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As promised, here is my experience with having a 40 foot container shipped to Costa Rica. We used the services of Charlie Zeller, shiptocostarica@racsa.co.cr, 2431-1234, 866-245-6923. I would like to start off by saying that on a different forum people have complained about Charlie not answering their emails or returning their phone calls. That was NOT our experience.
I got quotes from 3 other companies, and I talked to a fourth person who never sent me a quote. Charlie’s quote was $9200, which included customs duties. The highest quote I received was for over $12,000, and that did not include customs duties. Our container was shipped from Gloucester City, NJ to the port of Limon. We picked Charlie for 2 reasons. He gave us the lowest quote, and we had met him previously and liked what we saw. Also, from the time when we originally got his quote to the time when we actually shipped everything (probably close to 2 years, the cost to us only went up about $30-$40.
Charlie was very thorough as to what we had to do prior to the move, ie., how to pack things, how to do inventory, the size of the straps needed for the container, shipping a car (which we did not do), etc. He also answered all my questions, as stupid as they might be! I was concerned about my LPs melting in the hot container. He told me not to worry about it, and he was right.
We arranged for 4 men to load our container. He told us to use a local company as opposed to one of the national firms as it would be cheaper. I contacted 6 different companies via the internet as we were already living here in CR. The only company I found to be really interested was Elite Moving Labor, so that’s who I went with. They, in turn, contracted out with a local company of movers. On moving day 4 men showed up at the storage lockers, and we couldn’t have been happier with their services. Our 2 storage lockers were located in a suburb of Philadelphia. It cost us $450 for a 2 1/2 hour load time.
The tractor trailer driver got lost, so he was late but not by much. We knew we were getting a refrigerated container as Charlie had told us that. What we didn’t know was that refrigerated containers don’t have any rings to attach straps. So, nothing could be strapped down, which irritated both my husband and me. I had visions of boxes falling and getting crushed, but I knew there was nothing we could do about it.
The container remains on the bed, so it is quite high off the ground. We needed to find a ramp for moving day. This was quite a feat to accomplish as Elite Movers did not provide this service, and the companies they suggested we contact did not have any ramps. My husband finally found one for rent at Taylor Rentals. That cost $50.
Once the container was all loaded the driver asked me if I had a seal. I did not. I assumed he had the seal. So he left with all our worldly goods with a container that wasn’t sealed. So there was another thing that irritated us. He said he would call from Gloucester with the seal number, but he never did. The company he worked for was Evans Transport, and the company responsible for the container getting loaded onto the ship was Absolute Global Shipping out of Brandon, FL. I was pleased with them. The woman from Brandon called me that morning to make sure the container had arrived. She also contacted us later with the seal number and let us know when our ship would be departing for CR.
We had been told that it would take 2-3 weeks for us to get our stuff. The ship was at sea for 5 days, and our things were in customs in Alajuela for about a week. In fact, everything cleared customs before we were ready as our house wasn’t quite yet finished being built. Charlie was able to keep our stuff for another week without charging us. A week later 2 trucks arrived, and the 4 men who unloaded everything were very quick and professional. We couldn’t have been more pleased!
So, although we weren’t happy with nothing having been strapped and no seal number, we were very happy with Charlie Zeller’s services. Also, nothing got broken and not a single box was opened! A couple of lamp shades were dented, and a pewter bowl got squished, but that was the extent of the damage. All in all, my husband and I were very pleased with the whole move.
Are you using a shipper in Costa Rica? We recently had a 40 foot container with our goods shipped here. We used the services of someone here, and our customs duties were included in his price. Our container arrived in Limon and was sent to the customs warehouse in Alajuela.
If you join ARCR, they will help you open an account at Banco Nacional. That’s what we did. They will tell you exactly what documents you need to do this, and they will have one of their representatives go to the bank with you to open the account.
I plan on getting Medicare when I am eligible even though I live here now. My husband and I bought private health insurance as we are waiting for our residency. We haven’t decided if we are going to keep it once we are on the Caja, but I think we probably will. A friend of ours who has lived here for over 30 years always returns to the States at least once/year. On one of his trips he suffered a heart attack and had to have bypass surgery. He was glad he kept his Medicare.
Saxon, while I, too, read IL magazine, you can’t always believe what they print about Costa Rica. For example, they often quote prices for joining the Caja which simply aren’t true, meaning they list lower prices than you will actually pay.
