Greetings from the Internet hut/Library at Round Hill Resort & Spa in
Montego Bay, Jamaica (www.roundhilljamaica.com)! This is the 2nd half
of our Caribbean vacation. The first half was at the Jalousie Hilton
Resort & Spa in St. Lucia (www.jalousie-hilton.com).

So far our trip has been free of any major disruptions. There has been a
minor one however: Before departing on our trip, I thought I was being
prepared/clever and ordered some East Caribbean Dollars (XCD) and
Jamaican Dollars (JD) from Bank of America. These were to take care of
porters, taxis etc after we arrived (also to avoid the expensive exchange
service fees). Well it turns out that about half of the XCD notes BofA
sent me are old, very old…so old, in fact, that the clerk at the gift
store (who was about 16) didn’t even recognize them and she almost
thought they counterfeit notes!!! She had to call a manager for help.
Well here in the US that wouldn’t be a big deal because even if the US
changes the design of the dollar, all previous designs are still honored.
Not so with the East Caribbean Central Bank! All those old notes are
worthless and should be used for wallpaper according to a bank clerk!

After trying various 800/888 numbers for BofA, I realized that not all
toll-free numbers work *from* the Caribbean *back to* the US. I finally
reached the foreign exchange section in San Francisco and they are going
to look into the matter. We’ll see how my refund goes when I get back.

Ecchh. Another reason in my book to avoid exchanging money in the US before going abroad.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jonesing:
(also to avoid the expensive exchange
service fees). </font>

If I may ask, what fees did you pay to BofA for the currency exchange? The one time I tried to do this through my local bank (not BofA by any stretch) the fees were astronomical.

An ATM has always worked best for me. In the Carribean, US$ work better than local currency for tips, etc.

PDH

Please keep us posted on the results of them "looking into it".

Hope the rest of the trip goes well.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by pdhenry:
If I may ask, what fees did you pay to BofA for the currency exchange? The one time I tried to do this through my local bank (not BofA by any stretch) the fees were astronomical.</font>

Well I didn't pay any service fees like you would at a Thomas Cooke/Travelex or cambio in town. Since I have a "preferred" packaged account, I get all my currency and travelers cheque orders fulfilled online for free--even the Amex dual signature cheques and foreign denominated cheques.

All I do is pay their exchange rate (which is on par to www.xe.com (http://www.xe.com) for most currencies) and the order is shipped to my home or a branch of my choosing via UPS 2nd day (but almost always arrives overnight). So, the whole process is so drop-dead-easy for a slacker like me that I couldn't help myself http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/biggrin.gif

[This message has been edited by jonesing (edited 11-03-2002).]

[This message has been edited by jonesing (edited 11-03-2002).]

Situation resolved! Got a phone call from a rep in their currency vault. He checked and the East Caribbean Dollar was last changed in 1993!!! The still have "a significant amount" of this now useless money! They will take mine back at the same rate they saold it. However, the $120 XCD that I have left over they will take back at the buy rate which is slightly less.