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Stan, thanks for the information. I went to the site and the only thing I saw that was not so good is that this is their “introductory rate and only lasts for 3 month not 12 and then it drops to 4.1 or something like that. Are you saying you money is now in Euros? How stable is that? And is this company covered by FDIC or an insurance agency that protects your investment?
thanks
Terry From TexasIf there are so many people worried about legally being required to report that figure of $10,000 to the IRS, then you all know about the requirement to report the names and account numbers of all your foreign bank accounts if the aggregate sum of these accounts at anytime during the year exceeds $10,000 right? Where are you keeping all this money, under your mattress? Where do you live?
Yes Terry Euros The National Bank will sell you a CD in Euros. I had to post $18K for my Setena bond They offered me 3% for a one year CD. Since that has happened the US$ has dropped like a rock. The Aden Sisters whom I have been following for 25 years live in Costa Rica publish the Aden Report. If you like I can email you a sample issue. Let me see if they have any graphs. Oh I just read in the news that the Banco Cuscatlan was taken over by a US Bank.
Stanley PutraEdited on Jun 04, 2007 12:22
Edited on Jun 04, 2007 12:24
Edited on Jun 04, 2007 14:27
OK, I found the best, cheapest and fastest way to get $$$ here. I have a debit card with BoA… I go to my bank here and they fill out a slip just like the old roller machine for credit cards. They make a phone call to the card company to insure the card is good, then fill in the amount I want, roll it in the machine with my card, and I have money in my account NOW!!! Bank charges me 500 colones. $1!!!!
Jerry in La SuizaJerry…with a debit card you just pay a buck and there is no “cash advance” fee because it is a debit card not a credit card….Duh. Do you know which banks in C.R. will allow this? Do you do this on a regular basis so you do not have to get a buch of cash at once?
GREAT idea and so simple
thanks
Terry From TexasJerry,
Are there daily limits or any limits on how much you can transfer? My bank, Suntrust is now charging $5.00 for using your ATM card outside of the U.S.Peg, all banks impose some daily limit on both cash withdrawals and purchases on your ATM/debit card. They do it for security purposes, so someone can’t steal your card and totally drain your account before you can call to deactivate it. That said, you can probably get those daily limits raised.
Too, I think you’re paying way too much for your ATM/debit services. We bank at Wachovia (the U.S.’ fourth-largest bank, I think). We get two ATM transactions a month for free; after that, it’s $1.75 each. If we withdraw dollars, there is no penalty or additional charge regardless of where the ATM is located. If we withdraw colones or make a purchase in colones, there’s a one percent charge.
We have a mortgage at Banex. Two or three times a month, we withdraw $600 from their ATM, then march it into the lobby and deposit it in our dollar account and pay the mortgage and our other bills. The rest of the time, we withdraw colones and take the 1% hit.
I’m sure you could open a Wachovia account on-line. They give us totally free checking and savings accounts because we have our pensions direct-deposited, and their customer service is exemplary.
Interesting idea Jerry. Is your account in the Costa Rican bank a US dollar account? If not, then I would check the exchange rate they are giving you. Even if it is, that’s 500 colones and a few minutes more than the instantaneous no-fee ATM debit card from NetBank that offers excellent exchange rates. On 11 Dec last year I got a rate of 515.04, which was exactly what the Central Bank was quoting on that day. Here’s what I wrote about it:
“Using an ATH machine in my neighborhood on 11 Dec 2006, I withdrew some colones. Later, I went online to view my account and I determined the exchange rate to be 515.04 colones per dollar. Quite impressive I must say and there was no fee from either Netbank or the owner of the ATM.”
Here’s the link to the Central Bank’s historical buy rates:
Jon
MB Financial does not charge ATM Fees on any ATM machine around the world by maintaining a $2,500 balance in their free checking account .
You can use the debit cards for free.
David
Thanks for the info on Wachovia and Banex. In the U.S SunTrust doesn’t charge anything for using their ATMs, no matter how many times you use it, however I just got a notice that they are going to charge $5.00 for any transaction out of the U.S. Once I’m ready to move to CR, I will have to change banks to get my SS check transfered to CR the cheapest way possible. I won’t have any reason to keep an account in the U.S., once I leave, because I will be selling my home.
Happily/sadly, I’m not quite old enough to begin collecting Social Security, Peg, but we have friends who are. They have their monthly checks routed through a bank in the U.S. to Banco Nacional here in Costa Rica. It takes a day or two longer, but it happens very reliably. For this service, they pay Banco Nacional $6.00US per month. When the time comes, I’m going to see if Banex can work the same magic for me. Otherwise, I’ll have mine sent to Banco Nacional, too.
I have a military checking account at BoA, and both a $$$ and colone account at banco National. I transfer from BoA to my colone account here for $1. Having the military account at BoA is NOT a determining factor, by the way. Also, I am NOT in the military…. was, in a time long, long ago and a place far, far away.
Can you give us some more details about this type of transfer. We have tried a number of ways to transfer money from BOA to Banco National in Costa Rica. All are very expensive and most have not worked. Do you initiate the transfer yourself or does the bank do it.
HalSo far, our experience with depositing our U.S. bank personal check at Banex in Grecia has been different from Jon’s experience with Cuscatlan. On June 5, we deposited the check. On June 8, the debit showed up online at Wachovia Bank, but not at Banex. A few days later, Wachovia showed a “Check Reversal” and redeposited the money in our account. When I asked, they said that they’d been notified of the check electronically but since the paper check hadn’t shown up yet, they reversed the June 8 debit. So now we’re waiting for the paper check to show up so they can debit it again. And after that, we’ll see how long it takes for the credit to show up in our Banex account.
I’d love to see this work.
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