www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I have been using a pin number on credit cards for years now. I have Visa, MasterCard and American Express. My banks are TD and BMO.

Devo

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The most dangerous adversaries are the ones that come with a smile instead of a sword

Yes. I understand now. PINs with credit cards have been available in some markets for a while now. They are not currently available, except on a very limited basis, in my market, or in my clients' markets.

That does muddy the waters a bit, as some cardholders will very likely be unsure about which network is processing their transaction, when they hand their card to a merchant.

I have largely been unconcerned with this issue, for one primary reason:

A PIN offers no additional security safeguards in the current network environment


For Example: You hand your card to a merchant, and say, "I need to input my PIN."

The merchant says, "We don't have a PIN keypad."

You say, "Well, what do we do now?"

The merchant says, "We just run the card, anyway."

You are very correct in that I am now involved in money markets, exchange rates, etc. and do not know all the correct terms (obviously have been using the wrong terms in some cases) but as pointed out much of what you are saying is exactly what i was trying to say, just apparently not making myself clear.

Yes I do know that no one or group is waking up some mornings and thinking "I need dollars so we will raise the rate today"! BUT I do know (from many years of living here) that things are not always what they appear to be and that many things happen here that could never happen in say the USA. The main point is what we are talking about in this thread is the rate one can expect to get IN COUNTRY and in actuality has little to do with the world market. What CR gets or gives on the world market is often very different from what an individual gets at the local bank. Yes it is controlled to some extent by the world market at the moment in that if the banks did as the money exchange in the arrivals area at the airport (often 70 points below the National banks rates) very few would change money here. But just as that company sets its own rate, so can and do all of the banks here! Not even the 4 national banks have the same rates.

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

Well, I do get your point, and I understand what you are saying. However, what you are saying applies just as much to the USA as it does to Costa Rica. You said...


> many things happen here that could never happen in say the USA


But... those things DO happen in the USA, every day. Just as in Costa Rica, the currency exchange desk in the airside concourses in Houston or Miami will tear you a new asshole, if you purchase Colones or Euros there. They can set whatever exchange rate that they wish, and charge whatever fees that they like.

Do BCR and Banco Popular have different exchange rates with the U.S. Dollar today? Well, yesterday's Euro to U.S. Dollar exchange rate at Bank of America was 1.055 Dollars per Euro. However, Wells Fargo's Euro to U.S. Dollar exchange rate was 1.17 Dollars per Euro. That's an 11.5 cent difference per Euro. Those are both U.S. banks, doing whatever they want to do with their exchange rates.

I once bought Japanese Yen in the USA, at a bona-fide FDIC-insured bank, and took a 20 percent hit off of the current "Market Rate."

If you exchange Dollars for a Foreign Currency at a bank in the USA, what will your exchange rate be, compared to the so-called "world market?" The answer is: The USA bank doesn't care what the "world market" says. A bank in the USA will exchange your Dollars for foreign currency at whatever rate it wishes.

Forex? XE.com? They are basically telling you, "Hey! some dude drove by a cash exchange window in Bratislava a couple of days ago, and the handwritten sign in the window said that about $1.10 would buy one Euro."

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I have clients in the USA that I direct to exchange cash at X bank, instead of Y bank, because the exchange rate at X bank is 8 cents better today, than it is at Y bank. Next week, Y bank will probably have an exchange rate that is 5 cents better than X bank.

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Foreign Exchange rates vary greatly. For any given currency, there are AT LEAST the following exchange rates:

1) Market Rate

2) Bank Rate

3) Nominal "We Buy" Rate

4) Nominal "We Sell" Rate

5) Interchange Rate

Look like speedy is back must have been bored. I enjoy his posts . This board needs anything it can get.

Thanks, guys. I've been reading the board all night (just bored). I wish that I had found this message board before I came to Costa Rica. Jerry gives me a lot of good info, but I have picked up so much more from browsing through all of the old posts.

Jerry is flying me up to Tres de Junio this afternoon, where I'm told that our cabin will have no phone or electricity, so I don't know when I'll be able to visit the board again.

It is amazing how small Costa Rica is, when you consider how long it takes to drive to some places. We flew from Pavas to Jaco in about 15 minutes! You can see Panama, Nicaragua, the Caribbean, and the Pacific from 5000 feet above San José, if the clouds permit.

