Businesses, including hotels, real estate agencies, tour operators and developers, to name a few, need to plan their long-term Internet strategies today. Social media is transforming the world dramatically, and a simple Web site is just not good enough anymore.

Web sites, online advertising and Internet promotion have for many years been the primary means to market a product or service in Costa Rica to an international audience. The Internet is cheaper than print advertising, and it is an effective medium to reach a mass audience in the United States and other parts of the world, especially those persons in the planning stages of a Costa Rica vacation or retirement.

Being in the middle of a real estate down cycle might not seem to be the best time to promote or spend money on marketing, but most experienced businesses know otherwise. The things one does during the down market will determine how well they do in the up market.

Small business owners in Costa Rica who are looking to weather the storm are also best advised to start thinking about their long-term marketing plan. While it is difficult to earn a profit today in Costa Rica from the money spent on advertising or a slick Web site, there will be a time when vacations and dream homes on the beach will become hot commodities again.

In the old days of the Internet a Web site might retain a small fraction of viewers who would bookmark and quickly forget a page. If one was lucky, a prospect might send an e-mail message requesting more information and get added to a mailing list.

The good news is now, thanks to social media, a business can see a long-term return on an investment in Internet marketing. A measure of success is not what is sold today, but how many people subscribe to a blog, newsletter, Facebook or Twitter. Once the audience is captured, it is just a matter of occasionally reminding them about a product or service with an entertaining article, photo or video.

The trick to turn on social media is to get these kinds of marketing efforts beyond traditional e-mail campaigns and onto a page where the entire world can search, link or comment on the content. E-mail is still a powerful distribution method, and leveraging it with a blog allows readers to express their approval by posting to their Facebook, Twitter or own personal blog.

Personal endorsement is at the core of social networking and is effective because often people trust the recommendations and opinions of their friends. Social media accelerates this kind of interaction through the Internet, and its growth erodes the value of traditional advertising. This is why Facebook is now the No. 2 Web page on the Internet, according to the Alexa rating service, and social media has replaced pornography as the No. 1 use of the Internet.

Setting up a blog and promoting it is easier than ever thanks to services like Blogger (blogspot.com), which is rated the No. 8 Web page on the Internet by Alexa. Unlike a traditional Web site, a blog publication does not require any knowledge of things like html code, and expensive software like Dreamweaver and Frontpage.

While a professional may design a blog, the work of updating and publishing it is something that a business owner may do personally or hire out to another person at a much lower rate.

Free services like Feedblitz and Google Feedburner give a business the system to take e-mail subscribers from a web page, distribute a blog, and manage the technical and legal issues of mass e-mail.

Apart from the opt-in mailing list, it is a good idea to create profiles on services like Facebook and Twitter and then post links and new blog articles. These services work in parallel to the e-mail list, and many people prefer them for their ease of use and rapid social interaction.

A new blog or a Facebook page alone will not get much traffic and needs to be promoted using advertising. The important thing is when the market comes, a business will be starting with an active e-mail list with thousands of prospects. The world Internet audience will more clearly understand who has the established presence in Costa Rica.

Competitors, if they are not doing the same, will start from zero with a cold list of prospects and little social media reputation. The other guys, even if they have been on the ground for years, will be viewed as newcomers by the mass media, and pay high ad rates in a hot market just to stay afloat.

In summary, business owners with Web sites need to upgrade them by adding a blog, setup an opt-in mailing list, and promote on social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, not to mention A.M. Costa Rica. The trick to keep a readership audience is to publish a few times a month and entertain but not overwhelm.

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Internet social networking accelerates life in the 21st century. It also proposes challenges to everyone doing business in Costa Rica.

More importantly, all the negative comments about Costa Rica are going to kill the country’s tourism future because the negative runs rampant through social networks. The country’s marketing system better catch up fast. The country is plagued with bad reports, from out-of-control property thefts to Americans getting beaten up at popular tourism destinations.

Social networking is the practice of expanding social contacts through connections among individuals, and although the process is as old as civilization itself, the Internet has accelerated the pace while increasing the amount of information that can be shared.

