money in negril

[Yvonne]

One word of "warning" for non-Americans - if you're using a non-Jamaican credit card at the Hi-Lo (in Negril - don't know about MoBay) it is company policy (we were told) to convert your purchases to USD and charge the credit card in that currency. They will NOT charge your credit card in JA$, so you're effectively paying to convert 2x. Unless you're buying a lot, it really doesn't make a huge difference, but it is annoying none the less. The rate they were using to convert to US was 96:1, so what would have cost about $103 CAD if we'd been charged in JA$ ended up costing $111.69 CAD. Lesson learned, we'll probably just use cash there in the future...

Good advice. The exchange rate they use is also very low. When I realized this is what happens, back to strictly cash - J$. I believe the standard credit card fee for foreign transactions is 3% of the charge. BTW... doesn't matter if it's charged in US$ or J$, you still pay the exchange fee.