Changing name on electric, water, etc bills

There is no compelling reason for any of your utilities to be in your own name. The companies don't care who pays the bills, and in the cases of some absentee property owners, their local property manager takes care of these and other chores. If you walk into your local pulpería where bills can be paid, you ask for the bill in whomever's name is shown, or the utility's account number, pay the bill, and walk away smiling. They're smiling behind your back.

You can even buy a secondhand cellphone with an active account and pay the monthly bill in cash. No one will know and no one will care. Likewise, you can prepay a cellular account in someone else's name to keep the account active. (Cellular accounts are either "pay in advance" or "pay flat rate monthly", but not both.

The house next to ours was built in 2002. The utilities (water, electricity, landline phone, etc) remain in the name of the original owners even though the house has changed owners three times. The only snag is that you must know the name of the owner on each account. If the account was opened in the name of a corporation, that may be an obstacle, but the seller of the property or the owner of a rental should have no trouble providing the information you need.

Don't make this be harder than it needs to be. There is plenty of strange bureaucracy in Costa Rica to keep you amused.

Here there are information about what do you need to change the name of the services. This information is about the water and electricity companies. I didn’t read about you should go with the previous owner of the house, just you need to demonstrate you are the new owner.

AyA: https://www.aya.go.cr/servicioCliente/T … ombre.aspx

CNFL: https://www.cnfl.go.cr/servicios/electr … re-cliente

Both are in Spanish

I hope this help you

@daveandmarcia thank you very much. Luckily, we have great help to pay bills from afar. I’d love to access the internet or electric bills online so I can see the amounts owed to either send enough cash, better yet -to pay them online. I’m glad the process is not as rigid as I’m used to where I live. Pura vida

@wfreer thank you very much! I will definitely look these links over and appreciate your time and help. (Our Aya situation is pretty interesting in our town due to mud and heavy mineral sediment in the drinking water. The bill is low as a result and predictable. I hope our town is the exception as everyone deserves clean drinking water).   I’m hoping at some point to pay household bills online, if these service providers allow for that option.  Even better is not having to try to set it up along with another person we’d need to coordinate with.  🙏. Thanks again!

It seems that most of the large utility companies including AYA bank at Banco Nacional de Costa Rica (as well as maybe elsewhere). If you have aN account at BNCR, it’s easy to pay those bills online.

AND it’s pretty simple tp have your U.S. Social monthly payment deposited in your BNCR account for a $6.00 monthly fee.