Money Problems

I spent my free time during the last two days dealing with some money problems. My credit card would not work. The first time I used it here, it was declined. I tried it in the teller machine here, and it was declined. My wife called the company and they said it was all worked out.

Today, I went to get some cash out and the same thing happened. So I spent a half hour on the public phone in the park making a long distance call. The bank said that I didn´t withdraw enough, that I was .63 cents short of the minimum withdrawl. That would have been nice to hear from the teller machine here. All it said was "transacción cancelado".

After feeling a little sheepish, I walked to the ATM machine and tried it again with a larger amount-same thing-no money and spit my card back out!

One thing I have learned about Costa Rica stands true for any developing country: if something does not work, try the same thing somewhere else. Really, if one phone does not work, try another. If one bank won`t help you, go to the other one. Things vary from person to person, from business to business.

I walked about another mile and went to the biggest bank in town. They are slow, but they have their act together. I went to their ATM machine first, stuck the card in and in seconds I had several brightly colored 10,000 Colón notes in my sweaty hands.

Amazing...

I still choose to blame my credit card company for being stupid, I called them a month before I left and told them the dates I would be in Costa Rica, then they said that was why they had a block on it. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant. American Express they ain`t!

I got my money now, that´s all that matters.

Juanito

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