Quote Originally Posted by Manda81 View Post
why can't I just tip in JA Money ?? This hassle of having 3 different currencies on me is a pain ... Is it insulting to tip in JDM ?
Tips accepted in either JA or US, but it can be hard to get JA $100 or $50 for small purchases or tipping. When you go to bank/cambio/ATM to get JA dollars, you will usually receive in JA $1000 bills. Many times when paying for services in JA funds, the smaller establishments/route taxis/beach vendors will not have enough JA change ... this is when having US dollar bills comes in handy. Examples - if you take route taxi to downtown Negril which costs $100JA and if they cannot make change for $1000 JA, they will be happy to accept $2 US (about $170 JA); want to buy local newspaper from paper vendor (costs about $50 - $75 JA) , they will take $1 US. Even the restaurants/bars run out of JA smaller bills, so having some smaller US paper currency comes in handy.

Jamaica establishments/banks will not accept foreign coins. You will receive some JA coins as change ($1,$5,$10 and $20 JA) - if you have some JA coins left at end of your stay you can add them to final tip that you make in JA. If you do any shopping at the smaller grocery stores/retail stores, they will be glad to take the JA coins when you are paying your bill (just like $100 JA bills can be scarce, so too can the JA coins).