First time Jamaica

Mrs_Z

We've finally booked a week's holiday to Jamaica (Yay!) but wonder about the currency.  Would we be better off taking Jamaican or US dollars?  Or can we just rely on cards like here? Are card payments widely accepted?

Recently we travelled to Denmark and didn't take or exchange any local currency, felt a bit strange but it was absolutely fine - just used cards. 

Any holiday tips also welcomed! 

saganaki20

We went to Jamaica this year for the first time, we only took US dollars and this was fine in every place we went. Well, that or card in most places. 

IvanOpinion

Card and US dollars for us.

Cheslea2010

Yep, USD all the way. Seems to be a universal currency when it comes to tipping etc

Rosa_Damascena

Mrs_Z said:

We've finally booked a week's holiday to Jamaica (Yay!) but wonder about the currency.  Would we be better off taking Jamaican or US dollars?  Or can we just rely on cards like here? Are card payments widely accepted?

Recently we travelled to Denmark and didn't take or exchange any local currency, felt a bit strange but it was absolutely fine - just used cards. 

Any holiday tips also welcomed! 

Do you have a CC provider that doesn't charge additional fees for overseas transactions or did you stick to a debit card?

Mrs_Z

Hi, yes I use Chase (debit card)  abroad, no additional fees and very competitive exchange rate. I’ve found it to be very good.

DullGreyGuy

Always find these questions odd... USD, Euro and GBP will all be easy to exchange there. Many businesses in tourist areas will accept USD but give you a lousy rate of exchange whereas with JMD is universally accepted and you won't be fleeced on the FX. 

I can somewhat understand US folk thinking their currency should be accepted the world over, most probably have no idea where Jamaica is nor that its a country with its own currency but for Brits to think the same confuses me. 

NoodleDoodleMan

"I can somewhat understand US folk thinking their currency should be accepted the world over, most probably have no idea where Jamaica is nor that its a country with its own currency but for Brits to think the same confuses me." 

We did a Caribbean cruise a few years ago - the only currency the locals were interested in was US dollars.

I went to a bank on one island (can't mind which) to exchange GBP to US$ - had to do two separate transactions - first was GBP to local currency, followed by the latter into US dollars. A single exchange deal was not permitted - the cashier explained the whys and wherefores.

Can't comment on Jamacia specifically, we stayed onboard after the Captain gave a stark cautionary personal safety briefing over the public address system about going ashore except in large groups.

DullGreyGuy

NoodleDoodleMan said:

We did a Caribbean cruise a few years ago - the only currency the locals were interested in was US dollars.

I went to a bank on one island (can't mind which) to exchange GBP to US$ - had to do two separate transactions - first was GBP to local currency, followed by the latter into US dollars. A single exchange deal was not permitted - the cashier explained the whys and wherefores.

Can't comment on Jamacia specifically, we stayed onboard after the Captain gave a stark cautionary personal safety briefing over the public address system about going ashore except in large groups.

Caribbean is made up of 13 sovereign states, 12 dependencies and 7 overseas territories and thats only if you count the islands and not the mainland.  It shouldn't be  too surprising that there are notable differences between all these separate places. 

Several islands have pegged currencies, normally to the dollar, which causes typical issues on the price of goods and will eventually be rebased at some point and those holding local currency will then massively lose out. Add to that a fair number of them also have currency controls stopping locals from buying foreign currency and yes those will want USD, though still give you a bad FX.

For those with free currencies foreign currency is just a pain, they'll have to exchange it and banks charge fees. Try spending dollars or euros in the UK, a few tourist places will take them but most won't.