anyone else a magnet for overcharges?

It could be a couple of things. Everything you buy might be $20 more than you expect it to be because PR has some surprisingly high prices on things.The ice cream I buy here in Florida is $3 at Walmart. At Walmart in PR that same carton of ice cream is $7.59! The other thing is that some people will take advantage of you if they know you are Gringa. It happens. It's universal. Stuff like that happens all over the world. It's happened to me there. I was trying to buy a used auto part one time and the guy obviously knew I was Gringo. So He gave me this outrageous price for it. My wife(who is Puerto Rican) was walking around the corner of the building at at the same time and heard what he said and lit into the guy. It didn't happen often but one should always be careful. Taxes are high too and sometimes we don't figure them into the total beforehand.

I've never been overcharged (that is, compared to what a native Puerto Rican would be charged). Puerto Rico is exceptionally good in that way. Are you sure the higher costs are not due to sales tax?

It doesn't happen to me..

What kind of bills are you talking about, a_c?

Actually I just meant when going out, like at restaurants. I am not the type to speak up for myself so it's a bit difficult to always have to say, uh, I think this is incorrect....  Just a quirky thing that I noticed. I guess it's just me

Actually, thinking about it, it happened to me once in a restaurant here in PR. After I complained I got the correct bill and two free desserts.

Very strange. Tips (la propina) work the same as continental US: they're typically not automatically added unless it's a large party. Were they cover charges? I've never gone anywhere here fancy enough to charge them... Maybe post a scan of those portions of the receipts?

i just returned from seven weeks on the island and ate almost all meals at restaurants...i estimate the propina was built into the bill 75 percent of the time.