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I have just read of yet another ex-pat to loose a great amount of money to thieves at Banco Nacional. Since that is where I have my accounts and I have heard of several such losses lately I wonder if there is any really safe Bank in CR. From my own experience already I know that Banco Nacional cares little about my safety and all about there own.
Thieves at the bank? Outside the bank, inside the bank, behind the counter….? where were the thieves? Where was the expat when this happened? Somehow I get the impression of an elderly gentleman dressed as a tourist walking up the streets in a bad area of San Jose carrying a fist full of greenbacks in plain sight on his way to a bank.
I am starting to take all the impressions of increased crime in Costa Rica with a grain of salt. Personal experience and conversations with people I know and whose opinions I trust tell me that crime is not as much of an issue as one might be led to believe. Petty theft may be everywhere….leave your jewelry an cash on a car seat at a public park and you might lose it. Hire a maid to clean up after you and then leave jewlery and cash on a table…and she will CLEAN UP after you leave the house.
This is a well covered subject on this message board and I am not wishing to start it up again here. My bank is Banco de Costa Rica. The security guard at the door at the Naranjo branch passes the metal detector over me, has me open and display the contents of whatever is in my carry bag and has me remove my hat while I am there. I cannot imagine what else any bank could do for security and this is in a country town, not a big city.
Yes I read that in amcostarica as well, it was written by Trevor Chilton regarding his auto import business. The troubling part of these thefts is how little the banks are willing to do. Scott what bank would you recommend doing business with?
When Banco Anglo closed it doors, there were laws in place in CR that protected the depositors and our monies were returned without much hassle. I certainly didn’t have any huge amounts of money and they were prompt and efficient in returning my monies. However, I was once left holding the bag with “bad money” that I received in Banco Nacional when I withdrew some dollars to pay the host families of the language-cultural program I ran there. The money went from Banco Nacional to the host family and when she went to deposit it in her bank they said the hundred dollar bills were fake. Needless to say that I wrote letters and spoke with various managers, but they would not take responsibility since they felt an exchange could have taken place somewhere between BN and the other bank so I just made sure that I was much more diligent when withdrawing monies from that point forward. I didn’t accept money that they had at the teller windows which could come from the vault or from the previous customer, I always asked for money from the vault that had been properly documented already, I also wrote down the id # of monies given to each family and then if any of that money turned out to be fake, I would have legal recourse.
The banking situation now going on in BN is apparently only through their online banking system and unfortunately, there also seems to be a legal void in CR laws regarding responsibilities in case of this type of theft. I don’t pretend to tell others what to do, but I certainly would not expose my monies online at BN and maybe not in any other bank in CR until they get to the bottom of how this is being done, by whom and who will give the customers back their monies. I’m sure that the people that have been damaged by these actions will seek legal recourse and the legal void (if in fact it does exist) will be fixed, but who knows how, when and if reparations will be made. My Hopefully, there will not be any more thefts, but my best advice to you is to be proactive and ask your current bank in CR to answer your questions about this issue–not just verbally, but in writing just in case it starts to happen elsewhere…
Dear Sprite:
I was not talking about the security guards at the bank. I’m talking about electronic withdrawals from bank accounts by thieves, many of whom SEEM to be in-house. I don’t know if this is true. I only know that I’ve read of four instances of people loosing big money at Banco Nacional in the past year and I’m sure there are others.
In my own experience I can tell you that when the electronic system didn’t work I tried to send money from the bank itself. They kept me going for two hours demanding that I rewrite my signature more than 30 times. It just wasn’t exactly like the signature on file. Finally they told me to go into an office and PRACTICE my signature. I told them that any thief could do that and get it exactly right but that a normal SIGNATURE is different every time. They obviously did not care about my security – only their own. Help. I want a bank I can trust.
And by the way Sprite I do lock my car and I sometimes travel with several thousand dollars carefully secured and have never felt the least bit afraid on the street because i use normal precautions. Also i am very unhappy with Costa Rica being portrayed as unsafe. It is generally much safer than Florida and other parts of the U.S. BUT I still want protection for my funds in a bank that takes reasonable care of electronic transfers of my funds. The difference is that I can take reasonable precautions and use common sense on the street but Bano Nacional takes away all of my ability to safeguard my meager funds and laughs when people complain about their lack of proper security.
So AGAIN Can anyone recommend a safe bank or are they all like Banco nacional?I believe the article was in today’s A.M. Costa Rica and Trevor Chilton (who is mentioned in this article) gave me permission to post his contact info here in case anyone else has also been affected by the cyber thefts at BN: his email address suenosdeamigos@racsa.co.cr. He’s currently trying to get the word out, get info and get together with those affected in order to pursue joint criminal action in this matter so that banks will become accountable. I really think something needs to be done or the public trust factor will be lost and that can never be good for any financial institution.
