[Mapache]

Soon I am going to buy a property in Costa Rica and have to transfer money from my bank account in Europe to my own bank account in CR.
A friend told me, that the Costa Rican banks need some kind of documentary proof from my bank in Europe to free/release the money on the bank account. Is this right? I want to transfer the money to my Banco Nacional account. How do they call this paper? Has anybody a preprint or similar?

Thanks,

Mapache

[jdocop]

I have no idea how to do this from a European bank, but I do know this: to wire transfer money from the U. S. to CR, I was given some important numbers by my CR bank. You need the account number for your bank in CR, and then, you need the SWIFT data. Then, you need to find a bank in your home country (this will not necessarily be your regular bank), that is partnered with your CR bank for international money transfers. Then, in case this "partner" bank is not your regular bank, you have to fill out the wire transfer form from your bank, and provide it to (or, your bank will send this for you) that "partner" bank, which is the bank that will actually make the transfer for you. You can probably learn a lot more about this by talking to your bank in your home country (that is, of course, if you already have the SWIFT data from your CR bank).

[Mapache]

I was told that the Costa Rican Bank needs to know for what purpose the money is used when it arrives on my account. Otherwise they would freeze the money and I would not be able to use it. Am I wrong?

[jdocop]

What business is it of theirs? My bank certainly never has indicated any such interest in my account. As for freezing the money, when we did a transfer from the states, we were in the states, and one reason for making the transfer was to be sure that the money would be in CR whenever we might need it....the actual transfer did take some days, now, but we figured that was to be expected. Heck, it takes 3-5 days to move money from my regular bank to my PayPal account and vice versa.

[PuddinHead]

Mapache, on Jan 27 2008, 04:01 AM, said:

I was told that the Costa Rican Bank needs to know for what purpose the money is used when it arrives on my account. Otherwise they would freeze the money and I would not be able to use it. Am I wrong?

I recall my lawyer needing me to "officially" tell him the purpose (maybe thru e-mail) because the Gov required it. He knew it was for buying property, but justed needed it in writing to have for the rules. No biggie, just say "Money for property purchase".

[sabo941]

Any single month with more than 10K US per. account will require an explanation of where the funds came from thanks to the good old USA, and it does not matter which country the funds came from.