(Study Abroad) ATM

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1. Directly in front of campus is a great ATM. If you talk to your bank ahead of time, you won’t get charged much for foreign transactions. I was only charged $1.50 for each ATM transaction. I would recommend just waiting until you’re in Costa Rica and taking money out of an ATM, because I exchanged money at the airport and I think that I got ripped off.



However, if you’re like me and haven’t dealt with a lot of ATMs, be careful. The ATM sucked my debit card in, I conducted my business, and then my debit card came back out. I was looking at my receipt and, ignoring a soft beeping sound, took my time grabbing my card. To my dismay, the ATM ate my card! It does this for safety purposes to protect people who forget their cards, but getting my card back was an incredible hassle. I made three trips to the bank across town trying to figure out what to do. My Spanish was less than satisfactory at this point. Finally, a week later, I went to the bank and they had my card. A week without a card could have been very bad if I didn’t have an emergency wad of cash stashed away, or if I was supposed to return to the States that week. So grab you card quickly!



If you have a money crisis, though, don’t despair. Several of my friends had their accounts hacked while they were studying in Heredia (don’t buy things online in Costa Rica, I guess), and USAC gave them interest free loans of up to $200 until they got their money problems figured out. The USAC staff will take care of you.





While on the money subject, it would be helpful to know that 500 Costa Rican Colones is equal to 1 U.S. dollar. Their currency is in coins up to 500 Colones. Then it switches to bills. There is a 1000 Colon bill (2 USD), a 2000 Colon bill (4 USD), a 5000 Colon bill (10 USD), a 10,000 Colon bill (20 USD), and so on. I wouldn’t recommend using anything over a 10,000 Colon bill because many venders to not carry lots of change.

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