When I get back to Seattle, I'll try to remember to get a paid membership. This board has lots of good info, and I will certainly return to Costa Rica, soon.

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One more thing regarding the board: It's stuff like this that makes people really want to travel. I travel a lot, but only within the USA and Canada. This is only the third time in my entire life that I have been outside of North America.

I bought Lonely Planet's "Costa Rica," which was a total waste of money and the time spent reading it. It's like reading a magazine advertisement for all of the hotels and restaurants listed in it.

When I arrived in Costa Rica 3 or 4 days ago, I was unpacking my bag, and Jerry saw me take the book out of my bag. He said, "Which one is that? Fodor's? Lonely Planet?" I handed it to him. He said, "Cute little book," then he tossed it into the garbage can and said, "I just saved you a whole lot of trouble." Now, a few days later, I completely agree with him.

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Well, maybe. There is volcano ash all over the place, and it is murder on aircraft engines (actually, any engines). Looks like we might be driving up to the mountains this afternoon, instead.

I can't really find any info on the mountains, and Jerry and his girlfriend are still asleep. Can anyone point me to a thread about the Dota or Tres de Junio area?

I was thinking the same thing

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"In a nation ruled by swine, all pigs are upwardly mobile, and the rest of us are phucked until we can put our acts together; not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely"...Hunter S. Thompson (RIP)

I was thinking this also. Srilm, speedy, toetoe, etc. and now outtatime is back to monopolize the board with a never ending bombardment and after one of his last posts read:

"I'll probably turn up again...
I doubt it will be anytime during 2015..."

He doesn't have a very good sense of time.

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Knowledge speaks...Wisdom listens

I just saw this post, so I'm sorry that I didn't respond earlier. I just signed up yesterday, and this is the first time that I have ever been on this message board. I don't know who any of those other guys (a troublemaker, perhaps?) are.

I just got into Costa Rica for the very first time, 4 days ago. I'm a bit exuberant about it, as I already love the place, and I'm just starting a new chapter of my life, after a 10-year relationship ended.

I am sorry. I did not mean to monopolize your board. How does one monopolize your board, anyway? Are only a certain number of posts per day allowed on your board?

I don't think it is speedy. I've never seen speedy admit that there is something he doesn't know. Also, outtatime21 hasn't told us he is making more money than he can spend, and that we are all inferior to him because we don't know how to earn than much money.

So far, outtatime21 is only professing that he very knowledgeable of one subject. If it was speedy submitting those messages, there would be a least one dig at other people in every post.

Just post away buddy....your input and debate is welcome. You are not peddling merchandise or services, thus you are using the board for its intended purpose. Keep it going!

BTW, do get your VIP membership too!

outtatime how much for charter to Jaco? Who does it?

I have no idea. I'll ask.

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My friend says he thinks that Helijet (?) does it for about $500 or $600, each way.

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Sorry, but I just don't know this kind of stuff. His office is inside the house, right down the hall from my bedroom. It looks like NASA in there, with 8 big-screens and 4 people working, each with 3 computer monitors and 2 telephones.

I know my job, but his? I don't have a clue. Deer in the headlights.

He's quite the cheeky little bastard, too. His girlfriend was laughing at me earlier today, telling me the story where he paid a Tico $100 to shimmy up a light pole at 3 a.m. and install a radio receiver that monitors the ILS approach equipment at the San José airport.

He knows there are problems with the ILS before the air traffic controllers and the maintenance guys know it. Yesterday at 6:00 p.m., he told me when Delta and United would have their first departures this morning, and he was accurate within 10 minutes. That was long before that information was available from the airlines themselves.

I got this image of the main monitor from his brochure, so I know it's public.

http://imgur.com/7HJuAoR

I guess I spoke too soon, Speedy appears to be back.
Regards, 911 Driver

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The happy hour is a device either for getting rid of social obligations hurriedly en masse or for making overtures toward more serious social relationships, as in the etiquette of whoring.- Brooks Atkinson

Holy Shit!
Just checked the new posts on the board: Speedy Lives
Regards, 911 Driver

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The happy hour is a device either for getting rid of social obligations hurriedly en masse or for making overtures toward more serious social relationships, as in the etiquette of whoring.- Brooks Atkinson