| Do you plan on having money from abroad sent to you in
Costa Rica? Perhaps the cheapest and easiest way to get money
are the ATM machines available at almost all banks and supermarkets.
Western Union in Costa Rica boasts that they offer the fastest
money transfers in the country. Call Western Union at 1-800-777-7777
or 283-6336, or e-mail: bvib@western-union.co.cr for additional
information, or go to one of their local agencies in San José,
Liberia, San Isidro de El General, Puntarenas or other parts
of the country. You'll have to show some form of valid identification
to pick up your money. Moneygram 1-800-328-5678, 295-9595,
http://www.moneygram. com, offers similar services.
One of the safest ways to receive money while visiting or
residing in Costa Rica is to have an international money order
or any other type of important merchandise or document shipped
to you by one of the worldwide courier services, such as DHL
or UPS. Letters and small packages usually take about two
working days (Monday to Friday) to reach Costa Rica from the
United States or Canada.
Many worldwide air couriers have offices in San José,
such as DHL (290-3010), Federal Express (255-4567), UPS (257-7447),
TNT (233-5678), Jetex (293-5838) and Skynet (232-5678). The
latter two are probably the cheapest options. Until recently,
Costa Rica's postal service, Correos de Costa Rica,
was the slowest and least safe option. Its non-priority mail
was too slow to even consider as a valid option. The Costa
Rican postal service does offer priority mail service; call
253-3375 or 800-900-2000 or e-mail: pacc_prioritymail@ correos.go.cr.
Priority mail (certificado) supposedly takes 12 days
to reach any destination in the United States and three weeks
for Europe and the rest of the world. Rates are very affordable
at about $5.35 per kilo and $4.75 for each additional kilo.
However, Correos de Costa Rica just inaugurated EMS
Courier, a national and international courier service with
127 offices throughout the country. It hopes to compete with
private courier companies. You may contact them at 221-2136,
fax: 221-1737 or
e-mail: ems@correos.go.cr.
U.S. banks can wire money to banks in Costa Rica. This method
is safe, but can be slow at times, as many bureaucratic delays
can develop while waiting for checks to clear. You are also
charged a fee for the transfer. We had a money order sent
from England to our account in the Banco Nacional de Costa
Rica and didn't experience much delay or any problems. Once
we followed the correct procedure our money arrived promptly.
To wire money you will have to use eight-letter codes to
your local bank's eight-letter SWIFT account:
Banco Banex S.A. San Jose ............................BXBACRSJ265951
Banco BAC San Jose ......................................BSNJCRSJ363642
Banco BCT S.A. San Jose .............................. CCIOCRSJ396508
Banco Cuscatlan de Costa Rica San Jose ....... BACUCRSJ392460
Banco de Costa Rica San Jose ........................ BCRICRSJ019339
Banco Interfin S.A. San Jose .......................... INTECRSJ185480
Banco Internacional de Costa Rica San Jose .. COSRCRSJ393955
Banco Lafise, S.A. San Jose ................................BCCECRSJN/A
Banco Nacional de Costa Rica San Jose ........ BNCRCRSJ019462
BCT Bank International San Jose .................. CCIOCRSJ396508
Scotia Bank de Costa Rica San Jose .............. NOSCCRSJ394833
The Costa Rican postal service is planning to start a money
order service allowing money orders to be sent from the United
States to Costa Rica. This service promises to be much faster
and more economical than getting money wired to your bank
in Costa Rica.
You can always have a trustworthy friend or relative bring
you up to $10,000 when they come to Costa Rica.
Automatic teller machines (ATMs) are found all over the country.
You can't transfer money directly but can get cash advances
from one of your credit or debit cards. Use of ATMs, along
with cashing a personal check are perhaps the fastest ways
to get money. Another safe way to have checks sent to you
is through one of the private mail services we list in the
next section. The worst way to send money is through the regular
mail. People report that many checks have been lost or stolen.
Postal thieves are very sophisticated in Costa Rica and may
work with some unscrupulous black market money changers. The
postal system has received numerous complaints and has promised
to do something about them.
If you need to file a complaint about lost or stolen mail,
go to Correo de Costa Rica's complaint department (Departamento
de Reclamaciones) in downtown San José on Avenida
6, between Calles 17 and 19. If you live outside San José,
you can file a complaint at any local post office and it will
be forwarded to San José.
If you still choose to use the regular mail system after
reading the above, be sure to have your checks or money orders
sent to you in secure, non-transparent manila envelopes ones
that can't be seen through when held up to a light.
A rash of postal thefts has prompted more and more people
to use the private-mail companies, which offer a variety of
postal related services.
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