Costs Incurred for About Six Months of Study in Australia
When it comes to studying abroad, the cost can be a major concern. I too couldn't imagine how much would be needed, resulting in situations where I didn't send enough money or suddenly needed to gather funds.
In this article, I will detail the actual costs incurred for studying abroad and how to reduce the financial burden.
Costs Incurred
Here, I will list the costs incurred by category. Please consider the prices in relation to your own situation.
Note that I'm using an exchange rate of $1 = 80 yen.
Language School
- Enrollment fee: $200
- Tuition: $350 / week
- Materials, etc.: $250
For 18 weeks, it's about $6,750 (540,000 yen).
This can vary greatly depending on the school you choose. There are cheap and good places, expensive and bad places, and so on, so choose a school that suits your purpose.
Incidentally, university seems to cost about $20,000 / year (1,600,000 yen).
Housing
- School arrangement: $1,430 / mo
- Airbnb: $302 / week
- Homestay (with breakfast and dinner): $300 / week
Staying for a week before and after the 18 weeks, it's about $6,000 (480,000 yen) for 20 weeks.
Usually, school arrangements are further entrusted to an agent, making them extremely expensive for the quality. Even when I asked my classmates, various complaints were arising, so I strongly recommend not relying on the school and using Airbnb instead.
Housing is a point where significant savings can be made. If you share a room, it becomes dramatically cheaper.
Pre-entry (One-way flight, Visa)
- One-way flight (Qantas): 62,000 yen
- Student visa: $560
- OSHC (mandatory insurance): $310
The total is about 131,600 yen.
While airfare depends on the season, generally, it's cheaper if you book early. Incidentally, my Jetstar flight was cancelled on the day, and I hurriedly booked a Qantas flight.
The student visa for Australia is abnormally expensive compared to other countries. You also have to take out OSHC insurance, which adds to the considerable expense.
Food Expenses
As I was in a homestay, I don't consider breakfast and dinner.
- Lunch: $5 to $10
There are food courts in Brisbane city center where you can eat various cuisines for just $7. Also, street stalls offer meals at similar prices.
For 20 weeks (140 days), it's $700 to $1,400 (56,000 to 112,000 yen). Like housing, this can be much cheaper if you cook for yourself.
By the way, while many people think Australia is expensive, groceries at supermarkets are cheap. Small items are expensive, but large items are cheap, so you can save money if you can buy in bulk.
Travel
- Airfare (round trip to Sydney): $191
- Airfare (Brisbane -> Ayers Rock): $200
- Airfare (Ayers Rock -> Cairns -> Narita): $1,357
This is no longer related to studying abroad, but I'll write it here anyway. You can move to Sydney with about the same feeling as between Tokyo and Osaka.
For sightseeing in Sydney, Ayers Rock, and Cairns, please refer to the articles below.
(Cairns will come out eventually...)
Others
- IELTS ($340)
- Game centers ($100)
This depends on the individual.
Game centers mainly use a prepaid card system. You get a bonus when you load several tens of dollars, so it's more cost-effective than it looks.
Summary of Costs
For about 20 weeks of study abroad, I spent 1,263,600 yen on school, housing, entry, and food. Additional expenses arise if you go on trips or take exams.
While there are areas where you can make significant savings with ingenuity, basically you need to either save hard or study while working.
Saving Methods
Now, we understand the approximate necessary costs, but there are extra fees because it's overseas. The main fees are the following two:
- Credit card exchange rate and additional fees
- Overseas remittance fees
The methods I used were Sony bank WALLET and Transferwise.
Reducing Credit Card Fees
When making payments in foreign currency, the payment company like Visa converts at their own currency rate and then adds a fee to arrive at the final billed amount. While Visa is on the cheaper side, you still can't avoid a total markup of more than 1.5%.
To reduce this as much as possible, it's better to have the foreign currency charge deducted as is in foreign currency. Specifically, if you have a card that can deduct from a foreign currency account after converting a lump sum to foreign currency initially, it should be cheaper.
Therefore, Sony Bank WALLET meets these conditions. While this is equivalent to a credit card, it's actually a debit card that is immediately deducted from a foreign currency account.
The exchange rate is only a one-way difference of 0.25 from the actual rate, so it's about 0.3%. For large payments, a 1% difference is quite significant.
There are other methods like overseas cash advances, but I recommend this because it's hassle-free and you can check your balance and usage history from the app. It's especially convenient in Australia, which is a cashless society.
Reducing Overseas Remittance Fees
When you create a bank account overseas, the remittance fees to that account are very high. Even for small amounts, it can cost more than 3,000 yen, and the exchange rate is poor to begin with, making it difficult to remit casually.
That's where TransferWise comes in. Just by using this, you can remit with dramatically lower fees. And it's fast too.
For example, if you remit 200,000 yen to an Australian bank, as shown below, it only costs 1,282 yen (0.6%). There are no other complicated fees at all.
Why is it so cheap? There's an interesting mechanism behind it, so if you're curious, look it up.
Summary
For about half a year, 20 weeks of study abroad, it costs about 1.2 million yen. You can significantly reduce expenses by sharing a room or cooking for yourself, and there's also the option of studying while working. Use convenient cards and apps to keep overseas-specific fees low.
