Take Care of
Charges When Using ATMs in Costa Rica
It is best take a close look at bank
charges, especially when using automated
teller machines (ATM's) of competing banks,
as the charges could be as much as us$3 for
each transaction. The charge and the amount
also depends if a debit or credit card is
used to make a withdrawl.
The banks defend that the high cost is due
to commissions charged by competing banks
and operators of the ATMs.
In Costa Rica there are several networks
providing ATMs, the state banks Banco de
Costa Rica (BCR) and Banco Nacional (BN),
for instance have their own separate
networks. The private banks generally fall
into two groups, the ones using the "Red
Total" operated by the BAC San José and ATH,
which connects a number of major private
banks like HSBC, Citibank and Scotiabank.
Each network has their own set of guidelines
for charges of use by their customers and
different for customers using competing
plastic.
HSBC customers pay us$0.50 for each
transaction at an ATH ATM and us$1.50 for
transaction made on other ATMs. At
Scotiabank, the charge is us$1.50 and us$3.
But those charges depend on a number of
factors, the ATM location and the competing
bank, even though it may be part of the ATH
network.
The majority of private banks do not charge
if customers uses the issuing card's bank.
At the BCR, the ATM charge is depending on
the account balance and the number of
transaction in a month. For customers with
and average monthly deposit less than us$350
dollars, the bank charges us$0.20 per
transaction, free if the balance is higher.
The BN has a similar policy. Both state
banks also charge their customers for using
the ATH network.
The banks publish the charges in the
government publication La Gaceta. However,
few customers know the charges when using an
ATM,
To that end, to keep the public informed,
some banks post the charges applied to a
transaction at or near the ATM. However, no
bank has yet to introduce in their system a
warning of pending charges when an ATM
transaction is initiated, like banks do in
other countries.
The banks defend the lack of notice by
saying that it would be virtually impossible
to do so since the banks provide a host of
services, each with its own cost. Arnoldo
Trejos of the Bancrédito, told the La Nación,
that the bank would have to be constantly
sending out notices to customers of charges
for each service.
Are Costa Rican banks that far behind? or is
it just that the current banking regulations
permit the banks to avoid giving out the
notices? The collective answer is that Costa
Rican banks are following international
standards. |
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