Costa Rican Colones
Get ready for your trip to Costa Rica. Order your Costa Rican Colones at Manor FX today. Our great exchange rates mean you'll have more CRC cash to spend. Have your Costa Rican Colon banknotes delivered securely to your home or office, or pick them up from the Manor FX bureau near Heathrow.
Manor FX offers fast delivery times and a fuss-free online ordering process for your Costa Rican colón travel money.
Travel advise: payments in Costa Rica
Jet off well-informed to Costa Rica. Here are some handy facts about cash and card payments in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica has become a popular tourist destination. As a result, international credit and debit cards are more widely accepted in Costa Rica today. You'll be able to pay by card in most international hotels, shopping malls and supermarkets.
You need to be aware that card payments in Costa are swipe-and-sign, unlike chip-and-pin in the UK. Before heading off to Costa Rica, make sure that swipe-and-sign payments are enabled for your card. If you haven't enabled this method, your card payments in Costa Rica will be declined. When making swipe-and-sign payments you will often be asked to show an ID with your signature, to compare.
If you are going to pay by card in Costa Rica: Be aware of bank card fees and currency conversion fees for card payments in Costa Rica. Your bank's CRC to GBP exchange rate may be quite bad. This is how banks make money.
Before using your bank card for payments in Central America it's certainly a good idea to contact your bank. This will avoid your card becoming blocked due to international transactions that your bank may find suspicious.
We recommend that you take a good amount of Costa Rica Colones banknotes with you on your trip to Costa Rica. Cash remains a popular and reliable payment method in Costa Rica, and it will come in handy should your card payments not go through (for example when your card doesn't support swipe and sign payments).
Costa Rican foreign exchange regulations stipulate that only US Dollars are accepted for exchange. Therefore you need to bring plenty of Colones with you. You will be able to withdrawn extra CRC from a local ATM but this will be costly, with a $5 ATM fee plus currency conversion fees.
Small local shops, street vendors, beach vendors, souvenir shops, vendors on farmer markets (feria) and taxi drivers will only accept cash payments. Tipping also needs to be done in cash.
For a coffee in San José the price will be around ₡1500 colones. A three-course meal in a mid-range restaurant will cost around ₡13000 colones per person.
Prices in Costa Rica are on average 20% lower than prices in the UK.
Tipping in Costa Rica is similar to tipping in Great Britain: It's not mandatory but appreciated, and you're advised to add around 10% to the bill if you like the service.
If you tip in Costa Rica you should always leave the tip in cash.
Banknotes in Costa Rica
The banknotes in circulation in Costa Rica all have the word 'Mil', which is Spanish for 'Thousand'. The banknotes in use are 1Mil (1,000), 2Mil (2,000), 5Mil (5,000), 10Mil (10,000), 20Mil (20,000) and 50Mil (50,000) Colones. All current Colones banknotes are dated 2009 or later.
Coins in Costa Rica
Costa Rican coins range from ₡5 colones to ₡500 colones. The old Colon banknotes of ₡100 and ₡500 Colones have been replaced by coin.
Costa Rica's currency import and export regulations
There are no currency restrictions in Costa Rica. Travelers can import and export an unlimited amount of Costa Rican Colones and foreign currency.
Be aware that under Costa Rican legislation, only US Dollars are accepted for exchange.
Ordering Costa Rican Colones online
Order Costa Rican Colones online and have them delivered fast and securely to your home or office, with Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed®. Or pick them up from our travel money shop near Heathrow. Click here to buy Costa Rican Colones online.
Selling back Costa Rican Colones
If you have Costa Rican Colones to sell, follow this link to exchange Costa Rican Colones to Pounds, click on 'sell currency' and select 'CRC Costa Rican Colon'. We'll pay good rates for your leftover Costa Rican Colones.
