How To Pay Bills and Bank Online in Costa Rica
Things You Never Thought of When Deciding to Live in Central America
Sep 28, 2009
Costa Rican (Tico) culture does not yet lend itself to high-tech bill paying. Most ticos travel to utility offices once a month to stand in line and pay their bills. But what if you only live there part of the year? No matter how fluent in Spanish, everyone can use a little help to navigate the online system of Costa Rican banks.
Open a Costa Rican Bank Account
In rural areas the two largest banks are Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Nacional. Banco Popular in Costa Rica is not affiliated with the institution of the same name in the United States. All Costa Rican banks require certain documents to open an account. These include, but are not limited to:
- Valid passport for all account holders
- Current utility bill
- Proof of the source of income for the account
To purchase property as a foreigner in Costa Rica you must use a lawyer to form a legal corporation with a tico partner. Documents show the address and the corporate officers names. Take these papers to the bank also as they prove arrangements for residence and why a bank account is necessary.
Proof of income source may be a social security or pension award letter, and/or three months of recent bank statements from a regular use account if deposits will be made from that account.
Bring a good dual language dictionary along; it is not fair to expect bank employees to be bilingual; in most cases they are not.
Have everything together, the banks will not accept piecemeal verifications. Documentation may need to be renewed as often as every six months, especially if deposits of over $10,000 are made. The banks are required to keep five years worth of records on every account and to have proof of income sources according to anti money laundering laws in Costa Rica.
Set up Online Banking
The clerk will have you enter a password on a keyboard while he looks away. Follow directions exactly. The password must follow a certain format, such as: one capital letter, one lower case letter, followed by six numbers. As with all passwords, it should be guarded carefully and be something memorable, but don't get attached to it. Passwords must be changed frequently in Costa Rica. The only option is to choose how often to change them – biweekly or monthly.
How to do Bill Pay
Some bank websites have an option to view the page in English, but they only translate some words on the front page. Look for the words "Personal" for individual accounts and "Oficina Virtual" for online banking. To sign in, the account number should be entered where it says "cedula" and the password should be typed where it says "clave." Ingresar is the enter button.
Do not hit "forgot password (olvido clave)" unless prepared to enter the ATM card number and separate PIN number assigned to the account.
Once verified, if it is time to change the password access will be denied until that is done. Consumers will be directed to initiate the change, enter the old password, then the new password, which must be typed in twice. Then the site asks users to hit a button to begin again; and the sign in menu will be presented. Enter account number and the new password to finally access the account. Balance will be displayed.
To pay bills, hit "Pago" and select from the menu icons for phone and power, etc...be sure the correct company is selected, some areas are served by more than one public utility. Automatic bill pay is not recommended because phone numbers and localization (utility account numbers) are subject to minor changes from time to time and it is not likely ex-pats will know about these until their bills have gone unpaid for some time. Check every month to be sure. If automatic payment is selected, be careful not to deselect it when confirming payment.
Have a Back-up Plan
Property managers and friendly neighbors who live in Costa Rica full time are invaluable resources when things go wrong. Anyone who can be reached by email or phone that can go down to the utility offices to inquire or pay the bill will save costly headaches. Problems are inevitable, no system is foolproof. For example, the author tried unsuccessfully to pay her phone bill online while visiting the U.S. The website said there was no such number. Finally, upon reaching a friendly clerk at a Costa Rican hotel she discovered that the entire region had been given new phone numbers.
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