[cincy]

I am thinking about moving to San Jose Costa Rica and will likely take a short trip there soon before moving.

I want to take all the appropriate actions during my initial trip so I can get setup at Pinny/Matchbook/Neteller/Etc.

I read that it is easy to get a Costa Rican drivers license with my USA passport and USA drivers license. I just need a letter saying I am in good health or health test and pay about $10US to get a Costa Rican drivers license. I read that no utility bill or proof of address document is required. Is all this correct? Could I just list my friend's Costa Rican address on my Costa Rican drivers license until I get a permanent address?

I also wanted to know what Costa Rican bank is best (i.e. easy bankwires/eft transfers to/from sportsbooks/neteller)? I do not speak Spanish and would want a bank with an English website that has good online banking capability. I read that US citizens can only get Colon currency bank accounts in Costa Rica initially. Is that correct or could I get a US dollar based Costa Rican bank account? I am also not sure which currency account would be best. Pinny said they might have problems sending/receiving US dollar denominated bankwires even from a Costa Rican bank. But if I choose the local Colon currency bank account then the currency gets devalued verse the US dollar and I might have to pay many foreign transaction fees to move money in/out of the sportsbooks.

Also, is Moneybookers or Neteller better or should I just establish accounts at both?

Is there anything else I should do on my initial visit to get things going so I can be ready to bet for football season? For example, can I get a DC somewhere or are there other payment methods I should be considering. Thanks.

[chilidog]

Correct, super easy to get a CR driver's license with just your existing US license. If you have a motorcycle license, let them know at the time you apply, because the bike license is separate. You have to go to a bullshit clinic next to the DMV where a doc has you sit on a table across the room, and talks to you. This is how he checks your hearing, lol. You have to read some letters on the wall behind him. This is how he checks your eyesight. He will check your vitals, but whatever. Then they draw blood to get your blood type. Then you go back to the DMV with this info. No proof of residency or address or anything is required. Just valid passport (with valid tourist stamp) and valid US drivers license.

As for which Costa Rican bank, just take your pick. They're all the same. You can get a USD or CRC account initially; it doesn't matter. You won't be able to deposit US checks into your accoun initially until they "trust you". You will have zero issues with Pinny sending/receiving USD wires to CR.

I use moneybookers personally. Neteller wouldn't give me an account, since I previously had a Netellers account when I lived in the States.

Ask anything you want; I've lived here since 2004 (damn, where has the time gone??)

[cincy]

Thanks Chilidog. Thanks great information.

I do have a motorcycle endorsement on my usa license. Do I just tell them that? Will they give me two different licenses? Does the Costa Rican drivers license list an address on it? Could I list my friend's Costa Rican address on my Costa Rican drivers license until I get a permanent address or will they ask for proof if I use a Costa Rican address. Should I expect it will take a full day to get the medical exam and drivers license?

If I can't make a deposit into my costa rican bank until they trust me then how are they going to learn to trust me if I can't make a deposit so I can't do any business with them? More importantly, how am I going to get some money into my Costa Rican bank or Neteller or Moneybookers so I can get that to the sportsbooks?

A Pinny customer service person said the following to me in an e-mail today"We will not even try to process a USD wire withdrawal due to therisk of having the wire stopped. We willonly send funds in a different currency by wire. You can however, request a USD cheque. Please note that the USD cheque is written ona Canadian USD Bank account." My friend told me the mail system is not good in Costa Rica. Do you feel the same or would you be comfortable getting a check sent to you in Costa Rica.

But Pinny did say they would allow me to send a USD wire deposit to them but it might get stopped. It sounds like Pinny is just covering their ass since I trust someone who has been doing this more than some Pinny rep. Thanks again.

[chilidog]

Yup, just tell them you need the motorcycle license as well. It is a separate license, and you want the A4. Motorcycle licenses here are based on the CC of your bike, so just tell them you have a higher-CC bike. I told them I have a liter bike (1000 CC), and they gave me the highest motorcycle license, the A4. Make sure you take somebody with you that knows Spanish.

