Dear Editor.
Some time ago I wrote to you about how the Cayman Islands was probably the only country in the world that did not charge credit cards in its own currency. As a result, by changing what has been spent from Cayman dollars to US dollars by dividing by 0.8 means that cardholders are paying more than they have spent.
Imagine my surprise and pleasure when a few weeks ago after handing in my American Express credit card I was asked if I would like to pay in Cayman dollars. Since then, I have used this card all of the time.
There are problems when some outlets claim that their machine will not allow it, when other outlets of the same company do it with no problem.
Let us hope that this will be sorted out and that soon all credit cards here will be charged in Cayman dollars and tourists and residents alike will no longer be ‘legally’ robbed.
George Tustin
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I think you may be confused in whats actually happening. Credit cards Visa MasterCard and especially American Express are payment venues that are all US based credit systems and networks. Unless you have a credit card that is issued by a bank in the Cayman Islands that is in Cayman Islands Dollars. So, all credit cards across the world are for the most part US dollar cards. When it comes to merchant terminals here in Cayman the terminal once the card is swiped bring up the currency that, that card is based in, which as for credit cards is like I said almost always US dollars and if its an American Express card it will definitely be in only US. Some terminals in Cayman for US credit cards may not have an auto conversion within its operating system or it may not be set up to auto conversion. Thats why when you are paying for something that is priced in Cayman dollars and its a US card the merchant will have to manually convert the Cayman Islands Dollar amount to United States Dollars using a calculator at ÷ 0.80 as USD is worth less than the Cayman Islands dollar. When you were asked if you want to pay in Cayman Dollars e.g., $100 for an item using your USD card, the merchant may have asked you if you wanted to pay in Cayman Dollars as the have a terminal that auto converts, the others may not have had one like that. So whether you paid in USD or KYD for an item that is for $100.00 KYD using that same USD card, you are still paying more in USD at the same conversion rate $0.80. If you go and look at your statement for the card where you believe you paid in Cayman Islands dollars KYD its still coming out of a USD amount and what you paid in KYD the $100.00 KYD will still come out of your USD on the credit card as $125.00 USD. Some merchants may vary in the conversion e.g., some may be $0.80 or $0.82 but when paying with a US card and the merchant asking if you would like to pay in Cayman Islands dollars does not mean you are paying both $100 KYD and $100 USD. You are still paying the conversion rate from Cayman Islands Dollars to United States Dollars its just that the merchant doesn’t have to manually calculate it and it may be set in the merchant terminal as either $0.82 or $0.80. So everything is the same and you did not save anything by being charged in KYD on a USD credit card, and no one is legally robbing you its just that the Cayman Islands Dollar is more valuable than the US dollar and its nothing to do with inflation in the US, the Cayman Islands dollar is a pegged currency that does not run on a money market or fluctuate. It’s been pegged at that rate since the 1970s.
Proof that thousands of tourists and residents are robbed.
If I spend 240 KYD at todays rate my card company charges me 288.21 USD .
Outlet divides by 0.8 charges me 300 USD
Outlet divides by 0.82 charges me 288.21 USD
HOW IS THIS NOT ROBBERY ?
Sorry, error in copying outlet dividing by .82 charges 292.68 USD Why can they choose to divide by .8 or .82 ?