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Would like to get advices on which one is the best National Bank to set up an allotment to set up and send my retirement pay with an allotment.
I have banked at Banco Nacional de Costa Rica and at Banco Banex. The former is a nationally chartered bank which enjoys the protection of the Costa Rican government in roughly the same way as U.S. nationally chartered banks are protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. The only difference is that Costa Rica’s national government isn’t quite as financially strong.
Banex is one of the private banks that operate in Costa Rica. They do not have government protection, but it is my understanding that there has been no problem with the private banks here for many years. Maybe Scott can expand on this matter.
For the relatively small amounts of money in question, I think you would be equally well served by either of these banks or any of the others which operate here. Given that your monthly allocation will be drawn down during the month, your exposure will be very limited.
In Grecia, Banco Nacional has a huge customer base. That translates into long lines much of the time. At Banex, by comparison, I can usually walk in and be next in line.
As fas I understand it, the “safety” offered by the different state banks is the same so your decision would then be based on service and on the geographical location of their branches
Unfortunately good ‘service’ is difficult to find even with the private bankers that I tend to work with never mind the state banks.
I advise my investment clients to keep six months worth of cash living expenses inside Costa Rica, the rest is safely invested ‘offshore.’
I love Costa Rica and it’s people but it’s still a small Central American country that some people call a Less Developed Country (LDC).
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI concur. Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica, BanCrédito and BICSA are the four State banks existing today. Their deposits are fully backed by the government, and if something happens, depositors are guaranteed their money back. It already happened in 1995 with Banco Anglo. Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica are the largest and have the most branches. BICSA (Banco Internacional de Costa Rica SA)is geared more towards international trade (it’s actually charterd in the Bahamas – yes, that’s right, a State-owned bank finds it convenient to base their operations off-shore, very telling), and BanCrédito is geared towards agricultural financing.
In other words, Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica are your two best picks if you’re depositing a large amount of money.
In general, lines are much shorter in the private banks, whose deposits are not guaranteed. The largest ones (though tiny as compared to the two largest State-owned banks), are Banco Interfín, Banco de San José, Banco Banex and BanCrecen. There are many other good private bands, some of which are based in other countries, such as ScotiaBank (Canadian) and Banco Cuscatlán (El Salvador). Banco de San José is part of the group that owns Credomatic, the largest credit card service company in the country, so they can provide you with better service in that regard.
All of these banks offer ATM and Internet Banking services.
Consider Banco Nacional or Banco de Costa Rica for holding large deposits, and a 2nd, smaller account in a private bank for day-to-day business. That way the bulk of your funds are guaranteed, but you won’t grow old (or older) standing in line. I’ve waited up to two hours in line at Banco de Costa Rica on paydays.
Then there’s the question of security. Since the end of the war in Nicaragua, bank robberies have increased dramatically. You know, Nicaraguan ex-contras, armed to the teeth, trained by the CIA, hungry, bored… Word got around about their successes, and then the Colombian and Venezuelan bad guys started to get into it. Since then, even Ticos have entered into the fray (they used to be pussycats). In other words, banks are not a good place to hang around a lot. Unlike most of the armaments carried by the Costa Rican Rural Guard, those shotguns carried by bank security guards do work, but not as well as the ones carried by the guys in black hats…
Edited on Aug 31, 2006 07:58
Edited on Aug 31, 2006 08:00
So Banco National will be the best one to set up an allottment from here until a go to Costa Rica and retired. I am still in the Army but i will be travelling to San Jose to open my account and start an allotment. My wife have an account with Scotia Bank, but they use what they call an intermediary bank to do the allotment. Currently the Army allotment forms only have to blocks that is the Financial institution that is sending the money in this case the US Goverment towards the other bank, and the other block is for the bank that a chosse in Costa Rica. Any pensionados out there that have done this. Would like to know if the National Bank have a routing number to set up this allotment.
Come on Gringotico, can’t you answer a post without finding a way to try and slam the US. To blame bank robberies in Costa Rica on the CIA trained ex-contras is pretty pathetic political diatribe. From what I have seen in the media in the last three years, there are very few bank robberies in Costa Rica. Yes there is the much publicized one that resulted in 8 or 9 deaths more than a year ago. Please stop trying to interject your political views into what was a simple question.
Come on dkt2u- Methinks thou doth protest too much. A simple nod to a historical reality, in the midst of a lenghty post, is hardly a diatribe. It seems you may be the one desiring to edit simple conversation to project a political view.
Exactly how is me suggesting someone keep their political views out of a post that have nothing to do with the OP’s question equate to me wanting to edit simple conversation for my own political view? There are other forums for political discussion and debate. It is political diatribe when you take part of a historical reality and combine it with a totally unrelated issue, for the sole purpose of bashing the United States. This site is called “We Love Costa Rica”, not “We love Costa Rica but hate the US and will tell you any chance we get”. I merely suggested sticking to the subject and quit creating opportunities to bash the US….or any other country for that matter.
In light of the thread’s topic – banking and the ‘security’ of those banks, the comments of GringoTico are totally appopriate and the way in which those undisputable facts were stated appear to be primarily do with ‘security’ of those banks rather than “to bash the US…”
None of our Colombian and Venezuelan VIP Members have complained and he is definitely bashing them …
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comdkt2u: I you read my posts you’ll see that I bash Costa Rica pretty good too. It’s fair to say that I have a love-hate relationship with both my country of origin, and my host country.
Even if you aren’t nervous hanging around banks, bank security sure is. Have you seen the “air lock” you have to go through to get into some branches of Banco Nacional? They don’t spend that kind of money on such extreme measures for no reason.
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