For those living in Costa Rica or considering relocation here, the Internet social networks are as important as ever. While in the past much of the information has been disseminated by those with a profit motive, the Internet social networks allow individuals to share first-hand information and experiences. A person is now able to consult instantly with dozens of other persons to determine if retirement in Costa Rica would fit their lifestyle or if a particular doctor, dentist or real estate broker has a good reputation.

Social connection is especially valuable for a newcomer who lacks roots in a new country, language skills and years of assimilation that can only come from growing up or being educated in the culture.

While many have been aware of networks like Facebook, Myspace and Youtube it’s possible that living in Costa Rica has distracted expats from the magnitude of change that is occurring on a truly global scale. Collectively these three social networks receive 250 million unique visitors per month, and have been in existence for no more than six years. ABC, NBC and CBS combined can only manage to reach 10 million viewers per month.

Radio as the first form of electronic mass communication took 38 years to reach an audience of 50 million. Television accomplished the same in 13 years while the Internet took four years. Facebook reached its first 50 million people in just two years, and presently there are 400 million registered and active users on the network. To put this in more perspective, this is a number that exceeds the total population of the United States.

Facebook is rated as the No. 2 page on the Internet by the Alexa ranking service, and is exceeded only by Google, which presently serves 76 billion Internet searches per month. Google served just 2.7 billion searches per month in 2006, and the increased volume of information is not and probably never will be a problem for massive networks of computers.

The effects of Internet social networking are particularly visible through American expats, who are informal ambassadors to nations like Costa Rica. One expat in Costa Rica can link to hundreds of relatives and former high school and university classmates, which expand exponentially. This reason alone is enough for the Costa Rican government to really consider how its treatment of expatriates has an effect on tourism.

The country is quickly reaching the point where one well-connected expat with a negative attitude can deter hundreds of people from vacationing in Costa Rica. No amount of expensive promotion on the part of the Instituto Costarricense de Turismo can counteract the damage that hundreds of expats talking about things like pollution or crime can do.

Nations like Costa Rica, unfortunately, are in danger of falling so far behind in bandwidth that the speed of now marginally broadband ADSL connections will resemble the dial-up Internet of the 1990s. As the former telecom monopoly struggles to implement 3G Internet service, the United States already enjoys 4G services in every major market.

One typical 4G phone can provide an Internet connection for up to 5 devices, and it is expected that the typical package will deliver between 5 and 12 Mbps by the end of the year. Following the dynamics of smartphone and social networks like Twitter is vital because it is predicated that in just 10 years mobile phone will replace the desktop computer as the dominant Internet device.

Web pages that do not automatically adapt their layouts to smartphones are in danger of becoming as obsolete as print media. Equally so, it is vital that any Web site with a future embrace social networking in a meaningful way. It’s no longer good enough to simply link to a profile on a social network without providing systems for commentary or social interaction directly on the page.

Some experts predict that the traditional Web site as we know it and even many blogging platforms will fade away in the coming years under a wave of information, much of which will be generated by social networks. While professionals talk about the loss of journalistic standards or declining quality of information, the more successful media outlets look for ways to aggregate information from social networks and moderate discussion.

At this point, no one has emerged as a leader in the realm of social networking among the English-speaking community in Costa Rica. The U.S. Embassy has a Facebook page. However its Web site is not a portal for social networking. For example, the Spanish-language news publication La Nación allows readers to comment on the news on its Web page in real time through a Twitter account. No English-language outlet of comparable professional standards provides any level of instant social collaboration.

Print media is truly dead, and while Costa Rica does have one English-language print newspaper the reasons for its continued existence seem ambiguous. Time is also gradually eroding the base of English-speaking people who are still willing to participate in the newsprint culture.

The average American teen on average sends 2,272 text messages per month and can be expected to never subscribe to a print newspaper during his or her lifetime. The next generation will in all probability view any form of print media as an expensive waste of environmental resources. Social networking is vital if this generation is ever to know much of a place like Costa Rica.

Costa Rica better clean up its act and get into the 21st century because the days of traditional media are numbered. Most important, the country needs to clean up its act, because its dirty laundry is aired instantly on the Internet, and there is little opportunity to counter the negative impact.

