After waiting only a short time for a teller, she could not help with my problem, I was therefore sent to “la platforma” or set of desks with persons supposedly more knowledgeable than a teller. My problem was that I got an email, in Spanish of course, that told me the auto-debit of my TV/Internet Service monthly bill failed. Well, it was because they used my local bank debit card to get their money and this month my card was replaced with a new one to include “a chip” which also meant a new number. The teller did pay my TV/Internet bill with a transfer, so at least no disconnect for now! 🙂
After waiting nearly an hour (15th in line) for one of the three “specialists,” she worked and worked on her computer and called the cable company talking at least 10 minutes to someone there and finally used a translator on her computer to tell me in English that the only way CableTica would correct it was for me personally to respond to the email (in Spanish of course) with my new card number. They are not allowed to let the bank or anyone else speak for me! I came straight home and did that. Hope it works! 🙂 Just another little irritation of living in a modern society in any country! 🙂
But this is also another lesson in the importance of learning the local language! I’m doing much better and communicated with all in the bank in Spanish though understanding what they say back to me is more difficult! 🙂 To make me feel a little better, a French couple was at the next desk to mine and the man was going on and on about something in the French language, raising his voice and I felt sorry for the banker helping him. She too used her computer translator and a cell phone. It is disrespectful to not learn and use the local language and that was part of the reason our waits were so long at the bank!
“You live a new life for every language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once.” – Czech proverb
Your have heard me brag about the tranquility and great weather of my little farming town of Atenas – and the “muy amable” or very kind people here. But one thing that many hyper and efficient Americans don’t always realize when they move to such an easy-going society, is that to be that way means everything andeverybody moves slower here! No rush! ¡Pura vida! To not adapt to this slower way means you will not be happy here. Always frustrated at the inefficiencies!
My example of this today is my efforts since Monday to pay my surgeon for the work he did. (No pressure from him.) I made arrangements in advance with my Credit Union in Nashville to move the needed money from Savings to Checking so I could easily pay with my debit card. Hospital payment was quick and easy as I had planned, but the doc requested to be paid separately. Okay.
The doctor comes in my room with his little portable credit card machine, saying he doesn’t like to wait for the hospital to reimburse him if I pay through them (the most efficient way), saying they sometimes take a full month to forward the money to him. Okay. He tries repeatedly and his machine doesn’t work or at least he blames it on the machine and not my card which had just worked for the hospital. He leaves and returns in a little while with a bigger machine he plugged into the wall (still dependent on hospital WiFi). And it did not work. He then says we will take care of it when I see him at his office later this week (Wednesday). It still did not work there. He then gives me his account number at Banco Nacional and asks that I just transfer the money to his account from my account – but that account (my SS check auto-deposit) is just for housing costs, so I still have to get the money from Nashville.
Thus Wednesday afternoon I go to the bank with my CU debit card and ask them to get the needed money from it and put into my local account so I can transfer it to the doctor’s account. Sure! The teller aims to please, and tries repeatedly (7 times – service is important!) and he continues to get “denied” or “acceso denegado.” I call Nashville and they raise the cash advance limit (I thought they had already done) and say everything else is cleared – it should work! It did not! I told the patient teller (not the long line of people behind me) that I would return tomorrow and try again. Lo siento señor, mañana es un día festivo, no estamos abiertos. And I reply, Hasta el viernes. Tomorrow is a holiday and we are closed. See you Friday. 🙂
Well, Thursday was Virgen de los Angeles day, (patron saint of Costa Rica) with only Christmas and Easter being bigger for Catholics here, when thousands make the pilgrimage to Cartago Cathedral to touch the black stone Maria. So nada yesterday! (Click above link to learn about the holiday.)
This morning I call the Credit Union again and make sure the card is good for a large amount of cash on this day and I’m assured it is. I go to the bank with teller lines going outside onto the sidewalk and street, more than an hour wait for a teller, so I tell the guard I need the “special services desk” and go wait nearly an hour for it, but those persons are more accustomed to “different” transactions like mine and I figured they could handle it better, maybe quicker, and once I finally got to a desk, it worked very smoothly, though taking another 25 minutes to do it! Remember – everything is slower here! Why rush? But she did go ahead and let me pay my monthly CAJA (public healthcare) with her and not have to go wait for a regular teller to do that.
Sooooo . . . an hour and a half at the bank, another chapter read in my latest book (which is so, so), my doctor bill is paid AND my monthly CAJA (public healthcare) bill paid! I breathed a sigh of relief and headed home for a more relaxed weekend! Pura Vida!
And, if you are wondering, the reason I didn’t use CAJA for the surgery, is that I would still be waiting to see a surgeon and I chose not to have patience for that! Choices and Patience! Retired in Costa Rica! 🙂 ¡Pura Vida!
Inside Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles Church
Okay, I’m moving to a new rental and they need a deposit plus first month’s rent (in other words 2 months rent) which is expected – no problem – except my French Canadian landlord wants it all in U.S. Dollars Cash! After this I can pay my rent online through my local Costa Rica bank online, but not now. So what’s the big deal you ask?
The ATM is called “Cajero Automático” or loosely translated “Automatic Cashier.” They are scattered around town and operate just like in the states except they are more security conscious and have a limit you can get out in one 24 hour period. So to get my new house keys Thursday, I need to make withdrawals on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from an ATM that gives out only Costa Rica colones of course. Then after my Wednesday afternoon third withdrawal, I take several hundred thousand colones into the bank to have them converted to U.S. Dollars for the next morning event. And another interesting fact is that the largest colones bill is just c20,000, which is about $40 USD. I’m talking about big wads of money needed before I can trade them for $100 bills in dollars. Glad I feel safe and secure here!
I did go inside with the musical chairs trip to a teller and learned I can get the money all at once from my U.S. debit card at a 3% fee which I refused to pay. (I’m beginning to wish now I had paid and gotten it over with!) So I went back outside to the Cajero Automático and got my first of three installments. In the meantime, I told myself that this is crazy when I have a local bank account but still have most of my money in the credit union in Nashville. So I got the form Erik gave me from the credit union to wire a large amount of money to my Costa Rica account. Should have already done this but been busy.
So today after the second installment of cash from the ATM I went inside the bank for a game of musical chairs twice! If you missed my earlier report on the bank, you wait in line for a teller or desk agent by sitting in a row of chairs. When the next person is served you all get up and move over one chair towards the front of the line. Really! (One time I sat in 24 chairs before I got to a teller.) Well, I headed for Ricardo’s desk who supposedly speaks English and helped me open my account. He was at lunch, so I read a chapter in my Happier Than a Billionaire digital book on my phone’s Kindle App while others wondered what I was laughing about. I finally get to Ricardo and he has suddenly forgotten how to speak English. Seriously. This time he only spoke in Spanish and acted like he did not understand what I said in English. I think he misunderstood and thought I wanted to wire the money from the account here and told me I didn’t have enough. But anyway, after a bit of charades and broken Spanish from me, Ricardo sends me across the lobby to another desk where I start the musical chairs game again! I’m only number 3 in line this time, but the customer being served (who looks like a woman prison guard) has some complicated business that takes another 30 minutes while a read a couple more chapters in this book. (I’m taking a break from Lord of the Rings with something lighter and funny about Costa Rica). At least the second customer ahead of me didn’t take very long and I’m up again with another Spanish only person. “Necesito dos números por favor,” pointing to the empty spaces on the form for a Swift Code and an IBAN number. She has to take the wire transfer form back to another office and talk to someone, then returns and asks if the money is going into my colones or dollares account (Yes, I have two accounts here.) which I’m able to answer “dollares.” Then back into the office she goes and returns later with a computer printout of two numbers I can use for the transfer, so next month’s rent can be paid from my local bank account, assuming these numbers work! Whew! Another exciting afternoon! Everything’s an adventure!
But you know what? I’m learning the systems around here and even though it may not sound like it, life is simpler, more relaxed, and much more spontaneous. The birds are singing happier today it seems, maybe because of the rain. And a flock of squawking parrots just flew over! What a place!
It is also cooler since Sunday’s first rain of the season. It looked like more rain today (Tuesday) but hasn’t happened yet. And today’s laundry is already dry! 🙂 Hey! By Thursday I’ll have an electric dryer! Let it rain!
A Broader View of Atenas Banco Nacional than the last image
Okay, I go back to the bank this morning hoping the line for a cashier won’t be as long as the 37 person line on Monday. Well, it was shorter! Only 24 people! But I kept moving my little butt into all 24 chairs until after chair #1 it was my turn! I not only paid for the “token” (electronic device for security when using online banking, giving a new code number each time I use online) for 3,000 colones (sorry I said 300 yesterday) which is about $6. But I also made a deposit of a check received from Nashville for the sale of my dining room table and chairs. Finally! AND I paid my electric bill which was the equivalent of $32 that included using the a/c in my office almost every afternoon. Not bad!
Then I get in the shorter musical chairs line to see Ricardo (7 chairs this time). When I finally get to him with my little receipt for the electronic token thing he is supposed to give me now, he says, “Oh, you were suppose to log on to your account first and create your secret password before I can give you your token.” (No one told me that and I didn’t know how or even the web address.) I tell him, “I don’t know how.” (He speaks broken English but better than my Spanish!) Then he says, “Oh, I will help you.” He leaves the other people waiting and goes to the public computer and logs me into my account where my ID # is my passport # and a bunch of other IDs and address and email, then their secret code I got when opening the account and then a place for me to create my personal secret code. Thieves beware! I’ve never seen so much security! Once that is finished (he had left to help other is the line) I go back and I am 4th in line this time, hoping he didn’t decide to break for lunch before me, like yesterday.
