www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Will be in San Jose from 4 - 11 Dec and plan on visiting the Sportmen's restaurant/bar during the televised NFL games. Looked at the Sportsmen's Lodge web site and could not find whether I can use a visa debit/credit card at the bar/restaurant. In the past I normally carried cash to pay there but picked up this visa cash card for my trips instead of carrying alot of cash all the time. Stayed as a guest at the Lodge on several of my trips but always paid in cash. Does anyone know their policy, i.e. cash only, cards acceptable?

For sure. Always have been able to pay with credit cards there. And anywhere in Costa Rica.

I used a credit card at Sportsmans my last trip. It was accepted just like cash. I still got the 10% CRT discount and there was no extra surcharge (just the standard mandatory taxes). It appeared on my bank statement as "AMA". Some card issuers charge an international transaction fee. (I think usually 3%)

Visa and Mastercard have a currency exchange fee built into what you get charged. I think for US cardholders it is only 1%. Or it was. For us lucky Canadians it is 2.5%. But it is almost always as good or better than the exchange costs compared to cash.

That's because US cardholders are better credit risks than you Canucks.

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