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There is great news for expats and tourists in the cloud. Speaking of cloud computing, that is. Most expats — people of other nationalities who have made Costa Rica their home — do not have a clue what the term cloud computing means even though the concept could greatly change their lives, especially those who would like to make Costa Rica their home or at least visit the country more often.

Cloud computing is nothing more than working on the Internet using software and services that are provided on the Internet. Google is one of the foremost pioneers of these new services. Gmail, Google’s e-mail service, was just the beginning of its huge other offerings in software.

Two examples in Google’s menu are its calendar and document applications. However, the company offers other applications as well. Many are free and some others have charges associated with their use.

Why is this important to expats and tourists?
The answer is simple. It means one does not need to work from the confines of an office any longer or even in any physical location. The Internet, cloud computing and Software as a Service — commonly referred to as SaaS — truly sets people free.

Over the last two years there has been an explosion of services available to professionals on the Internet which allow them to work from anywhere. These new services increase as well the usefulness of smart cellular telephones, iPhones and Windows Mobile enabled phones, to enhance working from the cloud.

Many expats and tourists who live in or visit Costa Rica are some kind of professional. At least they have retired or are vacationing from some kind of work that can still use their expertise. This knowledge is marketable, and it can be sold and invoiced using the cloud. Many of these services are geared toward those who sell time rather than things, but what a great thing to sell: One’s knowledge in the form of time.

Here is how to turn time into money, using the Internet and cloud computing while surfing the afternoon at Playa Guiones or watching the sun set on one of the other beautiful beaches of Costa Rica.

The major player in the cloud computing world is Google. However, new companies are emerging daily to fill in the gaps where Google is weak. This is especially true in the area of invoicing and collecting for one’s billable time.

The leader of the pack in using the Internet to bill for almost anything including one’s time is FreshBooks. This company was started by people billing for Internet design work, but the company has exploded into one that is changing the way people think about the way they live and earn a living.

Here is an example of this concept and the use of FreshBooks:

Joe Tourist came to Costa Rica for the weekend from his office in New York to surf the afternoon at Playa Guiones, a famous surfing spot at Nosara. After long, hard surfing, he gets a call from a client from the United States and spends more than an hour on his cellular telephone in a deep consultation. As soon as the call is finished, Joe hits sends invoice from his smartphone, a mobile phone offering advanced capabilities, using MiniBooks, a component of the FreshBooks system, and the client is sent an invoice immediately via e-mail for the consultation.

Depending on what one sells, there are many other options available to bill for services and things using the cloud. The major players in billing professional time are Clio, Rocket Matter, and Bill4Time. FreshBooks and Harvest are the leaders in billing for other types of time-related matters and for items. All the companies are growing very fast, and their offerings are increasing exponentially this year.

Now here is an interesting quandary: Is it legal to come to Costa Rica and bill for your time using the Internet or smartphones? Tourists are not suppose to work here. Many legal residents are also restricted and cannot work legally. Is the Costa Rican government entitled to collect income taxes on revenue produced in this country by foreigners using the cloud? Interesting questions for sure. Undoubtedly, these queries will have the Costa Rican government as well as the country’s tax authorities in a huge dilemma for years.

Here is a prediction. Cloud computing will be great for Costa Rican real estate values. Again, the rational is simple. People will not be tied to living in any particular place.

Costa Rica’s 3G Internet system is off the ground, and it is getting better. In the next three to five years it should be great. The system works almost anywhere in the country today.

All this may sound a bit techie for some, but really it is not. It is all pretty simple stuff, and it is getting easier to use by the day. Cloud computing is here, and it is just going to get better and easier to use. This translates into more mobility for those who want to come to Costa Rica and live or have a second home here. This also translates into a bright future for the country and higher real estate value in the years to come.

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The internet is as wonderful as it is evil. The dark side is where predators lurk waiting for the unsuspecting innocent to fall into their traps. These creeps lie in wait to menace adults and children alike. The internet, cellular telephones and text messaging can work together to steal, maim and even kill.

Many expats have come to Costa Rica with families including their children. Others have started families here. In a modern family, having several computers in the household is not uncommon. Giving children cell phones at a very early age is also normal practice. They are great little devices to keep tabs on kids.

