www.CostaRicaTicas.com

"October 21st, 2015 (ICR News) Banco de Costa Rica (BCR) has imposed a US $100 withdrawal limit, or the equivalent amount in colones, for any card not issued by BCR or Banco Nacional at the bank’s ATMs."

Just heard this. Kind of sucks. What is the reasoning behind this.

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Knowledge speaks...Wisdom listens

To keep us from paying cien? Thanks BCR.

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This post is provided purely for entertainment purposes and free of charge on the part of the author. No tourist or travel promotion is expressed or implied. The author of this post was not provided compensation (monetary or otherwise) for this potentially entertaining contribution.

No. To keep you from tipping those cien chicas. BCR don't pay no cien either!!

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bypassin' kinky, and usin' the whole chicken!!!

I was told by people in the BCR main location that they had installed a new computer system (or program) and there was/is a glitch in it causing this. It is not just BCR machines, it is almost all. I tried all 4 different bank ATMs located at Walmart and not a one would give more than $100. But a friend tried one at another Walmart and got $400, no problem. And we both use the same bank and Debit card provider (BofA and Visa).

A Tica friend was aware of the problem and while in BAC (Bank of San Jose) she asked them if they had the same problem with their machines. They told her no!

I was able to get c200000 ($178) at Banco National but I needed Dollars plus was charged an almost $12 "international exchange fee" on c200000. Banco National does not have any machines that dispense dollars

I was assured by BCR that they were working to correct the problem and very soon I should be able to get more than $100. We will see!!

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

I had the same issue when I went a couple of weeks ago. You couldn't get more than 100 USD or equivalent in colones from almost any ATM.

However, I was able to withdraw more than $100 at a Citibank in San Pedro and at a ScotiaBank ATM.

mh

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mh

Typical gringo-chica encounter at the DR will go like this now:

Gringo: Hi
Chica: Hi
Gringo: How much?
Chica: $100
Gringo: Sorry baby, I don't have that much, I ate dinner earlier. I only have $50.

I tend to believe (not 100%) that it is a glitch because I tried both Citibank and Scotiabank in San Pedro this past Friday and neither would give me more than $100. One of the machines I tried at Walmart was Oath and yet my friend using the same Bank of America and the same Visa debit card got $500 from the Oath machine at another Walmart the same day.

Thou over the last 21 years I have seen some very unexplainable and in my Gringo mind, not very smart things done here in CR, I just find it hard to believe they would do something that would/will totally destroy the largest industry in the country (tourism).

Oh, I also talked with my bank in the states. Since I was getting a message stating that the "requested amount exceeded my daily limit' I at first thought the problem was maybe with my bank or my card.They were unaware of the problem and assured me it was not a problem on their end nor with my account. In fact they said non of the attempted transactions even showed up on their records. And they raised my daily withdrawal limit by 200% which still did not help.

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

This is no glitch, it is an intentional policy. The limit is supposedly 110,000c max, 55K at a time...with two transactions (and related fees) per day on a non-BCR card. Had that verified today when a client got cash in Jaco and could only get 100,000 on two withdraws.

AM CR has a story and some (unhappy) reader letters about it here:

http://www.amcostarica.com/101915.htm#32

And I even remembered to update the link!!

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The only thing that matters is happiness in all it forms...

The problem with the AMCR article is that it implies that this is something that only BCR is doing and also seems to be saying that all expats should bank elsewhere. This is not just BCR doing this, it is ALL, OR ALMOST ALL, THE BANKS HERE BOTH PUBLIC AND PRIVIATE!! I have in the last 2-3 weeks tried the ATMs of 9 different banking institutions here and only at Banco National and Banco Popular was I able to obtain more than $100 (c52800). And neither of those two have ATMs that dispense dollars. And at both I was charged an exorbitant "international transaction fee" - about 6.5 percent!! I have been told that I can get dollars and more than $100 at BAC but I have not tried them yet.

