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This has not been reported in any US news source that I could find. The original article was from some global source. That could be why no one is talking about it (except in this forum) because the US populace does not know about it. Very scary indeed! If this information is true, the American people would be very upset to learn of it. There has been all kinds of speculation in this forum and I suspect the same kind of speculation would be present in the US population as well. Secret missions usually spell trouble.
Even though we enjoy our beautiful simple farm in the mountains outside of San Isidro with spring water, fresh air and the absence of traffic noise, I have some concerns about our ability to continue our serene lifestyle in Costa Rica. You asked for it. Below are my 5 main concerns. They are the result of experience in Costa Rica not just fear of the unknown:
1. Security of possessions. No matter how good the locks on the doors, locals with criminal intent will find a way to break in when you are gone. We even had a vagrant enter our farm, kick in a door to break the screws holding the lock and steal food while we were gone for only a few hours doing our weekly shopping. He had to be watching for us to leave. He even passed a crew of road workers just outside our gate, as he left behind a more conspicuous item in the driveway (a large bottle of oil) and they did not question his presence. We filed a police report but the police did nothing to look for him.
2. Police target gringos with parking fines carrying exorbitant fees. They give tickets (with exorbitant fines) to gringos for characteristics about a car (such as UV protective film on back windows) that has passed the state required inspection for several years in a row. They will ticket gringos for exceeding the speed limit slightly (again with exorbitant fines) and ignore the Ticos who go whizzing by.
3. The legal system is set up to favor Ticos to the disadvantage of gringos and the police refuse to follow court orders to recover stolen property. Justice is not applied in a uniform manner and is not commensurate with the seriousness of the crime.
4. Increased influence of drugs on crime in cities and in the countryside. Ticos and police most often just look the other way.
5. Costa Rica is no longer considered a place to retire cheaply due to law changes that exclude those making modest incomes and exorbitant increases for various services, taxes and fees.It’s more like Goodwill and The Salvation Army are selling bags of clothing directly to RAs in Costa Rica. We have been at a RA and have seen the bags come in with a Goodwill sticker still on them. When these industries get an over abundance of clothing donations, they sell the excess. I have bought clothes at RA some with price tags still on them and they have all been good clothes – not necessarily something that wouldn’t sell in the US. There have also been some really wild funky items in the mix. Once I had all of my clothing stolen in a rental car break-in. Thank goodness for RA. The prices were amazingly low compared to anything new in the local stores. The Tico clothes are way over-priced, don’t hold up and they probably would not fit me anyway. Hey, a good T-shirt is still a good T-shirt even if it has something stupid or out of place on it. The Ticos probably don’t even know what they say and neither do their friends. Or may it is just a good way to keep that smile on gringo faces. If nothing else, the RA clothes make good sturdy clothes for working on the farm. Pura vida. The US has to have something to export to Costa Rica in exchange for all of those bananas and super sweet pineapples they are sending north. I can’t think of much else that they might want from the US that they can’t get cheaper from China. 🙄
It must be a [b]notorized[/b][u][/u] background check. I could not get a notorized background check from the local police station here in Florida as they did not have a notory on staff. I had to request a notorized background check from the State. I did this online. Once you get the document back it must be sent to the State Department (form was online) for authetication. Then both of these documents need to be sent to the Costa Rican Embassy that serves your area for certification. Each step in this process requires a fee that will vary from state to state. I requested that the background check be in Spanish. They weren’t too happy about this but they did sent it to me in Spanish which saved me the cost of having it translated in Costa Rica. I don’t know how many states other than Florida would be able to do the document in Spanish. It is a very complicated process but every document you get must follow this same pattern.
It is my understanding that in order for anything to be valid in Costa Rica (will, living will, power of attorney or anything else, hand written or printed) that it must be in Spanish and that it must be notorized by a Costa Rican Notory. Just copying and hand writing your present US living will in English may not accomplish the task. 🙂
We have been told by our lawyer that we need to write new wills in Costa Rica to cover the property that we own in Costa Rica. Our wills, living wills and powers of attorney that we have in the US that cover property that we own in the US have no validity in Costa Rica.