The Internet extended the dating services of the past century into a whole new world, social networking. These networks have grown geometrically on the web. Adults and kids use them to find new friends and relationships. Some adults find their mates nowadays using the tools of cyberspace.

Most people hide behind avatars — an icon or figure used as a personification of the computer operator — and use false information when using social networks. This is good practice but does not curb the danger and can even exacerbate it.

Here is a wakeup call to expats with children in Costa Rica. Internet predators are out to get them. They know all the tricks. Expats here are usually of retirement age because they came to retire in this country. Many of them did not count on having a new family in this country, but it happened. Because they are of retirement age, many are not familiar with the Internet or text messaging on cell phones so they do not understand how much danger their kids are facing every day.

This is the scenario. It usually — but not always — starts with a social network on the Internet.

Children take pictures of themselves using webcams on the computers in the house. Webcams are little cameras that are attached to desktop computers but are usually incorporated into portables. Kids open an account — lying through the form questionnaires about their age — on Hi5, MSN, Facebook, or one of the other social networks. Here they post the pictures they took in minutes and add their e-mail address.
Kids all over the world do the same thing.

However, these days children are taking very seductive inappropriate pictures of themselves and using them. High school girls and even grade school children have contests to see who can make the “best” sexy pictures. Sure other kids and classmates write to them, but so do the perverts. The Internet scum bags of the world. Adults usually do not know who they are really communicating with on social networks so how do adults expect their children to know?

The next step in the predators plan is to get as much information as they can from their victims, including phone numbers — especially cellular phone numbers — addresses, workplace information and in the case of children the schools they attend. These potential molesters usually make up a story to get to meet a child or just wait in hiding around a school to snatch them.

What adults and children do not realize is these Internet nut cases are sick people. They thrive on the bond they make with their victim. When the bond is broken — for example a parent discovers the problem — the person in some cases will physically hunt down their prey using the information provided to them over the internet or telephone.

People are not always on or near a computer, but they are usually stuck to their cellular telephone. This is true for children too. Text messaging from cellular telephones is a social network of its own.
If a predator has both avenues of communication to a victim, they have many options to lure kids.

Expats with children or a young wife in Costa Rica need to protect them from these hazards as much as they can. Here are some tips to protect young people, based on extensive research:

This expat is a computer nerd with 30 years experience and a registered Microsoft Partner with all the latest systems and technologies. One of these wackos got through the extensive precautions setup to protect his kids from the evils of the Internet, and that is the reason for this article.

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What does it mean to be carbon negative or carbon positive? What does it mean to be carbon responsible? The country aims for carbon neutrality by the year 2021. Expats living in Costa Rica can be part of the solution instead of part of the problem.

Carbon may also be good business for Costa Rica. The country’s carbon real estate business is still in its development stages but it’s heating up fast. There are also ways to use the Costa Rican civil code to build carbon responsible communities.

Carbon buzzwords are important in this day and age. Nature Air, an airline based in Costa Rica, is advertising heavily, stating the company is the world’s first and only carbon neutral airline.

Many people confuse the terms carbon negative with carbon positive much as they do with the commonplace expression, a glass is half empty or half full.

Burning fossil fuels sends carbon dioxide emissions — referred to as carbon waste — into the atmosphere. This waste contributes to global warming and leads to human and animal respiratory problems. Plants, on the other hand, live on carbon dioxide and gobble it up.

Everyone expends carbon dioxide into the atmosphere by breathing in oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide. Breathing is a natural part of life and the biological cycle of nature. Electricity to heat or cool one’s house, those cars in the garage, the trips one takes, the gadgets, and all the extra stuff making up one’s lifestyle are not part of the natural cycle of life. All these components generate impact on the planet, referred to as a carbon or environmental footprint.

An average person in Britain is responsible for 10 metric tons of carbon waste per year compared to an American who is responsible for twice that amount or 20 metric tons per year, according to CarbonFootprint.com. In comparison, Al Gore, past vice-president of the United States and global warming doomsayer, generates about 20 times the waste of an average American — 40 times that of a Brit. Gore has come under criticism from a number of sources for items like his $30,000 annual utility bill.

