Cash/credit card?

[Yvonne]

And we have always used our credit card to pay for dinners and when we stock up at the HiLo and never had an issue and we have been to Negril 5 times. But we do always take cash in case we can't use our CC ...

You are being given a low exchange rate at HiLo if you use your cc. They convert your charges in J$ to C$. I could only give you US - J examples since I don't know what the Canadian - J exchange rate is. The rate they give you when converting $$$ is NOT in your favor, that's for sure. Unless Canadian banking fees are different, you're also being hit w/ a % fee for currency conversion regardless of the charge being in Canadian, US, or J$.

[nutz4travel]

Mega Mart put through the charge in Jamaican dollars and my bank converted to CDN. The rate is very close to the rate I paid at the ATM & to buy the Jamaican dollars before I left. No extra charges, sure the conversion is buried in the rate, but that is also the case when I withdraw cash from the ATM. These are the rates I paid, not a big difference at the end of the day:

JA$ bought in Canada .011700
Scotia ATM wd in Negril .011002 & .011038
Visa charge (Mega Mart) .011037