They are in the business of selling real estate, according to one of my friends who has been a long time subscriber. Their rosy retirement picture leaves something to be desired, and what I mean about that is they often neglect to mention how difficult it can be do get things done here (buy a car, build a house, open a bank account, etc.), and the cost of most things has increased dramatically since we started coming here in 2002. Having said that, I still enjoy reading the magazine.
My husband and I also have no regrets about moving here. We did buy a car the first week we were here, and we are in the process of having a house built.
The best advice I can give you is to investigate the areas where you think you want to live and then do your due diligence. Do a lot of reading and ask lots of questions.
If you don’t like the heat and need A/C (that’s me!), know that your electric bill will be very high. For me it’s worth it.
How is your Spanish? My biggest regret is not learning Spanish before we moved. I am working on it now, but it can be very frustrating when I have to conduct business in the bank and no one there speaks English. Still, I have managed to muddle through.
I am not trying to discourage you. In fact, it is just the opposite. I encourage you to seriously consider moving here. I also heartily recommend you attend ARCR’s monthly seminar for moving to CR. We actually attended it 3 separate times, and each time we learned something new. ARCR helped us to open a bank account as well as apply for residency. They have been a wealth of information for us, and their forums are also very informative.
That is good to know, Cheryl. But you have only had to do this once so far?
Yes, only once so far, but we are returning to the States next month to have our container loaded, so we’ll see what happens when we return!
When we were “mere” tourists, I never thought to ask for 90 days. But when we moved here 2 months ago, that’s exactly what we did. We explained we were going to apply for residency the following week. We were asked for our return tickets, which we had, and we were granted 90 days. So, we plan on asking for 90 days every time we do a border run. Hopefully our requests will be granted.
In my CR notebook, which I have been compiling over the years, I wrote down the following: To check your residency application, go to http://www.migracion.go.cr. Go to the left side and click on “Estados de Expediente”. Put in your number – no dashes – just the number, and the next line, put in the number that is showing to the left of the box. It will come up with your status.
Now, I don’t know where I read this, and I didn’t write down a date. Since I don’t have a folio/file number, or whatever it’s called, I couldn’t try it out. I am still waiting for my number. Guess I’ll have to make another call!
I also remember reading that the information on the website isn’t updated regularly.
Several weeks ago my hubby and I drove to Cartago to check out prefab homes built by Inprefa. For a 96 m2 home, the cost of just the panels is $4500. Delivery to our lot is extra. For them to construct the home is $50,000. If we want a deck, it would cost an additional $20,000. One of their engineers drove us around town to look at 2 finished homes. We only saw the exteriors. We did get to see 2 homes being built. We have decided against a prefab. Our builder says they are cheap. We have learned to take comments such as these with a grain of salt, but I definitely didn’t like the prefabs. Why? I don’t want columns running up the walls inside the house. My hubby and the engineer discussed this, and there are ways to fill in the area between the columns. Still, I would prefer to build using a “regular” method. I will say I found everyone at Inprefa to be very professional. The one woman spent a lot of time configuring our house plans on her computer.
Yes, WAZE will talk to you in English, if that’s what you want. But it will talk in “miles”, not kilometers, although I think you can change that under settings.
We like flying with American because we usually have had good experiences with them, plus we often use FF miles. When we moved here 3 weeks ago, our flight was delayed by 7 hours. They offered to pay for a hotel room in Miami, but seeing as how we were connecting there anyway, we had already paid for a room. They also gave us each 6000 FF miles. But I understand your frustration and anger over having been told one thing, which turned out not to be true. But you know, if you call the IRS with a question and talk to 6 different people, you run a good chance of being given 6 different answers. My point? Sadly, I don’t think employees at certain (most, dare I say?) companies are trained well. I do agree that you should contact your credit card company. You have nothing to lose by doing this. Please let us know if you do and what happens.
We fly AA all the time, and the website clearly states, as sweikert said, that you must pay for baggage. When we moved here last month we had 4 suitcases, 3 of which were VERY heavy – over 70 lbs. We paid almost $400 in fees.
[quote=”sweikert925″]Haven’t come across anything on prefab house construction in CR, but I did recently come across [url=http://qz.com/413081/portable-solar-powered-ecocapsules-mean-you-can-live-rent-and-electric-bill-free-globally/]this[/url] that I found rather interesting. Not a practical solution as a permanent dwelling, but it takes camping to a whole new level.[/quote]
Wow! How cool is that? I might be able to live in something like that if I were by myself, but with another person? I don’t think so!!
