How to overcome Exchange Losses on Foreign Exchange Transactions

chakrachakra

Hi Everyone,

I did not find a suitable forum for my question, hope I am in the right place. I am a college student in India working partime to save money for my education abroad. Recently I had paid my tuition fee of CAD 12360 (6,86,000 INR) to an educational institution in Canada. Unforunately, I did not get my Student Visa approved and hence had to apply for the tuition fee refund from the same institution.

However when they recently returned my tuition fee, they sent it in canadian dollars and not Indian Rupees. Hence although they returned CAD12360, the money I got was 5,86,000 INR, which is 1 Lakh less in indian currency. Which is a humungous amount. How can I overcome the exchange loss.

Are there any specific foreign exchange rules that say otherwise? The reason I ask is I filled out the FEMA form stating wire transfer of CAD12360 equivalent from my account. So when they return it back, should it not be INR 6,86,000 equivalent Canadian currency?

Please let me know..

Thank You

le_loup

This is neither a Canadian nor an Indian forum.
Why expect an answer here?

chakrachakra

My expectation was that someone dealing with / experienced in Foreign Exchange would know. Sorry, if it is the wrong place.

IronWolf

I don't think you'll get it back, the fees were in CAD so they will only give you back what you paid in CAD. Unless you can convince the university to give you back more, which I doubt they will, then there's nothing you can do.

Nocto

I’m sorry to say that the figures you have quoted sound about right.

The college in Canada received then returned C$12,360. Unfortunately you have had to pay for the foreign exchange twice, and banks charge consumers a lot to exchange money (commission plus different buy & sell rates).

Your 15% loss is about the amount I experienced when a payment was returned to a credit card in a foreign currency.:(

Porcupine

Yes, [url=https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=CADINR=X#symbol=CADINR=X;range=1m
]CAD down 10% against the INR in the last month[/url].

Plus bank gobbling 3% exchange rate load each way, bank fees on top, and 17% loss sounds about right.

Only thing for next time (if there is a next time) is to get a CAD account and manage the transfer yourself.
I don't know India, but there's probably cheaper places to exchange than banks.

chakrachakra

Thanks a lot for all your thoughts and inputs. I have one option to talk to the university directly to see if they could do something about it, considering the huge loss.

Thanks again..

Thrugelmir

chakrachakra wrote: »

Thanks a lot for all your thoughts and inputs. I have one option to talk to the university directly to see if they could do something about it, considering the huge loss.

.

Why should the University suffer the loss? They have refunded in full what they received. If exchange rates had moved positively I doubt that you would send the excess money back to the University. .