Thank God I will very shortly be opening an account here and my SS check will be deposited here so I will have a local ATM card. Problem with this is that once my check is deposited here I am sure there will be some kind of exchange fee converting it to colonies. Then I will have to pay to have my rent money converted BACK TO DOLLARS!!!! But hopefully it should not be much if any more than what I pay to get money here from my BofA account each month.

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

By the way, AND I KNOW THE ANSWER, why would BCR officials blatantly lie to someone ("that it is a computer glitch that they are trying to correct")???? They are once again plucking expats and in this case, ALL TOURISTS!! Only problem is with this stupidity the ultimate losers are Costa Rica and the people!!! What tourist is going to knowingly visit a country where they have to either bring large sums of cash or live on $100 a day???? They have effectively reduced the amount tourists will spend while here, and as more and more find out about this ridiculous policy, fewer and fewer will visit here.

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Old and retired but still bang, and bang, and bang!!!

Gents,

A bit off topic but for what it's worth, I have been using Scotia Bank for over 5 years here and couldn't be happier. Plus there are seldom lines and Scotia at Multi Plaza (Escazu) is open on Sundays (for banking emergencies).

I have 2 accounts with Scotia (one USD and one colones) and they are linked. I deposit USD into my USD account monthly. I write a check from my BofA checking account and that cost about 800 colones for the deposit. Yes, I have to wait 9 business days for it to clear but once you are in that cycle it's not an issue.

If I need USD then I either get it from the ATM or just go to the teller and withdraw it from my USD account (no fees). I move USD from that account to my colones account via the Scotia website anytime at the Scotia published daily exchange rate (no fees).

BofA and Scotia also have some sort of agreement - one can withdraw USD from a Scotia ATM using a BofA debit card and get up to $400 USD daily (could be per transaction but I've never tried it). There is only a $3 transaction fee for USD (not sure what it is if you get colones - never done that). I'm not sure if any of the above limits are now in affect at Scotia since I have not used an ATM in a few weeks.

Another advantage is one can pay for most services (electricity, phone, cable and etc) directly on the Scotia website.

Hope this is helpful.

Woozo

I, too, have run into this $100 (50 Mil) /per day limit at BCR in the last couple of weeks.

I've also taken 50 Mil from a BCR ATM and another 100 Mil from a Scotia Bank ATM on the SAME day..........and another 100Mil from a Scotia machine on a different day.

BCR imposes no ATM user fee, but Scotia Bank imposes a $3 fee for each ATM transaction. Schwab Bank, which issued my ATM card, refunds that fee at the end of the month. Schwab Bank tells me "don't worry about ATM fees."

Another issue............ most (but not all) BCR machines say that they can't recognize the chip on my Schwab card, but they will do the transaction based on the magnetic strip if I touch "consent" on the screen. Other bank's machines have no problem with my "chipped" card.

I think that the Costa Rica banks are going through a transition with their systems and machines. We'll see how it shakes-out in a while. In the mean time, have a Plan B.

Hey guys, how about small ATMs like the ones in HDR or Colonial...I've used them plenty in the past to get up to 250,000 colones at a time! What up with them??

This is a major pain in the ass. Alternative is to change a lot of dollars at the big Banco Nacional in el centro or at the upstairs airport cambio. I don't like to walk around with my passport and a lot of cash, and tend to hit the ATMs as I need them. By the way does anyone know what time the upstairs airport money exchange closes? I may be getting in too late to use that. I hope this all changes, otherwise this will impact tourism and the expats' lives.
What idiocy. To address bandon's question, I can't imagine the HDR or Colonial's ATMs would be any different, because this seems to be affecting all of the banks.

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" Omit no happy hour that may give furtherance to our expedition."

Upstairs exchange closes at 8:00 pm. I ran into the same issue a couple weeks ago.

I changed cash at the Club Colonial Casino on a recommendation offered here. Forgot the rate but it was better than the airport arrival cambios.

La Amistad seems pretty competitive too based on what I saw posted there.

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This post is provided purely for entertainment purposes and free of charge on the part of the author. No tourist or travel promotion is expressed or implied. The author of this post was not provided compensation (monetary or otherwise) for this potentially entertaining contribution.