Anyone know a way to reasonably send money to CR?

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  • #164555
    Sweetbeee
    Member

    Hi Group,

    Occasionally I need to replenish my escrow acct in CR, located in PZ, I need to know how others living in CR manage to reasonably transfer money from the USA to CR. Is wiring it my only option? Is there a bank in the US that has a sister bank in CR? Let me know what others are doing in that regard so I can get money there.

    Thanks.

    #164556
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    If you have a Banco Nacional account, you can now transfer money from your Paypal account into your Banco Nacional… That’s new!

    [ http://www.bncr.fi.cr/BNCR/Paypal/Inicio.aspx ]

    Although a carrier pigeon is cheaper.

    Scott

    #164557
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    [quote=”Scott”]If you have a Banco Nacional account, you can now transfer money from your Paypal account into your Banco Nacional… That’s new!

    [ http://www.bncr.fi.cr/BNCR/Paypal/Inicio.aspx ]

    Although a carrier pigeon is cheaper.

    Scott

    [/quote]

    Has anyone actually succeded in setting up this process?? I have a PayPal account with a U.S. mailing address. It’s linked to our U.S. bank account, so I can withdraw money from the PayPal account to that U.S. bank account. Your “linked” bank account must be in the same country as the address registered inyour PayPal account.

    I also have a PayPal account that uses a different e-mail address and lists a Costa Rican mailing address. I’ve tried to link this second PayPal account to my Banco Nacoinal account but I cannot. When I try, PayPal wants a U.S.-style bank routing number and account number. There’s no workaround.

    When I queried PayPal Customer Service last week, they replied that you can now send money to a PayPal user FROM Banco Nacoinal, but you cannot withdraw PayPal funds TO a Banco Nacional account.

    #164558
    rosiemaji
    Member

    If you are in Costa Rica, simply write a check for cash from your US bank account and deposit it into your Costa Rican bank account. It will take about 3 weeks to clear but it will only cost you the price of the check. If you are not in Costa Rica, a wire transfer may be your only option.:D

    #164559
    Andrew
    Keymaster

    [quote=”DavidCMurray”][quote=”Scott”]When I queried PayPal Customer Service last week, they replied that you can now send money to a PayPal user FROM Banco Nacoinal, but you cannot withdraw PayPal funds TO a Banco Nacional account.[/quote]

    So Paypal is direct contradicting Banco Nacional’s website at [ http://www.bncr.fi.cr/BNCR/Paypal/Inicio.aspx ] David which clearly states that: “Now you can withdraw funds from your Paypal account and transfer them to Banco Nacional.” (Ya puede retirar fondos de su cuenta PayPal y transferirlos al Banco Nacional.)

    Yet another case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing …

    I do NOT have any bank accounts in the U.S. and on my last trip back home to Scotland, they would not open up a bank account saying I needed a mailing address to open an account…

    I explained that I was planning on buying a property so I could visit my parents more often and at that time I would obviously have a mailing address but no! I needed a mailing address before I could buy a home…

    Duh! Bloody Brits!

    Please do let us know if you make any progress David as I have a few grand sitting in my Paypal account and haven’t got a way to take it out, only spend it…

    Scott

    #164560
    maravilla
    Member

    i write a ck on my US account and deposit it into my account here. takes 14 days and i have the money which i can withdraw free of charge. i don’t pay for the ck either.

    #164561
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    I, too, write a check on my U.S. checking account and deposit it at Banco HSBC. They hold it for exactly ten business days — to the minute.

    Scott, I tried to open an account at HSBC in the U.S. a few months ago. It went well ’til I ran into that “local address” problem. Customer Service there confirmed that U.S. law prohibits opening an account for anyone who is not a physical resident of the United States. I’m afraid that’s the snag you ran into in Scotland.

    I’ll see what I can make of the link you gave to the Banco Nacional/PayPal process.

    #164562
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    Well, Scott’s link to Banco Nacional/PayPal does, indeed, walk you through a process to link your PayPal account to your Banco Nacional account. Not having any money in my PayPal account, I can’t test it, but I’m working on that.

    #164563
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    I just started through the process of withdrawing funds from my PayPal account to my Banco Nacional account. Along the way, Banco Nacional informed me that:

    – their charge is 0.5% of the amount withdrawn with a minimum of $11.00; and,

    – they hold the funds for five days (presumably five business days).

    I stopped at that point.

    For as long as I can deposit a check at HSBC for free and have the funds credited in ten business days, that’s a much better option for me. What’s more, Marcia and I are having our Social Security checks deposited directly to Banco Nacional for a $6.00 fee per month each.

    #164564

    [quote=”maravilla”]i write a ck on my US account and deposit it into my account here. takes 14 days and i have the money which i can withdraw free of charge. i don’t pay for the ck either.[/quote]

    At BNCR this is only free of charge if the check amount is less than $ 1000.– plus it takes 4 + weeks to clear (at least in Tilaran)

    #164565
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    I should have said . . . At Banco HSBC there has never been a charge, and I frequently write checks in excess of $1,000, but never for more than $10,000 (I should be so lucky).

    The only time my check has taken more than two weeks to be credited has been around Christmas-New Years or during Semana Santa when the bank is closed some days. Those days don’t count on the delay.

    #164566
    Sweetbeee
    Member

    So I guess what you’re all are saying is it’s difficult to do from here in the US. The Paypal connection seems good until you look at the fees, then it becomes less attractive.

    It’s so inexpensive to use Moneygram to CR (9.99) but it must be sent and picked up by a person, like Western Union, so that won’t work either.

    I’ll keep monitoring the situation, perhaps there’s a way.

    BBG

    #164567
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    If you’re wanting to send money from the States, the PayPal option isn’t dramatically more than a MoneyGram, and you do not need a person here to physically pick it up. You would, of course, need someone with a PayPal account and a Banco Nacional account to retrieve the money you send via PayPal.

    Does someone here in Costa Rica manage and have access to the funds in your escrow account? Could they not be your recipient here?

    #164568

    Sidebar question. If I live in Costa Rica, have no kids to come and visit, and have my dog with me, how do I get my stateside credit union to send me new VISA credit and/or debit cards when they expire? Would having a mail forwarding company in Miami do the trick? Going one step further, if I have a mailing address in Miami I wonder if Florida would see me as a resident of that state? If so, would Florida want a piece of the action from my 401(k) earned and rest for the rest of its existence in Oregon?

    Thanks,
    Tom
    Portland, Oregon

    #164569
    DavidCMurray
    Participant

    We have received new credit cards that were sent to our Aerocasillas Post Office Box address in Miami. It’s critical that the issuing financial institution, however, have the precisely exact address or the mail may not make it through.

    We have no “connection” to Florida other than our Aerocasillas addresses and in seven years we’ve never heard from the State of Florida in any regard. We do not consider ourselves to be residents of Florida having only been there, even just changing planes in the airport, a very few times.

    When we left North Carolina, we left our residency there behind. We no longer vote there, let our driver’s licenses lapse, and have no further connection there, either. And while we used to pay NC income tax on our State of Michigan pensions, we ceased to do so when we left.

    There is no requirement that an expat also be a legal resident of any U.S. state.

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