CR drivers license does not have your address on it. I don't recall if I had to give an address or not, but that's trivial. They don't mail you anything, so feel free to use your friend's address.

On a good day, it will take you 2-3 hours to get your CR license. They only issue licenses for foreigners until, I think, 11:00am, so be sure to get there early. I don't recall when they open, but I assume 8:00am.

You will have to use good ole cash to open your CR bank account. Coming from the states, you will find the CR banking system extremely backwards. It works, but it's just ... different. CR banks offer everything that US banks, so you will have zero issues moving money to and from sportsbooks, neteller, moneybookers, etc.

I have never sent or received a wire to Pinny. I use moneybookers to send money to/from Pinny, and there are zero issues, ever. The mail system is horrible in CR. It's not reliable, and mail can take weeks to arrive. I use a mail forwarding service out of Miami that delivers my packages and mail to my house

[cincy]

So the bank would prefer I deposit USA $25,000 in $100 bills than a check? Can I fly into San Jose Costa Rica with that cash or are there limits? Could I bring a cashier's check or *********** or travel's check for deposit at the bank?

I was hoping the Costa Rican driver's license listed an address so I could use that as my proof of address document for the sportsbooks and Moneybookers since it might take me a little while longer to get a Costa Rican utility bill or some other document with my name on it.

Could I use a bank statement with my friend's costa rican address as my proof of address document at Pinny/Matchbook/Moneybookers. Or do you recall if they will need other documents like utility bills, phone bills, etc?

What fees do Pinny/Matchbook or Moneybookers charge when sending money from your Moneybookers to Pinny/Matchbook?

What fees do Pinny/Matchbook or Moneybookers charge when requesting a withdrawal from Pinny/Matchbook to your Moneybookers?

[chilidog]

If you wanted to deposit $25k on an opening account, they might want to do an extended background check on you first. Granted, they will do an interpol background check on you even if you open with a $25 balance. Your best option would be to open with maybe $1,000 in cash, and then just login to your online banking in the states and wire the rest down. There are no legal limits, but you have to declare what you fly in with, and it's never smart to fly with that much cash. My wife is a Costa Rican, and she even had trouble depositing her US income tax refund check. Like I said, banking here is just different. It works, you just have to get used to it.

Proof of address shouldn't be too hard. Moneybookers accepted my documents just fine. I used my cable tv/internet billing statements as proof of address. They're not hard to work with. My utlity bills weren't even in my name (this is very common in CR, since accounts are tied to the house). When you rent a place, utilities will already be turned on, so you will get a bill in the landlord's name). I just scanned my rental agreement and my utility bill, and explained the situation to moneybookers. They accepted that just fine.

Moneybookers specifically asked me for a scan of a utility bill, so I don't know if a bank statement would suffice.

As for Pinny, I've never been charged anything by them to send/receive a payment, since I use Moneybookers. Moneybookers charges their standard fees, but it's peanuts. Payments either way are literally within minutes. Deposits are instant (except for the 1st one, that one is delayed maybe 5-15 minutes). Withdrawals are the same delay, usually 5-15 minutes. Wires from moneybookers to my CR bank account take 1-2 days.

[cincy]

That's very helpful. I didn't realize I could just do a wire from my Chase USA bank account to my costa rican bank account.

Do you have a Matchbook account also. I really liked Matchbook.

I only know about Pinny & Matchbook since I used to play there. What are some other good sportsbooks that I should consider that don't take bets from the United States? I primarily bet american football. Does BetFair offer markets for NFL?

I am also curious what happens if I come back the the USA to visit during the Christmas Holidays. Will I be able to place my wagers during my 1 week visit to the USA at Pinny/Matchbook from the USA or can I setup a foreign IP address to do this or is it best to just not bet that week.

