can pay with a credit card…
I’m thinking that I’ll be able to rack up some awesome points/rewards from a credit card company. I wouldn’t use my Canadian credit card since the exchange is pretty bad, plus I don’t like the current point program…
So here’s my problem…how do i harness this potential payment into some air miles earning opportunity?..Can I get a UK credit card as a student or Canadian? Which credit card offers the best rewards per buck? Any other ideas?
BTW I’ll be paying the credit card bill with my loan payment, and I’m most interested in flight ticket rewards flying between the UK and Canada.
Thanks![/quote]
Get a UK card and savings account. As a foreign student you are entitled to open a local bank account and they often open a branch at your school (especially if it is in London. The terms for students are pretty good including a 1000 pound 0-interest overdraft. Even if you don’t use this for tuition and accomodation, it is useful to deposit money into for spending and cuts down on international banking card fees. For tuition, why don’t you get a line of credit at a Canadian bank and a related credit card? You can take the money as you need it and deposit it into your British account.