I agree will Costaricabill’s comments about CR plastics. We live in the San Isidro area and plastic things seem way overpriced compared to the US. They also become brittle fast and break quickly. They are poor quality and sometimes lids don’t even fit correctly. I have refrigerator dishes here in the US that I have had for 15 years or more. A similar use item bought in Costa Rica is lucky to last 6 months. There is also a great disparity in the prices of coolers as Bill mentioned. I bought a big Igloo Cube cooler with rolling wheels at Wallmart in Florida for $30 and took it to Costa Rica as our second checked bag filled with sheets and blankets. It just barely fit into the airline limit of 62 inches (h+w+d). The same cooler bought in Costa Rica would have cost at least $150. Some airlines won’t let you bring coolers as luggage but others will. It has gotten more expensive to bring an assortment of household items to Costa Rica from the states in our luggage since the airlines started charging for the second checked bag and, in the case of some airlines, they charge for even the first checked bag. Many of the things we had been bringing to Costa Rica are beginning to become available. Last year, I noticed a Bed Bath & Beyond store in Paso Colón (just a few doors down from Quiznos, oh boy!). It looked just as American as one in the US with the same luxurious looking stuff inside. I didn’t go inside so I don’t know what the prices were like. I expect this trend to continue. As more Americans move to Costa Rica, the stores (especially the chain stores) will follow with the things that Americans want and will buy.
I also find it curious that ICE does not list the iPhone. The 3G iPhone does work in Costa Rica as long as it is the US version and it is unlocked. I ordered the US version, was sent an unlocked Chinese version by some unscrupulous internet merchant and it [b]did not[/b] work. The phone must have the 850 bandwidth to be used in Costa Rica. I was very happy to get the list of usable phones. I have an unlocked Nokia E71 on order and I see that it is on the list.
We got the Huawei cell phone from ICE for 3G service. We also used it as a modem for our computer via a usb connection. We are on the unlimited internet service plan at the slowest 3G speed that we added on to our regular cell phone 3G service. The service was not really that terribly slow and it worked just fine for connecting the computer to the internet except when the kids were online after school and on weekends. Unfortunately the computer hard drive died before we left Costa Rica to return to the states but we could still get our email directly on the phone. Writing emails on the phone is very slow, however, because it doesn’t have a qwerty keyboard. Here is a list of current ICE charges for the internet 3G.
Type of service Limits speed* Cost per month
Internet cellular Unlimited Max 128 Kbps ¢ 3,955
Internet mobile 500 MB Max 256 Kbps $ 13.56
Internet mobile 1 GB Max 512 Kbps $ 20.34
Internet mobile unlimited Max 1 Mbps $ 27.12
*The speed will depend on the capacity of the moving grid of ICE 3G (how many people are online at one time)
This information was extracted from the following website:
http://portal.grupoice.com/wps/wcm/connect/web+content/Esp/CatTelecom/Personal/Homol/ The same website has the 3G phones that can be used for 3G service in Costa Rica.I thought it was curious that the first price was in colones and the next three prices were in dollars.
BTW: [b]Could someone tell me the model number of the Huawei phone that ICE sells?[/b] We are not with the phone right now and I want to get some sort of skin to protect the phone in case it is dropped. ICE offered zero accessories for the phone beyond what came in the box. It looks like it has the same body as the Huawei Tap U7519 and the T-Mobile Tap.
It would be helpful to know what it costs to ship household items in a container. Are there different sizes of containers? What are the prices? From what port is it shipped from the US and to what port in Costa Rica? Do they charge duty on used household items and personal belongings? Are there any weight limits on the container or can you just fill it up? Most of what we have brought to Costa Rica, we have brought in our luggage and consists mostly of sheet sets, blankets, memory foam mattress toppers, mattress protectors, mosquito nets, portable solar panels with charge controlers and connectors, gardening/herb/nature books, cordless electric tools, various teflon cooking pans, certain spices, and a Doulton water filter. As a result, we have very little room in our luggage for clothing. We find the Ropa Americana stores in Costa Rica a great inexpensive resource for good usable clothing. One thing we never buy in Costa Rica is shoes. With the exception of work boots, the shoes in Costa Rica tend to fall apart very quickly especially after they get wet.
