Banking in CR??

[jughead]

Let me see if I have this correct. I can buy property for my home or as a rental property for investment without ever setting foot in CR. I can also buy a car and register it in CR with the same conditions.

In spite of the above, I can’t open a simple checking account in CR without being a resident of one class or another?

I’ve read that I could possibly open a savings account in a turista status, but not a checking account.

How do expats live in CR without a checking account?

We’ll be moving to CR this summer from Texas, but I will not have my SS starting until May, 2007.

We have my military retirement and my wife’s SS payment coming in now, but without a CR cheking account, I don’t know how we can get these direct deposited in CR. If they can deposit to a savings account, will the bank issue me a debit card so we can deal with our monthly expense?

If anyone out there has any info, we’d really appreciate it.

We will be applying for pencianado residency as soon as posible but we’re in a quandry because my exwife takes 1/2 of my military retirement which makes it(after paying for my present wife’s survivor annuity) just short of the $600 a month requirement. If we could add my present wife’s SS payment to my militaty retirement, we’d be way above the &600 requirement.

In May,2007 my SS will kick in and with it alone I would meet the $600 requirement.

We will be coming to CR with a good chunk of money from savings and proceeds from our home sale in the US.

Is there anyway that anybody knows to solve our problem?

If we put a sizeable amount in a 1 yr. CD at national bank, do you think they would allow us to open a personal checking account?

Any info you good folks can offer will be greatly appreciated.

Ben & Carol Jackson

[DavidCMurray]

The rules for opening accounts in Costa Rica are not exactly written in stone. You have some choices. First, you’ll probably want to own your real estate in the name of a corportation. (Subject for another discussion.) So get a C.R. attorney to form a corporation first. Armed with that, you can open an account in the corporation’s name, for sure. But especially if you have a Tico “assistant” (maybe your attorney), you may be able to open an account in your own name. You’ll actually want two accounts: one in U.S. dollars and one in colones. You can open an account with $50.

Most folks seem to open savings-type accounts. Since your monthly bills will be paid at the bank, it’s easy to go in each month, withdraw $600US, convert it to colones (a requirement of your pensionado residency), pay your bills, then either pocket the change or deposit it in your colone account. Be sure to keep the receipt for the withdrawal that shows the conversion to colones.Immigration’ll want to see it when you reapply for residency in two years.

Most retail establishments will accept VISA and MasterCard as payment, but you’ll typically pay less if you pay cash (“effectivo”). The bank will issue you a debit card which you can use.

Can’t speak to your military retirement allotment, but U.S. Social Security payments can be direct deposited to a Costa Rican dollar bank account. It’s done all the time.

You can combine your remaining military retirement allotment with your wife’s Social Security payment to meet the monthly $600 income requirement for pensionados. Just be absolutely certain that you get all your documentation completely verified in the U.S. before you head down here. You need to make contact with a C.R. attorney who specializes in residency matters to guide you through the bureaucratic maze.

Hope this helps. Ask away.

[DavidCMurray]

Two other points: First, ATMs are everywhere in Costa Rica. If you have an ATM card from a U.S. bank that operates on either the Plus or Cirrus networks, you’re in. And you can withdraw either colones or dollars at most ATMs.

Second, you can maintain a U.S. bank account where your military pension can be direct deposited, if the military won’t send it to a bank out of the U.S. That’s my experience with my State of Michigan pension. Once it’s in the U.S. bank, you can either use Costa Rican ATMs, as above, or pre-arrange to have wire transfer privileges from that U.S. bank to the Costa Rican one. My U.S. bank charges $40 for each wire transfer, so we don’t do this all the time, but when the need arises we do. It usually happens overnight.

[jughead]

Thanks very much David!

I guess from your advice, I’d better contact a CR Attorney regarding the pencionado resident advice next.

We’ll be renting for the first year or two on most folks advice, and understand the corp ownership concept for owning property from our reading.

We were in CR for 2 weeks in Feb of this year and our debit card from the US worked well.

Ben & Carol Jackson

[DavidCMurray]

The attorneys associated with the Association of Residents of Costa Rica are competent and fairly priced. We used Romulo Pacheco who we would recommend to anyone. Tell him Dave and Marcia Murray sent you.

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