Tipping, worked out before the card machine arrives

A small, recurring, entirely avoidable moment of stress.

The bill arrives in a currency you have had for four hours, for an amount with more digits than you are used to, and someone is standing next to the table waiting. You are now doing percentage arithmetic under mild social pressure, on a number you cannot yet feel the size of.

It is a small problem. It is also one that happens most nights of a trip.

What it does

Enter the bill, choose a percentage, and see the tip and the total in both the local currency and your own. Because it sits inside the converter, the amount is already in the currency you are holding — there is no separate app, and no re-typing a number you just converted.

Like everything else in RoamRate, it works with no connection.

What it deliberately does not do

It does not tell you whether to tip, or how much is expected where you are. Tipping norms vary enormously — between countries, between a restaurant and a taxi, and between a tourist district and a suburb — and they change. An app that confidently asserted "15% in this country" would be wrong often enough to be worse than useless, and we would rather ship a calculator that is always right than a guide that is sometimes wrong.

Ask locally, or check a source that maintains this properly. Then use the calculator for the arithmetic.

Where it fits

The tipping calculator is part of the $4.99 unlock alongside all 150+ currencies and the complete Local Price Index. One payment — most converters now charge more than that every year.