Costa Rica (currency: CRC, the Costa Rican colón) has high digital adoption — enough that account-based SINPE Móvil phone-number transfers have become a national payment habit — and card penetration also exceeds the Central American average. In this environment, Apple Pay serves as a wallet that tokenizes locally issued cards, improving the online checkout convenience for iPhone users.

If you sell products with a high share of mobile payments to Costa Rican consumers, such as tourism and eco-tour bookings or digital subscriptions, Apple Pay — which completes a payment with a single biometric confirmation in Safari or in-app — reduces drop-off from manual card number entry. However, since iPhone share is not overwhelming in this market, this should be designed alongside an Android-compatible method.

When a consumer taps the Apple Pay button at checkout, a payment sheet opens with the locally issued card registered in Wallet, and the transaction completes with Face ID or Touch ID approval. A token is transmitted instead of the actual card number, and Hecto Financial receives the proceeds in CRC before converting and settling in whichever of USD, KRW, or JPY was chosen in the contract.

Integrating with Hecto Financial lets a Korean company consider accepting Apple Pay without a local contract in Costa Rica. Since the wallet registration conditions for locally issued cards can vary by issuing bank, it is recommended to confirm before contracting, including whether your target customers' main banks are supported.

• Business registration country

  Confirm whether a contract is available for merchants registered in Korea

• Sales channels

  The integration method and priority vary depending on your online sales channel mix, such as owned mall, open marketplaces, or mobile apps

• Product categories

  Check in advance whether your products fall under categories restricted by Apple Pay's merchant policy

• Local regulatory compliance

  Confirm compliance with local regulations such as the payment system rules of the Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR) (see official sources below)

Costa Rican consumers pay in colones (CRC), and Hecto Financial receives this in CRC, converts it, and pays the merchant in whichever of USD, KRW, or JPY was set in the contract. The settlement cycle and fee rate follow the contract terms, and refunds are processed as a cancellation of the original card transaction, reflected to the consumer in CRC.

• Central Bank of Costa Rica (BCCR)Official information on Costa Rica's payment system (including SINPE) and currency (CRC). If this page's content differs from actual regulations, the official source takes precedence.