JA$$ or US$$?

[justin_a_lyesse]

We will be down in Negril on May 18th and I'm wondering if it's better to bring US $$ or go to the ATM at Scotia Bank and take out JA $$?
We're from Toronto so I would first need to convert CAD$$ to US $$. Are prices at restaurants listed mostly in JA$? From what I've seen online, it's a mish-mash of some places pricing in JA$ and other in US$. I'm thinking of bringing a couple of hundred US$ and getting more from the ATM? Any thoughts? Thanks.

[doctoro]

Yes bring a little US and get more when needed from the ATM. But note there is an additional Internation fee above the fee your bank and the bank her charge, depending on the amount you withdraw. If you belong to an affiliate of Scotia the bank few is waived.

[Rumghoul]

I usually take several $1.00 dollar bills (usually 50 or so). They are great for tips and small things as change in Negril can sometimes be an issue

[TizzyATX]

I would recommend coming with a good amount of small US bills for tipping and whatnot, and to cover airport transfer. Once you're in Negril, you will want to go to the ATM/Cambio/Scotia to get out JA $$. imo anyways...

[marley9808]

Yep....that is exactly what we do (what Tizzy just said above)

[canuk cpl]

we have a scotia account it saves on fees, and never seems to be a line inside atm. always bring a few hundred cash for airport transfers, and keep my j's at end of one trip for start of next visit. Cheers!!!

[sunray]

As a fellow Canadian, I can tell you it makes no sense to change Canadian dollars to US dollars, with the intent of then converting the US dollars to Jamaican dollars. Jamaican dollars ALWAYS work in Jamaica. As far as small bills for tips, a $100 J note is worth about $1.17 Cdn. and work well for a small tip. The Scotiabank or any cambio will pay fair rates for Canadian dollars. (Hotel front desks may not offer such favourable rates of exchange on Canadian or US dollars for that matter).
On a sidenote, I have often bought ten or twenty dollars worth of loonies or twonies from a Jamaican since they cannot exchange the coins at financial institutions. It is a small favour that can help somebody out.

[justin_a_lyesse]

Thanks folks, that makes sense. I'll bring a few US$$ to get to Negril and I'll get JA$$ from the ATM once I'm there.

[CherryNorth49]

Small bills in either JA or US can sometimes be hard to come by. I know I lose a bit to the exchange buying $US before I leave Canada, but the small US bills come in really handy, especially $1s and $5s and to a lesser extent the $10s. If I remember, I went to my branch and got 30-1s, 20-5s and 15-10s before we left.

$5 a day to housekeeping (and at the right bar a pair of Redstripe), $10 for cab rides between the beach and cliffs (not trying to start a route taxi debate, that is what worked for us), $1s for tipping helpful folks along the way. We were there for a week and that seemed just about right - it all got spent.

Still being relatively new to JA$$ myself, I also found it comforting to have a more familiar currency for the first few days while we got used to JA currency.

I agree with Sunray, it doesn't make much sense to convert to CDN to US and then to JA. One of the advantages of being with a Canadian bank in Negril is how easy it is to take money out at the Scotia Bank. If you not a Scotia customer, be aware that you will be charged a fee for each transaction (RBC charged me $3.50). Plan to take out more less often, if possible. Also, make sure you know how much in JA you want when you go - it was a bit of a gut check asking the machine for $50,000.

[canuk cpl]

actually you can only take out 30,ooo j at a time, i always do that twice to save trips to the atm. sometimes you can ony get 15,000 j at a time. no prob mon! We use credit card for big dinners Ivan's at catcha falling star etc. Cheers!!!! ps- scotia account usually saves me alot of fees