International Student Blog

In my last blogging session, we talked about some of the things to look out for when searching for a calling card. Of course, this not a comprehensive guide, but just some things you will want to look out for.

In this bloggin session, I am going to talk about some advanced features that some providers are starting to offer on their calling cards:

- Auto Recharge, if you balance falls low and you don’t want to be stuck without any credit, some providers are offering an auto recharge facility whereby your balance is topped up once you fall below a certain level such as $5

- Speed Dial, a great feature if you alway forget telephone numbers. You can store numbers in your account, and simply speed dial to connect

- Online Account Management, this is really a must for a calling card as you can see what you have been charged, check your calls and manage your account online

- Smart calling feature, if you are like me and hate entering PIN’s and long numbers the smart calling feature is one for you. Simply register your phone with your provider, and when you call the access number from your registered phone it recognises you and then you simply dial your international telephone number.

One of the best services I have found online is iCallAbroad.com:

iCallAbroad.com International Calling Card

Till next time…..

I have been very busy this week and have not been able to blog much, so this weeks topic will be a short one, but still a very important topic for students - International Calling Cards.

As you all probably know, calling cards can be mine field and trying to indentify what card does what can be a really tough task. There are probably 3 main things you need to ask/ check out with any calling card:

1 - How is the card billed? Be careful of cards that bill anything over 1 minute as some cards bill every 3 minutes or even as much as every 5 minutes. If you had card like this and only called for 30 seconds you would be billed for a full 3 or 5 minutes.
2 - Does the card expire? Some cards have expirations, so that 3 months after you first used it the card becomes dead
3 - Are there any hidden charges? This is the main area you will need to look out for. Cards will hide charges such as a monthly or weekly fee, a maintenance fee, a fee per call and the list goes on. Make sure you are aware of all the charges that are on your account.

So, these are the main questions that you will need to ask, but in my next blogging session I will talk about some advanced features that you might want in your calling card. Today, cards can do much more than just provide cheap calls!

StudentGuru

With the new school year just around the corner, InternationalStudentInsurance.com, the industry leader in student health and travel insurance has just launched the Global Student Plans.

For more information, check out the press release below or visit their site:

Global Student Plan Provides Student Health Insurance Worldwide

Global Student Plans on InternationalStudentInsurance.com

In my latest newsletter, we officially launched our blog to all our members. Since then, many have asked that they want to take part and join our bloggin community.

To do this, simply visit Blogger.com (the link is below) and you can start your own blog free of charge!

Get your own blog - Blogger.com

Then, once you have your own blog please add it into our new international student blogging community ring at:

International Student Blog Ring

The latest issue of the InternationalStudent.com has been launched. It should be arriving in your email inbox over the next 48 hours, if it has not done so already. This month we have some great news, reviews and products for you including:

- Student Health Insurance, what you need to know!

- ETS TOEFL free guide

- Profile of USJournal.com

- Student News from around the world

- Student Sound-off, from the mailbag

- This months featured school

- International Financial Aid article - Not to be missed!

- Profile of Hyperstudy.com

You can view our newsletter online and sign up via our homepage!

InternationalStudent.com Newsletter - Issue 78

An interesting development out of Pakistan is the decision by the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf to expel all foreign students from Islamic schools in his country. This move has been done in the wake of the London bombings when it emerged that some of the bombers that carried out the attacks had been in Pakistan at such schools, where they were aparently “learning” the Islamic religion.

Although rather extreme, this move has been welcomed by many as a step forward to stop Islamic extremists from gathering and insighting hatred and attacks on the innocent.

On the other hand, it has also closed the door to many who are genuinely wanting to learn about their religion and gain further insight into this. Foreign students in Pakistan are pledging to fight this expulsion.

Keeping on our theme of international student loans, there is not really a great choice and more often than not they all offer the same thing. So what makes one loan better than the other?

As I have explained already, most loans do require a co-signer in order to obtain any funding. Obviously this does limit most students. But if you do have a co-signer, there are several options. The most prominent one found online is :

http://www.InternationalStudentLoan.com - they offer loans to US citizens studying abroad, and international students studying around the world. More specific information can be found online at the website

Another, smaller website I found was at:

http://www.alternativestudentloan.com - they offer loans to international student inside the USA and they have some great benefits such as funding directly to you….

There is one website around that does offer loans without a cosigner, but I have been unable to locate it - if you find it, please let me know!

Thanks

International Student Guru

Each week, I am going to talk about a certain topic to do with International Education, and this week I am going to choose International Student Loans.

International Loans are probably one of the hardest forms of funding for an international student! One of the major stumbling blocks is you will need a US cosigner, which for many international students is near on impossible to get.

One of the main questions I tend to hear is “why do I need a cosigner?” and the simple and honest answer is that banks in the USA are not going to lend money to an international student because they have nothing to tie them to the USA. So once they have graduated they could effectively move back to their home country and then that lender would have a very tough time to get payments from that individual. That is why lender want a US co-signer, so that if that student defaults on the loan, they have someone in the USA who they can get payments from.

So, as you can see co-signers are needed from the lenders perspective. Also, I often hear things like “how do I get a co-signer?” and questions like that. Really, that is up to you to get a co-signer! Being a co-signer is a huge responsibility and it would generally have to be someone you know and trust. There is no point in posting messages on forums and websites asking for a co-signer as you won’t find one that way.

A good article to read about co-signers:

http://www.studentplatinum.com/credit_card_education/cosign.php

Next blog, I will talk about the loans that are available at the moment

Thanks