Canadian debit cards in costa rica?

Question

I just recently came back from the Guanacaste region in Costa Rica ....I had a really hard time getting any money out of the ATM around this region using a a candian debit card. Is this a common problem?

Otherwise the trip was awesome.

Answer 1

It depends on your bank in Canada, and which systems they are connected to.  Star, Cirrus Plus  all work at Banco Popular and Banco de Costa Rica  plus lots of others in San Jose.

Answer 2

Yes but some do work.  If your card has a maestro symbol on it should work at merchants and atms that take those cards.  

If the Atm take Mastercard.  Sometimes it will work using the Maestro card.    You would choose primary credit and enter your amount of the withdraw.   This will only work at atms not at merchants.   Mastercard will forward it to the cirrus or maestro network for approval.   This method will still come out of your account.

Answer 3

My experience is that our debit cards don't work in the ATM machines of Banco Popular and Banco Nacional which are the two most common (only?) banks in smaller towns like one finds in Guanacaste.  They do not belong to Cirrus.  However, the ATM machines of Banco de San Jose and COOPEMEX consistently worked for me.