Banking

My Brother Steve fixed me up with a joint account with Wells Fargo.

I had moved to Costa Rica, but I used my Wells Fargo debit card to get cash (in Colones) for groceries and for purchases online from Amazon.

Once a month my Social Security retirement income was deposited to my Wells Fargo account.

I lived with Marielos and her son Augusto for five years before I moved to Orosi and rented an apartment from Ray Renolds. He insisted I get an account with Banco Costa Rica (BCR).

Meanwhile, I was getting a lot of charges to my Wells Fargo debit card, and I asked Wells Fargo to cancel that card, and give me another one. They canceled my card, but would not give me another one!

Ray got my Social Security income transferred to BCR, but this didn't happen for the month of September. Steve got this wired to Ray's bank in Kentucky instead, and Ray transferred this to me, in Cash (Colones). Things were getting complicated!

Wells Fargo had an excellent Internet banking service. I could log into my account, and see how much money I had  And see each charge that was made to my debit card for the last month.

BCR does not provide this service. Latin America has a backward economy.