Three different prospects asked me variations of the same question on calls last week. One was a contractor about to sell his rentals up north. Another was a retired couple with a paid-off condo on the Pacific coast. The third was a single retiree shopping for a small place near the beach. All three asked some version of: "How do I actually pay for stuff down there without getting hammered on fees?"
The answer is shorter than people expect. You do not need a Costa Rican bank account to live in Costa Rica. The right US setup covers most of what daily life requires. The Costa Rican account, if you end up wanting one, is a small add-on, not the foundation.
Here is what I tell people based out of Costa Rica on how I structure the money side, and what I have seen work for clients who spend time there.
The credit card does most of the work
Costa Rica is a credit card country. Grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, hardware stores, the vet, the mechanic, almost every meaningful expense outside of a few rural transactions takes a card. Even small sodas in mountain towns now run a card reader off a phone.
The move is to pick one US credit card with no foreign transaction fee and use it for everything you can. A typical foreign transaction fee is 3%. On $3,000 a month of card spend, that is $90 a month, $1,080 a year, gone for nothing.
Cards without foreign transaction fees are not exotic. Chase Sapphire Preferred, Capital One Venture, most travel-branded cards, and a handful of credit unions all qualify. Pull up your current cards and read the cardholder agreement. If yours charges 3%, apply for one that does not before you go.
The card handles the currency conversion at the network rate, which is close to the interbank rate. You pay the bill from your US checking account in dollars. No wire, no transfer, no friction. This is the single biggest fee leak people fix when they sit down with me, and most are not aware it is even happening.
The ATM layer for cash
You will still need colones. The car wash guy wants cash. The lady at the farmers market wants cash. The plumber who fixes your sink wants cash. The pulperia down the road sometimes only takes cash. Plan for a few hundred dollars worth of colones in your wallet at any given time.
The trap here is ATM fees. A Costa Rican ATM typically charges around $5 to $7 per withdrawal. If your US bank also charges a foreign ATM fee, that is another $5 on top, plus a markup on the conversion rate. Pull $200 out and you can lose $15 to fees on a single transaction.
The cleanest fix is a US checking account that reimburses or skips ATM fees worldwide. Schwab's brokerage checking is the one I use and the one I most often recommend. No foreign ATM fee on their end, and they reimburse the ATM owner's fee at the end of the month. Charles Schwab is not the only option. Fidelity Cash Management and a few credit unions do something similar. The point is: do not use a regular Bank of America or Wells Fargo debit card at a Costa Rican ATM unless you enjoy giving away $10 a withdrawal.
A side benefit: if the checking sits inside a brokerage account, your investments and your spending cash live under one login. When you need to top up cash, you transfer from your investments to checking with one click, no wire, no delay.
Wire transfers for the big stuff
Some purchases are too big for a credit card. Buying a truck. Closing on a piece of property. Paying a contractor for a build. These require wires.
A US-to-Costa-Rica wire from a normal bank checking account often costs $30 to $50 on your end, plus another $15 to $30 on the receiving side from the Costa Rican bank, plus a hidden currency conversion spread. The same wire from a US brokerage account is typically cheaper, sometimes free outbound, and often nets you a better rate.
Schwab, Fidelity, and Interactive Brokers all allow international wires from a brokerage account. If you are about to make a big purchase, that is usually the cheapest way to send it.
One thing to watch: Costa Rican banks have started flagging large incoming wires as "proof of funds" events. They will ask where the money came from. For a property purchase, your real estate attorney usually handles this on your behalf. For other purposes, expect to provide a one-page letter from your CPA or tax return showing the source. This is not a problem, it is just a step you should know about so it does not surprise you on closing day.
Colones, dollars, and currency risk
Costa Rica accepts US dollars almost everywhere, but the exchange rate you get at the cash register is usually worse than what you would get at the ATM. The colón has been roughly 500 to 540 per dollar for a while, drifting around with the currency markets. If you pay a $20 lunch with a $20 bill, you might get change at 460. Use the card or use colones from the ATM and you get closer to 510.
People sometimes ask whether they should "park" $20,000 worth of colones somewhere as a hedge against the dollar weakening. My honest answer: probably not, unless you have a specific reason. Holding cash colones at home invites theft and a slow loss to inflation. Holding colones in a Costa Rican bank account requires more compliance proof than most non-residents want to deal with for the spread you are saving. If you are worried about the dollar, the better hedge usually sits inside your investment portfolio, not in a pile of physical colones at the house.
Do you need a Costa Rican bank account?