Davidrushton, Until they get to the bottom of this, I would make sure to get something in writing from any other bank (national or private) because even though some suspect it is an inside type of job, no one is sure of this. If it is a hacker working on the outside, what would prevent him/her from doing that to another bank or another inside job happening at another bank? There are lots of banks to choose from in CR, but if the CR laws have not automatically been able to address this, then the banks internal statutes have to protect you and that’s what you need to find out from any other bank you want to do business with. BTW, BN was also a stickler with me regarding signatures and document id #s used to open up accounts–it can be quite annoying when you show them every document (expired and current) with your photo and they still question your signature… Obviously, they haven’t handled this very well, but now that the issue is out there, just get documentation from your banks if you choose or need to do your banking thru the Internet as to how they would handle something like this. I found another public bank, Banco de CR and even private banks much easier to deal with then BN, especially when you had a legitimate complaint.
Thanks for your comments regaragon. I’m happy not to be the only one disappointed with BN. They made me feel almost like a prisoner going through a Gestapo interogation when all I wanted to do was transfer some funds.
Does anyone else have any suggestions for other good banks? Does anyone else feel that Bank of Costa Rica is that much better? I don’t want to move everything and then find there are problems with the new one. Not that I don’t believe you rebaragon. It’s just such a traumatic thing to deal with these banks and changing banks is more trauma than I want unless it is really worthwhile.
I use BCR, a branch in Jaco. I opened the acct last summer and use it rgularly for paying ICE via the BCR website from Florida. I make deposits in downtown SJO too. It is a savings acct in dollars and I have never seen a bogus transaction.
Of course, the dollar amount is very samll compared to the $220,000 mentioned in AM CostaRica today. $200 max.
Luckily, I am just a tourist with a vaction home, not a business man.
Seems to me the best course of action is to use wire xfers for large sums back to a USA bank. keeping the local acct for small amounts only. At least until banking laws are adequate to protect acct holders.I don’t know if this is the case with Mr. Chilton, but there are a lot of people who will do bank transfers to pay an invoice at local businesses.
They use the computer provided at the business and log into their accounts to do the transfer. If the business is shady and uses keylogging software, they now have account numbers and passwords to allow access to your money.I don’t think most people realize how easy it is to steal information via computer.
Alberto
I bank at Scotia Bank. It just bought out a local bank Banco Interfin. It is a Canadian bank that offers good rates as well as safe banking. I have been banking with them for 2 years and wire large sums of money in and out on a monthly bases and never have a problem. They are typical of all Costa Rican Banks and do have lines and sometimes can be frustrating. But all is all I feel really safe with my money in there accounts.
My husband and I have been with Banco Cuscatlan (recently bought by Citibank)for about a year now. We have been very happy with them. Their website is both in English/Spanish and it takes seconds to transfer funds internationally with a click of your mouise and you can pay your bills online (although not as easily as BN I will say). We go to the branch in Tamarindo and there are hardly ever any lines and everyone is friendly and knows you by first name. Even at the branches in San Jose, the lines are minimal compared to what we experience at BN or other government banks. I feel safe having the money we do with them, even though they are a private bank. We also have an account at BN, but I keep very little money in there. It’s more just for convenience purposes.
If you search this site, you will find a wealth of info on a variety of topics that can help you thru this transition. Take a look at the thread under Receiving Mail. You could always use Aerocasillas http://www.aeropost.com/sjo/home.htm which are much more efficient and expedient when receiving even small packages than the CR post office. Frankly, the CR PO was much worse before, they’re pretty good right now.
Opening up a bank acct in CR should not be problem, they usually ask for various form of id and they have become more diligent about reporting large deposits to Uncle Sam after 9/11. Prior to that they said they did, but most would agree that they were much more lenient. There are national and private banks throughout and you just need to make sure you know the bank policies ahead of time regarding any issues that may arise so you know what your path of recourse would be in case of a problem. There are different regs regarding government backing for national banks and for private ones. I found BCR much easier to deal with under all types of situations than BN. I also worked with Banco Cuscatlan for some of my student’s accts and they were incredibly efficient and courteous back then. Best of luck on your move…
Interesting that Trevor Chilton is now on the auto import business. Whatever happened to his real estate development in Jaco named, “Jardines de los Ensuenos”? I first learned of this project a year and a half ago. By this time there were to be 47 units completed, but it is understood that the first building, the office is not yet complete. Does anyone have an update on jardines?
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