Singer Madonna with 50 times the waste of an average American and 100 times that of a Brit also has been criticized for hypocrisy. The huge amount of her emissions is because of the many performance tours she takes.

Here is what most people do not understand. Being carbon positive is bad. This means a person is putting carbon waste into the environment. Being carbon negative is good. This means a person is doing more than their share to offset their impact on the environment, offsetting their waste by more than their contribution of waste. In other words, to leave less carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than one puts into it.

For example, a person can become more carbon responsible by putting in alternative sources of energy in ones home like solar, water or wind generated electrification systems. Planting trees and leaving parts of a property forested instead of cutting everything down to subdivide the property into lots to sell to other expats is another way of being carbon wise.

Some development projects in Costa Rica are striving to be carbon negative or at least carbon neutral using carbon sequestration. Carbon sequestration is where forests are used to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere offsetting carbon waste put into the atmosphere. Reforestation projects are encouraged by the government.

Calculations are complex and sequestration rates vary by tree species and soil conditions among other factors, but a good guesstimate is a hectare of land, 2.471 acres, can sequester between 5 to 10 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year.

An expat living in Costa Rica generating 10 metric tons of carbon waste per year must own two hectares, 4.94 acres, of trees to be carbon neutral and more than two hectares to be carbon negative.

Over the years, the country has received bad marks in many areas of conservation, particularly in deforestation. Today, they are changing attitudes because there is money in carbon. One thing for sure, the country’s bean counters are trying to figure out what is better to fill up its coffers — like the China Taiwan scenario.

Expats should get on the carbon bandwagon, too, because it is good for the planet and understanding the dynamics is good for business and real estate values. But they must also be alert to carbon credit scams that have generated a lot of publicity elsewhere.

A readable summary of carbon emissions and global warming can be found at http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/globalwarming.html

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Big step is electronic signatures

Expats need to prepare themselves for Costa Rica’s Gobierno Digital and Notaría Digital.

The digital government is slowly but surely taking over tasks that were terribly inefficient. Two examples are the issuing of drivers’ licenses and passports. The Banco de Costa Rica, a key player in Costa Rica’s digital government, has begun taking over both. As of July 1, the bank had given out 10,500 appointments for renewing driver’s licenses and passports.

The transportation ministry estimates there are 400,000 drivers’ licenses and 45,000 passports needing renewal. The Banco de Costa Rica currently has the capability of handling 1,000 appointments per day.

The banking authority’s digital system is running full blast much to the chagrin of those trying to hide money in the country.

The plan to incorporate the digital government into everyone’s lives is in full force. Most expats do not have a clue as to what is happening around them. It is going to get harder to hide in Costa Rica in the future.

The digital notary is on the planning boards too. No, notaries will not turn into something like digital robots making property and other legal transactions. They will still be real people. However, they will have new — and hopefully better — tools.

One of these tools will be digital signatures for use in filing paperwork with the court and Registro Nacional. Today, most lawyers and notaries in Costa Rica do not know what digital signatures are or how they work. The biggest hurdle to put the digital notary program to use could be teaching the notaries to use the system. The system will be a boon to those outside the Central Valley.

Here is how a digital signature works.

A certifying authority assigns a notary a digital identity certificate. This electronic document incorporates a digital signature matching it to an identity. The notary directorate could be using this system today by using one of the trusted digital certificate authorities like VeriSign, GeoTrust, Thawte, Comodo, among others.

They are working on it. Former president Abel Pacheco signed the Ley De Certificados, Firmas Digitales y Documentos Electrónicos, executive decree 8454, into law Aug. 23, 2005. This law covers digital certificates and signatures and states that any worldwide certification authority registered with the country can issue certificates for use here in the digital government, including the court system and the national registry. The Ente Costarricense de Acreditación, the Costa Rican accreditation organization, will be responsible for approving foreign companies offering digital certificates in Costa Rica. The country may even setup its own authority.

By applying the certificate to a computer, the machine creates a key pair, a private and a public key for the notary. Once this process is complete, the professional is part of the digital world and can send digitally signed and encrypted documents to others via e-mail or put them on smartcards or thumb drives.

