Quote Originally Posted by Rob View Post
Man, both of you, please let me know where you "get beat up" on the Jamaican exchange rate when they have the prices in US$. Normally the prices are reduced when paying in JA$, say 82 to 1 when the actual rate is 85 to 1. This means anyone paying Jamaican$$$ will pay less than the US$ price. If you know of any place charging 86 or higher to 1us$ when paying in JA$, please tell me now! I will take all the US$$$ I can find and deal with them! Anyone can make money on that exchange!
Here's what I meant by getting 'beaten up':
I always carry Jamaican with me, so I convert my CAN$ to JMD$ when I arrive. I get the `cambio`rate when I convert from C$ to J$, so I take a hit on that – not a big deal - I accept it because you always pay when converting currency, the rate is in favor of the service provider.
BUT, when beer in Negril is priced in US (and only US, not double listed in JMD and US) and I only have J$, the bartender gets his little calculator out and does a conversion from US to J$ – at his favourable rate (and rounding up) so I get hit again on the transaction. It`s a double tap on every US$ transaction because of the CDN-JMD-US conversion.
OK - maybe it's not anything to cry about, but it's the principle of it. I guess it's a pet peeve of mine to see prices in Negril listed in US$. I find it jarring, so I don't frequent those establishments.