Finally I am back to Ricardo (an indispensable person for this bank) and he helps me log in my online account again on his computer to the point when the little token’s number is needed. I type it in from the token he has given me. Then he says “Wait a few seconds for a second code to go in the next box online.” Sure enough, the first code number goes away and a second one appears and I type it in. Then the account is officially set up! Everything on the web page was in Spanish, so I ask, “Is their an English page.” “No.” Oh, I’m going to have so much fun! AND, before I go online I am to call this phone number for instructions and he said there might be an English-speaker for that. My online banking could be limited for awhile! 🙂
And to think, I paid an attorney to make this process easier! Well, she did write a reference letter and introduce me to the first desk where we stayed for nearly 2 hours and got me past that one. But it is Ricardo I’ve spent the most time with since! I have a bank account here now. My primary bank is still in Nashville, but I can use my new Banco Nacional Debit Card at the Super Mercado or a restaurant! And once I learn how, I can pay my electric bill online! And once I am in the Caja, the national medical plan, I can pay my monthly fee for that online. So this account will grow more valuable for me.
Both the post office and this particular bank are government owned and operated. (There are some private banks and courier services in Costa Rica.) But the contrast in these two government businesses is great in my opinion.
My service was quicker, simpler, and more friendly in the humble post office, an old building on a side street between small businesses. My PO Box was secured in less than 15 minutes while the friendly clerk helped other customers who came in. He even showed me how the envelopes should be addressed as I demostrated yesterday. And he smiled!
On the same day (Tuesday) I spent two hours at the bank (after an hour of preparation and taking an attorney and a stack of documents with me). There were few smiles and many demands. I was scheduled to be trained today in using my account but that was postponed until Monday because Ricardo, who does the training in English, had to substitute for a cashier out sick. But the proud building is new, modern and beautiful! It is located on the square or central park opposite the old catholic church, easy to find, and at the center of the town’s activity. Money rules here too! I already like the Post Office better! But I need both! 🙂
Boyero Monument A National Monument to the early years work of oxcarts and their drivers It is on the old highway from San Jose to the beaches where many saw it as they entered Atenas, home of the Annual April Atenas Oxcart Parade. Expect oxcart photos in April! 🙂
I arrived in Atenas on December 24, 2014, two months ago today! I celebrated in two ways:
I OPENED A BANK ACCOUNT at Banco Nacional to include a debit card and electronic banking. I get my debit card and electronic account connection tomorrow along with training in how to use both (“bring your laptop”). Neat! Never got training in the states! It took nearly two hours at the bank, my local lawyer with me, stacks of paperwork, plus I still have to provide proof of income which I was not told earlier.
I GOT A P.O. BOX at the Atenas Post Office which I now prefer you to use instead of the one I gave before arriving. It was the apartment’s PO Box and works, but the apartment management has to deliver mail to me which could be another delay :-)! Below is the exact way the Post Office asks that you address letters to me. So you understand the strange order and double-Atenas: Atenas is a pueblo (small town) in the Canton of Atenas, in the District of Atenas, in the Province of Alajuela in the country of Costa Rica. And yes, they say put the postal code BEFORE the country name of Costa Rica. Mail did get to me with the other address form, so don’t worry. And I prefer that you not use the Miami address since letters are costing me $1.50 each and I have to travel to Alajuela (the city) to pick them up. And packages via Miami require an invoice to declare the customs value (or you send me a scan of invoice). I’m not sure yet how Customs and the Post Office work together here, but I will find out! Others do get packages via Post Office. The Miami address is perfect for my internet orders which may be the primary use and for some other U.S. businesses. The U.S. Post Office now has one international postage stamp (round) that costs $1.10 for any country in the world for most letter weights. Letters can arrive in one week or four weeks, who knows why? UPS or FedEx packages will have to go to the Miami address for now until I learn how to get them locally. Here’s my new postal mail address:
Sr. Charlie Doggett (The P.O. put that “Senor” in front of my name! 🙂
Apdo. 441-4013
Alajuela, Atenas, Atenas
20501 COSTA RICA
How’s that for an anniversary celebration? I forgot to take my phone this morning, so no photo of bank or post office yet, but I may add those tomorrow, as both buildings are revealing.
And if you didn’t get MY PHONE NUMBER from an earlier post, it is still 011-506-8410-9916 with the 011 getting you out of the U.S., 506 the country code, and though some instructions say use a cell phone code, don’t – it is just the first four digits of the number. The above # should work.
Well, not as pretty tonight as all the bird photos, but that is life!
