US $ to JA$ conversion

[captaind]

Somebody mentioned in another thread they can't believe travelers checks still exist. I used these last time and while there was some trouble with " the systems" being down I find it hard to just use an ATM. My bank charged a fee on top of the ATM fees and it cost me about 6 dollars a transaction. How do you guys avoid these fees?

1. Use NCB ATMs
2. Have a bank at home that refunds international charges or doesn't have them

That's about as close to the government rate as you'll get

Cap

[sunluvinlaurie]

oanda.com says today's exchange is $1 us to $106 Jamaican. Is this close to what you are seeing on the island now??

[captaind]

Since the 1st of Feb I've sent 1,800 US by way of debit card

Average rate is 106.17

[Yvonne]

Every time currency conversion comes up I seem to be the only person letting newcomers know that the online currency converters will give the BANK exchange rate... what interbank excange rate is that day. What the CUSTOMER gets is always slightly less. That slightly less rate is the profit margin for the banks/cambios. I was just there & the US to JA was $1US=$104.20J$. If you expect the rate you see online, you will be disappointed. Make your own cheat sheet when you get there based on the rate of exchange. It fluctuates. Last summer it was $1US=~$98J. My first trip, $1US=$5.35. Lots of years & trips since then

[jsteil]

i jusr got my currency converted. The exchange rate was 107.38 now 107.51 and I locked in at 106. The only issue I had is that the bank had a hard time getting smaller JMD denominations.

[luvjabd]

Its easy, (not exact) but $1 US = $100J, $5 US = $500J, $10 US = $1000J
I was there last week, $1 = $105

[Yvonne]

Its easy, (not exact) but $1 US = $100J, $5 US = $500J, $10 US = $1000J
I was there last week, $1 = $105

Yep. I didn't bother w/ a cheat sheet since it was so close. I expect by my return for summer, based on what's been happening, it might be $1US=$110J.