Since this is my first blog post, I believe I should explain what this is all about. A lot of times in the past, at various stages, I’ve found myself in oddly specific situations which at the time, I had no idea how to circumvent. The Internet rose up to the task and has been a constant saviour, in addition to some tips and tricks my friends have taught me. It is VERY UNLIKELY that you will find yourself in these situations in exactly the same circumstances as I did, but if you do somehow end up exactly where I did, these are sure to be of some help, and sure to save you some time. These are not all related to Programming (in fact, very few of them will be).

This one has to do with transferring money free from India to US via a Forex Card (WITHOUT additional transaction fees). A second trick that I’m elaborating in this post is to get $150 as a bonus when you open an account in the US.

Should you be reading this particular post?

• If you’re going to/have already started an Internship/Grad School in the US, YES.
• If you know someone who’s doing/going to do the above. You’ll help them make $150 and some change, with the contents of this post.

What are the circumstances in which you can actually find these tricks useful?

• You need to be going to the United States for Grad School/Internship (most likely on a J1/F1 visa). Well that’s pretty specific, you say? Wait till you see the next one.
• You need to have a Forex card from a good Indian Bank. (HDFC and Axis have my respect). Chances are you already have done your research on the internet and have come to the decision of getting a Forex card. They are the best way to get money from India to US. Wire transfers are just as shady as they sound. And I’m every bit as skeptical as the next guy on the internet.

The FOREX Transfer ‘Trick’

Trick is in quotes to imply that this is more of a discovery than some clever maneuver I have invented. If you’ve done your research correctly, you know by now that you can use your FOREX card as a ‘normal debit card in the US’. This is correct most of the time, but you will often find yourself paying at restaurants/delis/cafes where the Forex Card simply refuses to work. In such a situation, you’ll find yourself getting money out of an ATM using your FOREX card. And this is exactly when you will find yourself paying a huge transaction fee levied by the US bank’s ATM for withdrawing that cash. By ‘huge’ amount I mean, around $2.5 to even $10, for each transaction you make. Now that is just way too much in INR for a simple cash withdrawal.

If you, like me, are in US for a short duration (3 months - 1 year), then you probably don’t want to spend this amount each time you make a cash withdrawal. So naturally, you decide to open a Bank account in the US, which you will most likely do, because of requirements from work/school anyway. At this point, I strongly recommend opening your bank account with Chase, because both of my ‘tips’ are based on using Chase.

Now, one simple solution to this constant transaction fee problem is that you get your money from India in one go, and just pay the transaction fee once. It sounds good, but doesn’t work. Chances are that you will need way too much money, and simply arranging that much money altogether is not a common scenario for Indian students. Also, if you’re reading this article, then ideally you don’t want to spend any money on this altogether. So here’s what you do:

• Do not go to a bank’s ATM to withdraw money. Forex isn’t a regular card after all. When you go to the ATM, the bank is charging you a convenience fee of sorts, for making that extremely ‘convenient’ portable cash withdrawal from anywhere in the US. Instead, go to the bank’s branch. I don’t know if this works for all banks in the US, but I did this with Chase and it worked well.

• At the branch, tell the person you want to withdraw money from your Forex Card and deposit the cash to your Chase account directly. Most likely you can get cash too, but I tried with the direct deposit approach.

• They will ask you for some State ID. You can show them your SSN or Passport. I showed my Indian Passport.

• They WILL make the transfer for FREE. No additional charge.

And you can continue to do this again and again. Just make sure before the transaction you confirm with the bank representative that there is no transaction fee. Enjoy.

Now let’s move on to the free stuff

The $150 bonus trick

This one is as real as it gets. $150 isn’t a small amount. And yet, Chase just wants you to have it, if you complete 10 transactions within a span of 60-90 days. The bonus amount keeps on fluctuating between $100-150 and they always have some scheme which is applicable. Here’s how you get this:

• Open a Chase College Checking Account. This is typically the account that you’d open if you’re a student/intern.
• At the time of opening, tell them you know about the $150 bonus scheme and that you would like to apply for it.
• The scheme requires you to make that specific number of transactions. All your card payments count. This means, even if you get a coffee for 10 days (which you will anyway), you qualify for the bonus, and they send it to you as soon as you complete the number of transactions.
• That’s it.

These are both things that aren’t exactly known to people who just moved, or are planning to in the near future. Hopefully, with this knowledge you save some money and use it wisely.

Cheers.