www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I'm thinking about buying a car from a dealership. Any advice when making payment? I'm likely sending a wire from the US to CR but worried about the fees and exchange.

Thx

I have not bought a car yet, but I would likely lease and not buy. My realtor friend always leases his trucks. He has a business of course, but for him it is a cheaper and safer alternative. His leases actually come with their insurance, etc. And does not have to worry about it.

Wiring is a pain from the US. I have to do it for my attorney and also for my checking account there for my AirBNB. I hate it. There are some other avenues that you can take that can be cheaper than the fees in an international wire transfer like Xoom, which is owned by PayPal. There are others, but always a fee. I doubt they will take a PayPal or Credit card payment. The best way would be a local CR bank account that you fund from the US.

Open a bank account in Costa Rica. Wire money into that account every now and then and make your car and insurance payments from the CR account. Get an ATM card to use while in CR. Find some chica to take care of the car while you are out of the country and get her an ATM card for gas.

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It's a jungle out there. A pusseycat like you will get eaten alive!!!

We bought a 2012 Toyota Rav 4 from a place the deals with banks lease returns. It had low miles only about 65,000 and with all the lawyer and doc fees it was just under 14,000 USD. The full coverage insurance is just under 500.00 US per year. Marchamo runs was 170,000 colones and paying my mechanic to do the Riteve cost about another 60,000 including the riteve charge. There are a lot of scammers and a lot of rolling back of odometers so if you are buying a vehicle that came from the US definintely get a carfax for it. 99.00 for six reports saved me from buying a vehicle with a modified odometer. 5 out of 6 did and the one that didn't was a salvage vehicle. I paid cash for my vehicle so I cannot tell you what the deal is with financing one but you would be better off using a credit card or getting a personal loan for one from the US. Also if you do buy from a dealer or place like we did they can get your insurance handled as well. Our previous vechicle was a 2003 Rav4 and we could not get insurance for it, none of the companies wanted to deal with it, and there is not a lot of options down there.

Easier said than done. I've tried a few times to open a bank account and they will not do it unless you have proof of an address, and some banks you have to be a resident or in the process to open an account.

It is surely not an easy process - though nothing here typically is an easy process. If you have an SRL here, you can get one. or as Zeos says, if you have property or are a resident. I was able to do it via my SRL that I have that owns my condo that I AirBNB out. Even then, it took a few days of back and forth to get it done. There are some banks that are easier to get it done with. There is a bank near Los Suenos (by Jaco) that is pretty good. They are geared for all of the people in that community that are mainly gringos.