Up close and personal- here is a way to have a fantastic hummingbird experience: Apparantly hummingbirds depend on movement to detect potential predators. If you stand very still next to a feeder and put your finger next to the feeder tube, a hummingbird will perch on your finger to feed. They seem to enjoy a chance to rest their wings and you will get a very close view of the bird. My brother from Southern California told me about this and I didn’t believe him. So he tried it in my backyard in Illinois. It worked. I even got a picture of him with the bird on his finger by standing equally still with the camera to my face and him in the viewfinder. I tried it later and what a thrill it was to have a hummingbird perched on my finger! The keyword here is patience and blink very slowly. Enjoy!
Thanks for reminding me that writing a check on my US bank and depositing it in my Costa Rica bank account is a free and viable way to transfer money from my US bank to my Costa Rica bank as long as I don’t need to use the money for at least 2 weeks. Everything that has been suggested so far, however, only works if you are in Costa Rica. Paying bills from the US or Canada still requires that you set up automatic bill payments with the bank ahead of time and/or get all of the information that you will need to do it online while you are still in Costa Rica. Once you are back home in the US or Canada, the bills will then be paid automatically or you will be able to perform the task online if you have the correct information and know how to do it correctly. The problem remains that if you are in the US or Canada, I have not found any way to transfer money from my US bank to my bank in Costa Rica except by wire transfer. Having your SS check deposited in a Costa Rica bank works great for those who live full time in Costa Rica but it is not a viable solution for those of us who live in both places. After all, this thread is about paying bills in Costa Rica from the US or Canada.
Keep in mind that even though the same bank is present in Costa Rica and in the US and they might be owned by the same corporation, there is no “connection” between the two banks. I have both a Citi bank account in the US (online account) and in Costa Rica (formerly Banco Cuscatlan) but I am not able to transfer funds from one to the other. I still must use a wire transfer to send money from one to the other. I have heard of people setting up some kind of debit account in the US to have SS funds deposited into and then using a debit card to get the money in Costa Rica. This won’t help at all, though, if you are in the US and you need to add money to your Costa Rica bank account. You still have to use a wire transfer. Some banks offer free international wire transfers if you have a huge bank account like $500,000. Well, that leaves me out and I expect almost everybody else retiring in Costa Rica. I don’t know if there are any of these debit accounts or any US banks that don’t charge the 3% foreign transaction fee for debits from a US bank while in Costa Rica. If you want to transfer something like $5,000 to your Costa Rican account, that 3% fee makes a $40 or $50 wire transfer fee look cheap. If anyone knows a way around all of the red tape and fees between US and Costa Rican bank accounts, I would like to know about it.
Take each one of your utility bills (telephone, internet, electric, water) to your bank and wait in line for a customer sevice representaive (not at the teller caja). They will be able to tell you which bills they will be able to pay automatically. It will take at least a month for the automatic service to kick in and so you will probably have to still pay the next bill yourself – but then they should be explaining all of this to you at the bank. Once they begin paying the bills automatically, though, you are set unless you physically cancel the service. We recently upgraded our cell phone service from TDMA to 3G and we did not have to change anything with the bank paying the bill automatically because we kept the same phone number. If we had changed the number or added another line, we would have had to wait for the first bill and then repeat the process that I just mentioned. Our electric bill is paid automatically from our CoopeAgri account. CoopeAgri does not offer internet access at this time (this could change in the near or far future) so we just have to put enough colones in our account before we leave the country to pay the bill each month until we return to Costa Rica. It is inconvenient to not have internet access to this particular account but we make it work as well.
We keep bank accounts both in colones and dollars in Costa Rica to pay the bills. Both Citi Bank (formerly Banco Cuscatlan) and Banco Costa Rica (BCR) have account internet access and bills can be paid online if you have the right account numbers, etc. There may be other Costa Rican banks that offer internet access to your accounts as well. You can also set it up with some of the banks to pay the utilities for you automatically each month. It depends which utility payments each bank offers. If the accounts in Costa Rica, need more money to be deposited into them and we are in the states, we can wire money to the account(s). Again, all you need are the right numbers to do this.
