State Banks Loosen Strings
On Personal Loans
The state banks are making available ˘248 billion colones for those
in need of consolidating theird debts, cover medical expenses, pay
for college tuition, fix up their homes or whatever.
The Banco Popular has opened its vault doors to Banco Popular ˘200
billion colones, while the larger state banks, the Banco Nacional
will only make available ˘26 billion, the Banco de Costa Rica ˘16
billion and Bancredito ˘6 billion.
Geovanni Garro, business manager at the Popular, said that the bank
has seen an increase of almost 200% of requests for loans and that
the bank is responding rapidly by approving loans usually within 6
to 12 hours.
Interest rates on the loans pretty moderate by Costa Rican
standards.
The Banco Nacional is offering a rate of 17% with terms of up to
five years. The Banco de Costa Rica has speedy consumer loan
approvals for amounts up to us$1.000 dollars, repayment and interest
is based on each application.
Nacional's Garro is advising consumers that the should not borrow
beyond their capacity to repay, saying that 40% of income should be
the maximum indebtedness .
At the Bancredito, Minor Solano said that the credit approval for
consumer loans is rigorous to ensure that their customers don't get
too over their head.
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