For the first six to twelve months, almost certainly not. I know people who have lived in Costa Rica for three years without one and they are fine. The credit card and the no-fee ATM card cover daily life.
When the answer flips to yes:
- You buy a property and need to pay HOA fees in colones every month
- You hire household staff and want to pay them by transfer instead of cash
- You start receiving rental income in Costa Rica
- You become a resident and want to access local mortgages or investment products
If you do open one, BAC (Banco de America Central) tends to be the easier one for non-residents. Banco Nacional is the state-run option and is functional, but the paperwork takes longer and they push harder on residency status. Walk in with your passport, a copy of your property title if you have one, a US address, and a US phone number. Expect to spend an hour at the branch.
Once open, non-resident accounts have transaction limits. Anything moving in or out above roughly $1,500 a month triggers compliance questions. Plan for that. It is not a roadblock, it is a paperwork rhythm.
US tax obligations do not change
This part trips people up. Moving to Costa Rica, or spending time there, does not change your obligation to file US taxes as a US citizen. You still file a 1040 every year. If your foreign accounts total more than $10,000 at any point in the year, you also file an FBAR per IRS rules. The FBAR penalty for missing this in 2026 is $16,536 per non-willful violation per the IRS, and far higher if they think you knew about it.
Foreign earned income exclusion may reduce US tax on income you earn while physically in Costa Rica, up to $130,000 per person in 2026 per IRS Publication 54. Tax laws may change, so verify current numbers before you act on them. If you are a US citizen receiving Social Security, a pension, or distributions from a US retirement account, that income is generally still taxable by the US regardless of where you live.
If you set up a Costa Rican corporation (an S.A. or S.R.L.) to hold property, the US treats those two structures very differently. An S.A. defaults to a per se foreign corporation requiring Form 5471. An S.R.L. defaults to a disregarded entity or partnership for US tax. Tax laws may change and the structure choice has real downstream consequences. This is the kind of thing worth getting right at the start instead of unwinding later.
Who this setup works for
This works well if you have:
- A US Social Security number and a US tax filing history
- A US address you can keep (a family member's, a mail-forwarding service, a property you still own)
- A US phone number you can keep (Google Voice or a low-cost MVNO works)
- A reasonable credit score for opening a new no-foreign-fee card
- Enough liquidity to leave most of your money in US accounts and pull as needed
Who it does not work for
If you have already given up your US address, given up your US phone number, and moved your entire net worth to Costa Rica, this setup is harder to retrofit. US brokerages will sometimes restrict accounts when they detect a foreign address and a foreign IP. Some banks close accounts outright. Once you trigger this, getting back to a clean US-account setup takes work. Better to set the structure up before you move and keep it intact.
The same is true for younger people earning Costa Rican-source income from a Costa Rican employer. You may need a Costa Rican account to receive your paycheck and you may not have the option of keeping a US address. That is a different planning conversation.
Common mistakes I see
- Using a regular bank debit card at a Costa Rican ATM and losing $10 to $15 per withdrawal in fees, repeated multiple times a month
- Keeping a card with a 3% foreign transaction fee and not noticing the bleed
- Wiring $50,000 to Costa Rica through a regular checking account and paying $80 in combined fees when a brokerage wire would have cost much less
- Trying to open a Costa Rican bank account on day one of arrival as a non-resident and getting frustrated by the paperwork, when the credit card and ATM card combo would have covered the first year
- Closing US accounts before residency is final, then discovering Costa Rican accounts cannot replace what you had
What to do before you go
If you are still in the US, do these in order:
- Open a no-foreign-fee credit card and run it for a month so it is established before you travel
- Open a Schwab brokerage checking account or equivalent with worldwide ATM fee reimbursement
- Keep one US address you can use on financial accounts, even if it is a relative's
- Keep one US phone number, ideally a Google Voice or eSIM that travels
- Map out which existing accounts to keep open versus close, and update addresses where needed
- Decide whether you are filing for Costa Rican residency or planning to leave every 180 days, because that decision affects which accounts you can later open and how you should structure things
If you are partway into the move or already there, the order is the same, you just may have to backtrack on a step or two. Worth doing.
If you want help mapping this to your specific situation, including investment account custody, currency exposure, and how it ties into your retirement income and US tax picture, that is what the Costa Rica Readiness Plan covers, or the full Costa Rica Financial Blueprint for people who want the comprehensive cross-border plan. Either way, get the money plumbing right before you arrive, not after.
This post is educational and does not constitute personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Vitality Wealth Planning, LLC is a registered investment adviser. Tax laws change; verify current rules with a qualified professional.