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We understand that it is very difficult to open a checking account with a national bank without some sort of residency, or proof of application for same.
Can a person in CR as a turista open a savings account in a national bank?
I’ll not be able to apply for pensionada status until May, 2007, but we will have money from savings and the sale of our home in the U.S..
While we can use the CR ATMs to draw from our U.S. accounts, it would seem to be more practical to have a local source of funds.
We’d appreciate anyone’s advice or experience.
Ben Jackson
Hi Ben
I have a Costa Rican Corporation. It was easy to get a phone, checking account and utilities under the S.A.
My partners and I have setup up a savings account and have access to the money through a Debit Card. They told us with a good track record at Banco de Costa Rica, in six months we could have a checking account.
With the savings account debit card, it can be used at any establishment in CR that accepts a VISA Debit Card and you can have access to your funds at any of the mant branch banks or ATMs.
We had a local friend go with us to BCR to get the initial savings accounts setup at BCR.
Hi:
My husband and I established a corporation and bought a piece of land under the corporation name (everyone advised us this was the simplest way to buy land). Last month we came back to CR to talk to an architect about building and decided it was time to have a bank account. We went by ourselves to the national bank, brought our corporation documentation, statement from our attorney certifying that we owned the corporation (because there is no record of corporate ownership in CR) and our local address (which is 2 km from the center of town to the left fork in the road, then 2 more km to the right and next to the neighbor’s finca). It took us almost 2 hours because of the clerk’s broken english and 2 calls to our attorney but we opened the account. It is both a checking and visa debit. The hitch is they like you to make regular deposits so they are comfortable that you are not hiding money or doing something illegal. They seemed happy with $100.00 a month deposit, but that brings me to my question. Does anyone know how to transfer money without a a big transaction fee? You pensionados must know a trick!!!First of, I’ll bet nobody is checking to see if you’re making regular deposits to your Costa Rican bank account. That said, we’ve found it very easy to have our pension checks directly deposited in our U.S. bank account. Then we use our VISA debit or ATM card to withdraw colones from one of the many ATMs scattered about. Just be sure your card operates on the Plus or Cirrus systems.
The easiest way to transfer money to your Costa Rican bank account is to do it in big chunks. Let it accumulate for several months, then wire it down in a large lump sum. The cost is the same.
For pensionados, remember that you must convert $600US each month to colones. When it’s time to renew your residency, you must be able to demonstrate these conversions with receipts that show the date, amount converted, and your name, so a receipt from an ATM won’t do. You must go to a bank with $600 taken from the ATM or withdraw $600 from your dollar account at the bank and convert it to colones.
Generally, Immigration wants to see that you’ve made this conversion each month rather than in just a few lump sum conversions. We go to the bank every month, withdraw $600, convert it to colones, and pay all our bills, all in one visit.
Someone (it may have been you, David) said elsewhere that all bills would be paid at the bank; you’ve mentioned something similar here. Why are bills paid at the bank?
It’s not quite “all bills”, Marilyn, but many. I dunno, it’s just that you can pay your bills at the bank here in Costa Rica like you can pay some bills at the drugstore or 7-11 in the U.S. The bank tellers can look up phone, DirecTV, cellphone, and (I think) electric bills on their terminals and you can pay via the teller.
Our electric bill comes to our local pulpuria and our local water bill is paid in advance at the water utility’s office, but everything else goes through the bank. I have a friend, however, who has arranged to pay his bills through the local office of the Costa Rican Red Cross. Whatever entity collects the payments gets a small fee, and that’s his way of contributing to the Red Cross.
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