Between growing tourism and the many Americans who are choosing to retire to Costa Rica, phone calls to that country are more common than ever. With modern communications technology, it's easy to call Costa Rica and other countries, provided you have the dialing codes and related information. For Costa Rica you may need to make a change in older telephone numbers you have. As of March 20, 2008, Costa Rica converted from seven- to eight-digit phone numbers. Fortunately, the conversion is simple to do.
Find the phone number of the person, business, or other organization you wish to call. One way to do this is to use an English/Spanish Latin-American online "Yellow Pages" like Paginas Amarillas (paginasamarillas.com).
If you are using an older phone number for Costa Rica that is a 7-digit number, you have to add a digit to convert to the new system. For landline phones, add a 2 at the beginning of the number (for example, 555-5000 becomes 2555-5000). For cellphones, add an 8 (555-5000 becomes 8555-5000).
Check the toll charges for a call to Costa Rica. Typically these run 6-10 cents per minute. However, many phone providers have international calling plans that can save you money. Call the customer service number for your phone service provider and ask about their rates and calling plans.
Make your call by dialing 011 (the exit code for the United States/Canada) and the area code for Costa Rica, which is 506, then the 8-digit phone number. Using ane example from Step 2, it would look like this: 011-506-2555-5000.
