How to Get International Student Loans

The cost of a college education in the United States just keeps soaring. According to the College Board, tuition and fees at public four-year institutions rose at an average rate of 5.2% per year over the past ten years.

Because of this, international students who choose to study at colleges and universities within the U.S. typically need to access alternative sources of financing beyond scholarships and grants. To help fill in the gap, several lenders within the U.S. offer international student loans for foreign students wishing to study in the United States.

While that may sound great, qualifying for international student loans are not always so easy. One of the biggest roadblocks is that lenders will not offer private student loans to international students without a the presence of a credible, financially stable cosigner. A further hurdle lies in the fact that the vast majority of international student loan programs require a cosigner who is a U.S. citizen or permanent U.S. resident. While there are a few loan programs that will accept a cosigner from the student's home country, these are very hard to find and qualify for.

For international students wondering where they can find a cosigner, the best and most common options include an extended family member, friend, or even an acquaintance (the cosigner doesn't have to be directly related to the student seeking financing). The most important thing is that the person meets the general requirements and is willing to cosign on the loan. The cosigner should have a social security number, and provide a current U.S. address, phone number, references, as well as employment information.

Cosigners should be chosen carefully because if the loan defaults they will be held liable for the outstanding debt.

For those who have a cosigner to turn to and are looking for programs and additional international student loans information, the best online resource to turn to is The International Education Financial Aid website (IEFA.org). This site maintains a very comprehensive listing of grants, scholarships, loan programs, as well as other information on international financial aid. International students should start their search here to see what is available to them.

Lastly, foreign students seeking to attend college in the U.S. should make sure to check in with the college's financial services department to make sure the financing they would receive will adequately meet their needs.

In short, though it may be a bit of a challenge for some international students to secure financing for their studies within the U.S., if they can get around the cosigner issue, they may have several options for international student loans.

Stock Trading

Everyone talks about the stock markets; The FTSE100 in Great Britain is down, the NSDAQ in the US is up, the Nikkei in Japan has crashed. News about share price indices such as these are quoted daily in nearly every news bulletin broadcast around the world; but what does it actually mean and can anyone trade in stocks and shares?

First of all, when people talk about owning stocks and shares, they are actually talking about the same thing; they own share certificates in a company or companies. The difference between the two is purely a semantic one and both refer to the same thing, for the purpose of this article.

In simple terms, shares represent the part ownership of a company. When a company wishes to raise funds, they sell shares in the company to investors and, in return for their funding, the investors gain voting rights at shareholders meetings and a share of the company’s profits which are paid in dividends.

The value of a company’s shares may go up or down depending on the performance of that company. If they make profits and the company’s future prospects look good, the value of shares in that company will rise and this potential movement in value of shares means that shareholders can make money by buying and selling stock, or trading, in those stocks on international stock markets.

A ‘stock market’ is a national or international market place for buyers and sellers to trade in the stocks of those companies that are listed on that market. This does not mean a physical trading floor, as most of us might think of it, as nearly all trading is now carried out via computers.

The stock market indices mentioned earlier are aggregated indicators of the overall performance of the price shares on that particular market and, as they represent a’ basket’ of companies they are also seen as good indicator of state of the economies of countries, regions or even the entire world as well.

The size of the global stock market is huge and is estimated at a value in excess of $40 trillion and investors include; private individuals, banks, insurance companies, hedge funds, mutual funds and corporations.

Anyone can try their hand at stock trading but should be aware that it can be a risky business. As all the advertisements for financial products say; shares can go down in value as well as up and many investors have lost fortunes trading in stocks. However, with proper planning and research and prudent risk taking, a stock trader can make a good living and avoid the traps.

To start trading in stocks an investor will need to open a brokerage account at a well-respected stock brokers and it is this broker, for a commission, who will conduct the transactions on the investor’s behalf. Anyone can trade in stocks but investors should always do their homework first.

Foreign Exchange Trading

The foreign exchange (FX) market is a huge global market that operates 24 hours a day, except for weekends, trading in different currencies and it is this FX trading that determines the exchange rates at which we can be foreign currency.

Banks around the world use specialist firms known as dealers, who paradoxically are also usually banks, who trade in huge volumes of volume exchange which can involve hundreds of millions of dollars at a time.

The end result of all this FX trading is that the man in the street and companies around the world can buy and sell goods and services in different currencies as well.

According the Bank for International Settlements the average daily trading in foreign exchange in 2013 is in the region of $5 trillion per day. FX trading consists of two man types; Spot trading, which is where one currency is sold for another currency at an agreed rate there and the then and a number of derivatives such as currency options, currency swaps, currency options and forward contracts.

Spot Transaction

Spot transactions account for around 40% of all FX trading and are agreements between two parties to sell one currency for another on the spot date at an agreed exchange rate.

Forward Transaction

A forward currency exchange transaction is an FX trade where the buyer and seller agree to sell one currency for another at a date in the future but at an exchange rate agreed today.

This is where the terms long and short trading come from. The party agreeing to buy the currency in the future is taking the long position and the party agreeing to sell the currency in the future is taking the short position.

Swap Transaction

A currency swap is a form of FX trading whereby an agreement is made to simultaneously buy and sell identical amounts of currency on different dates and is typically used as a hedge against future future exchange rate rate fluctuations.

The two transactions are normally conducted, one at the spot rate and the other at the future rate and it allows companies to minimise their currency exchange risk by maintaining equilibrium of currency values on their balance sheets. The dates between the two transactions are normally only a matter of days.

Currency Option

A currency option is an FX trade whereby an agreement is reached that gives the owner of the trade the right to buy currency in the future at a previously agreed exchange rate but not an obligation to.

With its huge trading volume, wide geographical dispersion and its near continuous operation, the FX trading market is considered to unique and often cited as being the nearest that there is to a perfect market.