Money exchange and tips

[wrtiii]

REMEMBER......if you are in a hurry to compute the exchange in your head.............just round up to 100 J to 1 US Dollar........
you will only LOOSE .16 cents for every hundred you would have to spend 600 Jamaican to lose a buck.........Tip Money ?

You have it backwards - if you're paying in USD, that would be rounding DOWN. If you owe somebody $100JA, you owe them $1.15US. If you owe somebody $500JA and give him a $5US bill, you have short-changed him $.75US, not given him a tip.

Seems odd to me, but I see this happen all the time, and the Jamaicans may be unhappy but accept it.

I don't find it difficult at all to stop at the bank or a cambio, change money - INCLUDING asking for small bills - and then just pay in Jamaican.

[Rambo]

I stand corrected...No wonder I get those looks....I guess I better keep tipping well

[Sheba]

No problem.
They just think you're a GINNAL.

B

[Sheba]

But if Mr Rambo was paying in Jamaican currency, and the prices he was being quoted to him were in US currency.
EG: 10 US was the price and he paid 1000 JMD He would not be short changing.
It all depends how you look at it.
B

[captaind]

I always conduct business in Jamaican dollars. That way there's no confusion.

I never even calculate the US equivalent

[MissBlue]

neither me CaptainD, i like to keep things as simple as possible - i convert $$ and use local currency wherever i travel. much easier to just carry one kind of money in my pocket, and not have to think about equivalencies or conversion, ever. plus some smaller places will not be able to make change for a small purchase, or for a US $ bill. For me it's just simpler all around to use local currency; also i find it's a great way to get into the spirit of a place when i'm on "their" system; for me it's more fun that way.

[brasi]

One way or another I feel really dumb. LOL.

[Sheba]

I don't earn U$ dollars, Euro,Pounds or Yen.

So in Jamaica I only ever spend dollars, Jamaican dollars.

It's not difficult to make any conversions especially with the cheat sheets available.
I had a friend visit Jamaica from Europe for the first time and I sent her each Jamaican coin and bank note to familiarise herself with them.
I still have never seen or been issued a 5000 JMD bank note.
I can imagine it would be a problem spending/changing it in a lot of places.LOL
Simply for security reasons and the lack of change.

B

[Rambo]

I'd be afraid to think its a 500.....

[Jamaica Miss]

If you look at the $5000, you will note the edges are cut off, like they made a mistake in printing it. But I guess that's the way they want it to be. I would imagine it would be difficult to cash on the beach. I used the ones I received to buy appliances in Sav with no problem.