www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Very interesting if this is accurate. According to www.oanda.com:

yesterday's (1/16/06) exchange rate was:

USD CRC
1 = 475.64

today's (1/17/06) exchange rate is:

USD CRC
1 = 497.75

22 colones jump in 1 day? That has to be a typo.

Orange,
I usually go right to my bank's website ( www.bancocuscatlan.com ). When I log in, the bank has a "ticker" running across the top of the screen for the current buy / sell on value of colone.....

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You ALWAYS have an option ....... "NEXT" !!!

Current exchange is 493 at the Hotel Presidente, 497 at the Colonial Casino. They both only allowed me to exchange $200 at a time,(if your gambling at the Colonial they´d probably exchange all you want)

1. Do not attempt to exchange money on the lower level of the airport; the currency exchange kiosk there gives horrible rates.

2. Don't bother the Presidente staff to photocopy your passport. Walk directly across the street to the little photocopy shop, where they will not only photocopy your passport and entry stamp, but will also laminate it into a wallet-sized card....all for around 80 cents U.S.

3. Re-read what Ding Dong wrote about the red cash machines

4. Re-read what Ace wrote about what denominations of U.S. currency to bring with you.

5. Remember that if you pay in dollars, your change (if any) will be returned to you in colones.

6. Do not forget that while many banks, casinos and hotels happily exchange dollars for CRC, very few casinos and hotels will exchange CRC back into dollars. Use any leftover colones at the end of your trip to pay for part of your final hotel bill and/or pay your taxi fare to the airport. Or, keep a 10,000 colones bill in your wallet, a constant reminder that you need to return to costa Rica to spend the damn thing!

Hope this helps. BTW, most C.R. merchants will add a service charge to purchases made via credit card, so cash is still king in Costa.

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Pura Vulva! Wandering through the dark, I am El Ciego.

El Ciego wrote:



Just a minor correction. Cash is definitely king in CR. Merchants will not theoretically add any charges to purchases if you pay with a credit card. What they will do is give you a discount if you pay in cash. Typically this will be about 10%. They will not offer the discount you have to present a credit card and ask "any discount if I pay in cash?" (¿"descuento si pago en el dinero efectivo?")

The reason they are willing to do this (and actually prefer this) is that merchant charges to the retailer by the credit card processor are high and the tax people can track gross receipts.

_________________
Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine