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IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE POSTING to SUPPORT FORUM 01/28/2011
Posts to this Support Forum are to be related ONLY to one's ARCR membership. Posts which are inappropriate to the Support Forums will be deleted without comment. Please post all other types of questions to the appropriate forum. Only Forums Moderators, Administrators and ARCR Employees ae able to make any replies to this ARCR Support Forum. Paul M. Forums Moderator ==
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Carole Friesen changed their profile photo
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Some more info re dissolving a corporation. A friend of mine said he found an attorney to do it for $120. Go figure. My attorney quoted me $1,000. Guess who won't be my attorney any more?
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Thanks for that CRF. A shame that insurance here is not very good on a totaled car. If your experience and comments I've heard apply to most cases.
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Our former workers vehicle was considered 'totaled' and it took over three years to settle.
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I have no experience with totally destroyed or disabled vehicles to share, James. Sorry.
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It is also very slow if only using the basic mandatory coverage.
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David, that's good info! Thanks! I didn't know any of that! Is the slow payout only on STOLEN vehicles or also on totaled or badly damaged vehicles?
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Unfortunately we do live at least 10km from the nearest bus! That's why this slow insurance payout thing I've heard about, is a concern to me.
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Or even better, get a hotel no too far from the airport. Chill, rest, have a nice dinner, and have the rental agency drop the car off for you the next day at your hotel. Much more tranquilo.
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Good point, David. At SJO, walk right by those rental car desks, go outside and you will find the shuttle driver holding up a sign, sometimes with your name on it. I don't remember if there are rental car desks at LIR but if there are, the same advice applies. I did find out an interesting thing about car rental agencies and LIR airport: You will see shuttle drivers holding up signs inside the airport building and you will see shuttle drivers outside the building holding up signs. The agents inside the building are there because the agency has paid a fee to the airport. The last time I was there, I saw something like 5 rental car agents inside the building holding signs and a whole bunch of them outside holding signs.
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At SJO, and probably at LIR, there is a 15% surcharge on the entire cost of your car rental if you take possession of the car at the airport. Instead, arrange with the rental car company to pick you up at the airport and bring you to their nearby office. There, you can do the paperwork and take possession of the car (and save a bundle). It may take an hour longer, but the time spent will be well worth it.
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PaulaB - you won't have any problem traveling around as a single female. I've been driving all over Costa Rica on my own for something like 15 years with never an "incident." Of course, this implies that you don't do anything "stupid" like leaving your binoculars on the front seat of your car while you have lunch or carrying big, visible wads of cash in your wallet. Just use your good common sense and you will be fine. Renting a car is really the best way to get around. It gives you so much freedom and flexibility. My favorite agency is Vamos. They have clear and accurate descriptions on their website, good cars and excellent customer service. Others include Budget, Dollar, Adobe, Alamo and Solid. Stay away from anything that says "cheap car rentals." You get what you pay for. Liability insurance is mandatory in Costa Rica so be sure it is included in any quote you get. (Vamos always does this...) You can use your credit card insurance for collision and other things, but this means that if you have an accident, you would have to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed from your insurance company. For peace of mind, I think it's always worth buying a "full package." But that's a personal choice. Check the Vamos website -- they are the "gold standard" of rental cars and their information is accurate and up to date. They are typically booked up way ahead of time but even if you can't rent a car through them, you can get a lot of good information from their website. Note that there are no cars at either LIR or SJO airport - they are all offsite and shuttles will pick you up and take you to their offices. A driver will be waiting for you when you arrive. Pay attention to speed limits no matter what anyone else is doing. Speeding tickets can be brutally expensive. Once you are set up in a hotel, leave your passport at the hotel and keep a copy of the main page and the page with your entry stamp. Have fun! Forgot to add.......... book directly with the Costa Rican agency and not with a US agency or through a third party. Neither the US agencies or third parties such as Priceline or Expedia will give you an accurate quote, chances are. And it there is a problem, they will wash their hands of it. If you book directly, then the Costa Rican agency will handle any problems. (Not thinking too straight -- have the flu which is why I was posting at 4:30 am lol)
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Testing... been weeks
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Even though only about twenty percent of stolen vehicles are ever recovered here in Costa Rica, the law dictates that a vehicle is not considered legally stolen until thirty days after the theft is reported to the OIJ. That helps to explain the delays in settlements for stolen vehicles. What's more, you must report the theft within 24 hours, even on weekends and holidays, and only to the OIJ office rather than the local Fuerza Publica. Neighbors have recommended that, should your vehicle be stolen, the first thing you should do is notify the local taxi companies who can tell their drivers to be on the lookout for it. They have more eyes open than the Fuerza Publica could possibly muster.
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I was in the Cobano post office today. They now have "Libre" stickers on all the boxes that are available. I counted more than 20 stickers.