[chilidog]

I don't have a matchbook account, but I could easily get one. I have active accounts at 5dimes, betfair, and pinny. betfair has good liquidity on NFL, but on some other markets, you might have a hard time finding early liquidity. completely forget about college hoops and football, except for larger games with betfair.

with betfair, they simply won't let you login inside the US. i haven't tried with pinny, but i assume it's the same. what i would do is setup something like logmein on your computer in costa rica, so that when you visit the states, you can just connect to your computer in CR, and then connect to pinny or wherever and make you bets.

[cincy]

Do you have a US dollar based bank accout or Colon based bank account. I read the Colon is constantly devalued against the US dollar so it isn't as good. Or do you think it doesn't matter much. I am thinking it would be best for my costa rican bank account to be based on the US dollar so I don't have currency conversion fees when I do wires to/from my usa bank account or to/from the sportsbooks and Moneybookers. Do you agree a US dollar account would probably be better.

I was checking the costa rican bank websites and most seem to be in spanish unless I just don't know where to look. I found Scotia Bank and Banco De Costa Rica have English websites. Do you think one of these banks is better than the other? Or do you prefer a different bank. I read that Banco de Costa Rica has government deposit insurance so it may be safer but it is a state bank so the service might be worse than private banks like Scotia Bank.

[chilidog]

I have both USD and CRC accounts. CRC's value used to be based on the USD, but that has changed. It fluctuates around the same range. I use my USD account for foreign purchases in dollars (like shopping online, etc), and I use my CRC account when shopping locally.

Scotia Bank's actual online banking is in spanish; I know they have an english version of their website, but for their actual online banking, it's in spanish. BAC is the same way. I prefer the private banks, because I prefer more efficient customer service that you get with private banks. I don't like spending time waiting in lines (something you have to deal with when dealing with the government-run entities).

[cincy]

Does one bank allow you to have both a CRC account and a USD account? Or do you have these accounts at two different banks? Do you know any banks that have online banking in english?

Is the internet pretty reliable in San Jose or does it go down a lot? I'm also curious how much internet service costs?

[TheCalculator]

So the bank would prefer I deposit USA $25,000 in $100 bills than a check? Can I fly into San Jose Costa Rica with that cash or are there limits? Could I bring a cashier's check or *********** or travel's check for deposit at the bank?

Never fly with more than 10K in cash. Legally you're supposed to declare it. If you don't -- and they find it... they will keep it. If you declare it, the odds are high they will call their buddies and hunt you down for your cash. I live in Panama (next door and safer than CR) and this happens here.

[chilidog]

Does one bank allow you to have both a CRC account and a USD account? Or do you have these accounts at two different banks? Do you know any banks that have online banking in english?

Is the internet pretty reliable in San Jose or does it go down a lot? I'm also curious how much internet service costs?

Yah, the banks let you have multiple accounts in different currencies. It's extremely common. I don't know of any banks that offer online banking in English, but I haven't tried all of them either.

Internet is very reliable throughout most of the country. I paid $99 a month for 15mbps.

[davidchong]

Panama is better than CR, Internet 50 Megas for home use, $125.00 provided by Cable Onda., HSBC Panama allow you to deposit USA checks for any amount and wires are credited in the next 12 - 24 hours..., most online banking are in spanish and english, for driver license bring your native one and they give you one from panama for $30.00 (particular license - not commercial).

[chilidog]

Panama is better than CR, Internet 50 Megas for home use, $125.00 provided by Cable Onda., HSBC Panama allow you to deposit USA checks for any amount and wires are credited in the next 12 - 24 hours..., most online banking are in spanish and english, for driver license bring your native one and they give you one from panama for $30.00 (particular license - not commercial).

It's also hot as fuk in Panama. I considered Panama, but I liked the climate in CR better. Another downside to CR that Panama beats hands-down (and this is pretty important), is that everything in CR literally costs double what you're used to paying in the states. Everything.