Country guide

Send or transfer money to Costa Rica

Want to send money to Costa Rica? Considering a bank wire to transfer money to Costa Rica? Before you visit your bank to arrange it, be sure to check the wire transfer fees. You may get a shock at how much they are, and depending on the amount you are sending it might be cheaper to use another method altogether.

Fees to send money to Costa Rica

What makes it even worse is that in addition to your own financial institution adding a fee for sending the funds to Costa Rica, the person receiving the money transfer will most likely also be charged a fee by the bank at their end. One way to reduce the likelihood of that second fee is to send the international wire transfer in the currency of their account.

To send money to Costa Rica you will usually need a SWIFT code. These are unique to each financial institution and are based on a number of things, including the country and the individual bank, so ask the recipient for the code their own branch uses.

Bank wire details for Costa Rica

  • SWIFT country codeCR
  • Central bankBanco Central de Costa Rica
  • CurrencyCosta Rican Colon
  • Currency codeCRC

Overall it is not difficult to send money to Costa Rica, and depending on how much you send and how often, it need not cost a great deal — provided you check the fees and the exchange rate before you commit to a transfer.