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James. you gave me a good chuckle with your comment about Ticos mumbling. I remember when we first started studying with our Spanish tutor, she mentioned that Ticos use a lot of slang, and she said that sometimes she has a hard time understanding her friends BECAUSE THEY MUMBLE!!! Of course, our reaction was, if she has a hard time understanding some of them, how will we ever be able to understand what they're saying? But we know how to ask someone to repeat what they said and to speak slowly, so that helps. My hubby backed our car into a culvert creating $2000 worth of damage to the car. We were on our way to SJO, flying out the next day. At the time of the accident, we didn't know where we were, so we didn't call INS to report it. We did call our insurance agent once we got to San Jose to let him know what had happened. He told us we'd have to file a report after we got back from the States. Upon doing so, he said we had a slim chance of getting our claim approved since we didn't report it initially. But much to our surprise, INS approved it and paid for all the repairs. Our car was in the shop for 1 month, and it took about that long for them to approve our claim. While being carless, we would make the 20 minute walk to the bus stop and then take a taxi home with all our goodies. Once we rented a car for 2 days. When you rely on a car to get around, it's really a pain to do without, especially when you live in the boonies. But my hubby also hitched a ride with a neighbor sometimes as most of them knew we were without a car.
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Fortunately, James, there are ample taxis, plus many inexpensive buses & routes with frequent service to most everywhere in the country –unless you happen to be way out in the boonies where the bus frequency may often be much reduced. OK — HTH Paul M. ==
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David, thanks for the explanation. I don't have bars either. I will not live that way. If it ever came down to having to live that way here, I'd try to move somewhere else. I know the majority of people do but to me it would make me feel like I was living in a jail. Even with nice "pretty" bars... However I don't have any thing of much value, no more than the average Tico home. So I guess I'll have to go get a quote from an insurance guy and see what he says. I'm mostly just interested in the "someone getting hurt on my property" insurance. Another issue is Do the insurance co's pay off in a timely manner? Or do they try to find a way NOT to pay off? I heard that with car insurance if you wreck your car it's not cut and dried/easy like back home. They try not to pay and take a long time to pay when they do so. And with no car rental policy in effect (providing a rental while you wait for money to get another one), what do you do for 2-3 months while you wait for the car to be replaced? So the point is, I wonder if fire or earthquake or theft insurance for a homeowner policy also takes "forever" to get paid out on?
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I'm going to go speak with an attorney this month for sure about dissolving the corporation. To me the less forms you have to fill out for the government, the better off you are. I've already had them cut off my social security payment for lack of a 1 page form with 1 basic question that no one even told me I had to fill out, and it was a major headache getting it done because the stupid SSA doesn't provide an encrypted space for documents uploaded to their office. So everything has to be done by hand (i.e. snail mail or Pony Express). With government bureaucracy being what it is, it seems better to me not to have to fill out forms for them every year if you have that option, and there is no real reason apparently to have a corporation, it's just something attorneys like to talk you into doing.
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Nice that you can read the papers, or rather that you took the time to learn to read them. Good for you! I speak fluently and am often complemented on my Spanish here, but when it comes to understanding the accents and manner of speaking, here, and understanding tv and radio where they speak really fast, and understanding the news papers where they use a lot of "big fancy words" - LOL - I just don't have the patience. In an ideal world, I know I "should". But it's far from an ideal world... Am working on understanding the way many people SPEAK; that's my goal. I find that in San Jose I can understand the vast majority but in other parts, not so much. Also some people just talk way too fast; others talk with thick regional accents; others mumble. Nothing wrong with any of that, it's just that I have a hard time with it.
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I paid for a membership today. How long before I get a membership number and can utilize this site fully?
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The FORUMS are only sponsored by ARCR but are a separated entity from ARCR.
You will need to apply for FORUMS membership and read & follow the instructions exactly & carefully.
Then it can take sevaral days for your membership to be approved since it must be vetted manually.
HTH
Moderator
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Appreciate the input, thanks!
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James, the cost of homeowners' insurance will vary with the value of your home, the value of its contents, and perhaps other considerations. Our insurance agent was flabbergasted to learn that we do not live in a gated, guarded subdivision and that we do not have bars on our windows and doors. Those issues may have influenced the cost of our homeowners' insurance policy as did the fact that we included a substantial collection of artwork and rugs in our coverage. In homeowners' insurance policies, one size does not fit all.
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It was declared unconstitutional only for procedural errors in the way the law was promulgated. The tax itself presented no constitutional problems. Therefore once the procedural errors were corrected by the asemblea, the tax was reinstated. The asemblea took advantage of the fact that they had to revisit the law to make some sensible changes. La Nación and El Financiero are your friends
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I'm still trying to understand, how, if the corporation tax was found "unconstitutional" it is being reinstated, and why - for all the years when it WAS unconstitutional we don't get that money back! But I've noticed that in Costa Rica the government and businesses are very reluctant to give money back, even when they admit the money should never have been charged to you in the first place. I know this isn't Kansas, but at the same time, jheez, how do they justify this stuff?
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Do you care to say how much you pay for homeowners insurance? I am paying about the same car insurance as I paid in the states, for a much much older car! So I would think homeowner ins here would be very high as well!
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"DEADLINES: August 31, 2017 Payment of unpaid back taxes on companies from 2012 to 2015 will not bear interest or penalties if paid on or before Thursday, August 31, 2017. After this date interest and penalties will be charged".
