Sources: Banco Central de Costa Rica, SUGEF and provider disclosures, 2024–2025.
How Costa Rica pays
Costa Rica is one of Central America's most card-friendly markets, and it has its own instant payment rail: SINPE Móvil, run by the central bank, lets anyone send money to a phone number from their bank app in seconds. It has become the everyday way to pay small merchants and individuals, and a common option in online checkouts.
Prices are set in colones, with US dollars widely accepted. For an enterprise merchant, the value is approvals and reach: cards, wallets and local methods behind one integration, routing across acquirers, frictionless 3DS and retries, with Spanish-language checkout and settlement in colones or dollars.
Why merchants run on us here
SINPE Móvil
SINPE Móvil is how Costa Ricans pay each other and small merchants, straight from their bank app.
Card approvals
Visa and Mastercard lead online, with routing across acquirers and retries to protect approvals.
Frictionless 3DS
3DS applied where it helps, so authentication protects against fraud without costing conversion.
One integration, colón or dollar settlement
Cards, wallets and local methods behind one integration, with Spanish-language checkout.
Payment methods
Cards
Visa
Mastercard
American Express
Discover
Diners Club
JCB
UnionPayBuy Now, Pay Later
Sandbox BNPLDigital wallets
PayPalExpress checkout
Apple Pay
Google PayGateways
Sandbox BNPLPayPal
Airwallex
Stripe
Adyen
Unlimit
Worldpay
Checkout.com
Authorize.net
MPGS
Cybersource
Sandbox GatewayAirwallex (Enterprise)
Braintree
CommerceHub
Fiserve
NMI
Nuvei
OrbitalBuilt for enterprise
Everything it takes to run payments in Costa Rica
Local payment methods are only half the job. We carry the operational weight — acquiring, settlement, FX, licensing and reconciliation — so you can treat Costa Rica like any other market in your stack.
One integration, every local method
Connect once and reach every card scheme, wallet, bank rail and installment provider in Costa Rica through a single API — no separate contract or integration per provider.
Local acquiring, higher approvals
We route to local acquirers and retry failed payments across alternate rails, so domestic cards and wallets authorize at local rates instead of being declined as cross-border traffic.
Settlement, FX & repatriation
Collect in the Costa Rican colón (CRC) and settle in your base currency. We handle the FX conversion and the local rules for moving funds out of the country — the part most global merchants underestimate.
Licensing handled locally
Process through our locally licensed partner entities. You launch without standing up a local entity or chasing a payments license of your own.
Payouts & reconciliation
Pay out to sellers and process refunds on the same rails you collect on, and reconcile every flow — pay-in, payout, refund — in one ledger, in local or base currency.
Fraud, disputes & compliance
Real-time screening, chargeback and dispute handling, and KYC/AML that matches local regulator expectations — built in, not bolted on.
Ready to launch in Costa Rica?
Talk to our payments team about going live in Costa Rica — coverage, local acquiring, settlement and timelines for your business.