Despite the efforts of the financial authorities to promote electronic transactions and debit cards, 8 out of 10 Costa Ricans still prefer cash.
This follows the study “Banking, finance and savings in Costa Rica”, conducted by pollster Unimer at the request of the Costa Rican Banking Association (ABC).
Of the thousand people surveyed, 36.7% only uses cash because they have no other financial service, 45.9% has a bank account -and therefore a debit card- but prefer to use cash, and only 17.4% prefer to use electronic means or “plastic money” to pay.
There is also a group of people who keep their savings in a bank account, but use the debit card to withdraw cash to make transactions, because 75.2% of them believe cash allows them to “have better control of their money.” In addition, they fear not knowing how to use the cards or that businesses won’t take them.
According to the latest study by the World Bank (WB), 53.6% of Costa Rican over 15 years old have at least one debit card, making the country rank fourth in Latin America, behind Brazil, Puerto Rico and Chile.