Email Q&A: Banking/Money Issues in Costa Rica

Hi Bruce,
You might have already answered these questions in a previous blog, but I don't remember reading about it. I just had some questions in regard to money, as far as what you're doing. How did you go about changing U.S. dollars to colones--traveler's checks, ATMs, other? Is it hard to set up a bank account down there, for the checks you get down there? I was just wondering about that. Thanks again for the blog!

Response:
Thanks for the email, and to be honest I'm not sure if we've talked specifically about money/banking in the blog yet (although I had meant to on a number of occasions).

To address your questions:
How did you go about changing U.S. dollars to colones--traveler's checks, ATMs, other?

Lisa and I both opted at the beginning to use ATMs down here to withdraw money from out US bank accounts. Obvious drawback being ATM fees (Bank of America charged me upwards of $6 to withdraw), so the "solution" there is to withdraw a decent amount at a time and only carry a fraction with you at a time. I'm not sure how well the traveler's checks would work, but that's only because I never tried.

Is it hard to set up a bank account down there, for the checks you get down there?

Thankfully for both Lisa and me, the company that we are currently working for pays us through direct deposit, and in order to do so, the company sponsored us so that we could open bank accounts with Banco Nacional (a big Costa Rican bank). This has been great as there are a lot of ATMs around and no service charge, but the problem is that I still pay my US credit card online and it subtracts from my Bank of America account (you do the math: I'm depositing salary into a Banco Nacional account, yet subtracting each month from the BoA...)

As for setting up an account yourself, I would presume that it IS possible. I just needed my passport (but I also had a letter from my company endorsing an account), so I'm not entirely sure how possible it would be.

Hope this helps,
Bruce