Digital signatures and encryption is not only for professionals. It is for everyone who wants to protect his or her privacy. Echelon and Carnivore, government systems that can tap into computer e-mails, are snooping into people’s private lives. Google is collecting massive amounts of personally identifiable information on everyone everywhere.

Common everyday people who want privacy can use these digital systems too. Best yet, some of them are free for personal use.

Thawte offers free secure e-mail certificates but its sign-up process is a bit complex for the average Joe or Jane. Comodo offers a very easy system that everyone can use. One click at its Web site returns an e-mail to someone requesting a secure e-mail certificate. Another click on a box in the e-mail that arrives, and a digital certificate is installed on the person’s computer for use to sign and encrypt documents.

There is an old saying in Latin America. Telling someone not to copy something because it is confidential guarantees it will be tomorrow’s news. With a digital signature and encryption one can better control messages and text.

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The rule of thumb in Costa Rica is when you cannot plan — or do not plan — panic.

This malady is part of the culture. People in the campo, the rural areas, learn this from childhood. Parents instruct kids sent to the pulperia, the corner mom and pop grocery, to buy one egg for breakfast. Not two, one for breakfast and one for lunch, or three, one for breakfast, one for lunch and one for dinner. Just one. One for breakfast.

Why, because the parents were not taught to plan and organize by their parents, so they do not teach their kids to do so.

What happens? The kids grow up into adults and this happens:

The country gets a Registro Nacional that has collapsed for the past month. It has been literally impossible to use online. This is an entity, that is in theory, the cornerstone of public records in Costa Rica.

Very poor, if any, planning went into designing the system in the first place. The day it came online — some years back — the organization’s computers could not handle the daily traffic. Today it is a disaster. Crooks use this fact to their advantage everyday. Fraud is rampant. Good people just twiddle their thumbs.

Now in a panic, Registro workers are trying to fix the ills of years applying band aid solutions to the problems, and nothing works.

Speaking of band aid solutions to real problems: Now there is insufficient electricity. There is no money to harness the power of Costa Rica’s rich thermal power resources, at least according to the local news reports.

It appears no one has converted plans to action. No one in power has correctly interpreted usage requirements or population growth. A union for the professionals at the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) said in a full page ad Sunday that the power shortage was not its fault. The Sindicato de Ingenieros y Professionales said they have been warning of shortages for two years.

Now the country is in a panic, rationing electric power. Some people have it, and some people do not. Every day it is a roulette wheel decision as to who gets it and who does not.

President Óscar Arias Sánchez is going to save the day with an executive decree to buy new oil burning electric plants for $150 million dollars. This sure reeks of a panic solution to a panic problem.

Oops, I forgot to mention cellular phones. When Millicom International Cellular S.A. set up an adequate cell phone system in Costa Rica in 1989 and people started to use it widely, panic mode struck fast. Costa Rica worked quickly to quash the license and take over the system with predictable results.

These are only three of a multitude of examples. Everyone has his or her own list, most starting right at home. How many times does one hear living in Costa Rica, the last of this or the last of that was used until the moment it was all gone.

Add a little graft to the no-planning, no-organization recipe, and what does one get?

A great way to make money. The reason, because there is never anyone to blame, nothing worked anyway.

A company in México sold the Registro its computer system by winning a bid during the presidency of one of those presidents currently on the hot seat facing a corruption investigation.

The U.S.-based Millicom set up the first cellular telephone system in Central America in Costa Rica, and without even a “thanks” was booted out of the country in May 1995. The company had to stop its operations because the Sala IV found that its activities with cell telephones was contrary to the Costa Rican Constitution that gives the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad a telephone monopoly.

This which made room for one of the biggest frauds to the public involving almost every level of government. Former president Miguel Ángel Rodríguez is still under investigation for his role, if any, in a kicback on a contract to a French telephone company. Agents of the French firm have been indicted in the United States.

Of course, a lot of people say that when things go wrong and panic sets in, its just part of living in Costa Rica.

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Electronic banking in Costa Rica has grown up. It is now easy, fast and efficient.

