SteveH5863

I just had an unpleasant surprise in viewing my credit card statement. The departure tax at Liberia Airport ($26 per person) is collected by a bank and is payable only by cash or Visa credit card. But if you pay by Visa your American bank views it as a cash advance with all of the appropriate fees, interest, etc. Not big money, but my Chase Visa had a $10.00 minimum transaction fee on a $52.00 "cash advance" so as a percentage it was pretty rough. It would have been cheaper to walk less than 20 feet to the ATM, withdraw the cash, and pay the tax in cash.

plumboy

This comes up often. Happened to me too. But, apparently, there IS a sign that says it will be a cash advance -- obviously isn't displayed too prominently, I guess.

Jeff_Costa_Rica

I can tell you the sign explaining this is prominent at SJO. I've never flown out of LIR, so I can't say.

shillmac

It happened to me about 2 years ago at SJO. Learned my lesson really hard as I made 2 separate exit tax purchases! We had our little granddaughter, and I forgot to buy hers, so did a separate credit card transaction. I had no idea at the time that it was going to cost me $20.00. Whew!

SteveH5863

I guess it will just be a lesson learned. I had intentionally exhausted most of my Colones, but I had the US cash in my pocket and could have easily paid it. I just used the Visa for convenience. Next time I'll know better. I'm sure that somewhere there is a sign posted and I just missed it. Maybe someone else will read this and save a couple of $.