Transfers from Banco Interfin last week to the national banks, Banco Nacional, Banco de Costa Rica and Banco Crédito Agrícola de Cartago, worked without a hitch. Transfers from Banco de Costa Rica to the private banks Banco Interfin, Banco San José, Scotia Bank, and Banco Cuscatlan worked just as flawlessly. All banks in Costa Rica are currently interconnected. Transfers can be made in either U. S. dollars or Costa Rican colons.

The Central Bank of Costa Rica moved its inter-bank payments and transaction system called the Sistema Interbancario de Negociación y Pagos Electrónicos to Microsoft’s .NET technologies at the end of 2002. Carlos Arraya, the CEO of ArtinSoft, a Costa Rican company, worked closely with Microsoft to migrate and improve the system over the past five years. The ArtinSoft founder and CEO was chosen as one of the most successful and respected executives in Central America by SUMMA Magazine in June 2006 for his work on this and other projects.

Making a transfer is easy. However, the various banks use different terminology to refer to the electronic transfers. And you have to know and use a 17-digit number for the receiving account.

Banco Interfin, a private bank, uses TEF, short for “Transferencia Electrónica de Fondos.” It is located under the Inter-Sinpe section of the menu that is located on the left hand side of the screen on Interfin’s Inter-Banca Web site.

At Banco de Costa Rica, a national bank, they use “Transfer.SINPE” to refer to the inter-bank transfers. Currently, they have a flashing “nuevo” symbol next to the menu item located on the left of their “Oficina Virtual” Web site.

Banco Nacional, a national bank used by many in Costa Rica because the bank has locations everywhere, even in the smallest towns, has the transfer system located under the menu item “Transferencias” sub-menu “Otros bancos en CR” on their “Internet Personal” Web site.

Banco de San José calls their system “Cheque Electrónico.” To use it one needs to read a bunch of extraneous material and sign up for the service. Banco de San José has adopted a system of “making things that are very simple extremely complex” along with governmental institutions in Costa Rica. To coax people to use the system, they are offering it free until March 31. This fact is found in very minute print on one of the information pages.

The system is fast. All transfers made took less than one hour to reach their destinations. The system can also work in real-time or overnight versus same day. Same day transactions are what are available on most bank Web sites. Calling the financial institutions regarding the other options met with “phone void,” meaning the person on the other end of the line did not know what to answer, so they became verbally paralyzed, a common occurrence in Costa Rica.

The inter-bank system works in theory from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. However, each bank has its own hours ranging from starting at 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. ending at 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The system is efficient. Prices to use the electronic transfer system vary widely. Banco Credito Agricola de Cartago charges as much as U.S. $20 for a transfer while Banco Nacional charges U.S. $2.

Is it worth the money? Yes, it is!

Consider sending U.S. $1,000 from a Banco Interfin account to a vendor’s account at Banco Nacional. With the Sistema Interbancario de Negociación y Pagos Electrónicos the transfer will cost $5 and take less than an hour.

The alternative is to send a messenger or go in person to Banco Interfin, wait for a teller if there is a line, cash a check, carry the cash through the dangerous streets to a Banco Nacional office, wait in another line for a teller and deposit the money in the vendor’s account. From a cost-benefit point of view, $5 is cheap, compared to spending a bunch of time in lines and risk being robbed or worse.

Costa Rica’s inter-bank transfer system is not new, but now it is working and working great. The system is worth a test drive. Soon the system will work throughout Central America and all over the world. Some banks, like Banco Interfin, Banco de San José and others have regional and international systems in place online today.

Cost of a Same-day Online Transfer

Name of bank           in U.S. dollars
Banco Nacional                $2
Banco de Costa Rica           $6
Banco Credito               $1-$20
Banco Banex                   $5
Banco Interfin                $5
Banco BCT                    $10
Banco Lafise                 $10
Banco Citibank                $2
Banco Promérica               $5
Banco Cuscatlán               $5
Banco Improsa                 $4
Banco Uno                     $5
Scotia Bank                   $5
Banco de San José             $3

source: http://www.bccr.fi.cr/sinpetarifas.html

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