Paying for car parking

Difficult to vandal proof when you think that robbers take chain saws to ATMs! I read some countries are going cashless!

One of our car parks in town had a number recognition system. We could either pay on our way out or, register car numbers with the council and open an account. At the end of the month, the charges were taken out by Direct Debit.
I found it very useful, particularly as this is the car park next to the theatre. Getting out after a show means long queues at the machines while numbers are tapped in and payment made. However, it had to be changed as, apparently, the system goes against some regulation. (GDPR perhaps?).
Now, people start leaving the theatre before the end of the show to avoid the queues.

The way to vandal-proof ticket machines is to exclude the use of cash.

Yes, much prefer cash to pay for parking.

Seen far too many people who have had problems sorting out machines that won’t take the card details etc.

If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,
And make the machines vandal proof.

If you own a car you have a card. But save us from those demands to pay by phone. Our PAYG phones cannot take it.

Or try real money!

We are fortunate to have free parking in our three local towns and out of town shopping centres. I won't shop anywhere that charges for parking. I feel that with the decline of town centres, the council's should make the shopping experience easier and more welcoming, instead of more difficult and expensive.

Over 65's in our area can pay £30 for the year and get up to 3 hours parking free in most car parks in our small town and neighbouring larger one - you get a disc and clock a bit like the disabled badge holder one. If you wish to stay more than 3 hours you can pay the difference. However at our local railway station the car park ticket machines are so complicated you can miss a train whilst trying to pay!

Just looked into buying an annual Car Park pass for Windsor Great Park. (Christmas present for DD!) If her husband drives rather than she, they are supposed to have another pass! At £70 a year, this seems more than unreasonable. Or am I just mean?

PamelaJ1 it sounds like your service provider doesn't trust the site.
My advice to you is in future turn off your Wi-Fi on your phone before you try logging in/on to the app and making a payment.
Good luck

I go to the car park in town where you pay when you come back to your car, only paying for the time used. I like using coins because I can empty my purse of all the small five pence coins.

Our county council has an app that works over the whole county (Wiltshire) to pay for parking so no need for cards. A lot of car parks now have pay by app or pay by text. Much simpler and no risk of a ticket if you don't have change. I did come back to my car once and find a warden standing by it with his machine - he thought I hadn't paid and was waiting for the machine to get a signal to check! Luckily I'd just had the reminder text (20p extra!) so could show him!

I live in the Cambridgeshire Fens. Ely March and Chatteris all have free parking. Park and ride into Cambridge is small for parking and I use my pass for bus.

How does France and Spain manage their car parking which is frequently free ?

Paying by cash enables people to be free and private and denying individuals this right is another step in the direction of an Orwellian, authoritarian society.

I use an app called RingGo. It works very well and saves trying to find £1 coins. It brings up the numbers of the parking meters near you. I click on that. Then it brings up my car number and I select how long I am going to be. If I have a different car I can enter it’s number instead It then tells me how much it will cost and I press accept. It texts me when I get within 10 mins of using up all my time and offers me the opportunity to extend the time without having to go back to the car. Then it sends me a receipt by email. Saves a lot of faffing.

It is constantly assumed that everybody has smart phones and are computer savvy. The problem is that all these schemes are thought up by young whizz-kids (that phrase dates me ?). It's similar to a young financial adviser who couldn't understand why I didn't want to tie up most of my savings in 10 year schemes.

Town councils wonder why town centres are dying - do they not realise that parking charges are adding to the reasons?
People would rather drive to out-of-town shopping centres where there is plenty of free parking.

The new machines in our area give the choice cash or card.

I hardly ever go into our town centre but if I do. I use Debenhams car park-like an hour's free parking..that's enough for me..don't stay long would rather jump on the train and go into Manchester!!

Totally agree Jamila - shop rates, rentals, difficult and expensive car parking have all added to the decline. It seems councils would rather have empty shops than do anything to encourage shoppers.

Sorry - Jalima!

I think most people could pay by card if they chose to, but it's the option to pay by cash or card, and not have the card only option. We prefer to pay car parking by cash if possible. At our local hospital this was a real advantage. Having had many appointments for regular treatment for over nine months, we found the queues so long for the card option that we always took cash to pay. There are three pay machines at our local hospital which is a very large training hospital as well. One pay machine inside, two outside. We would use the inside one, and be back to our car while the queues were snaking around the car parks as we drove out. Sometimes having the option is preferable in many cases.

You would be surprised at how many people on low incomes don’t have accounts with debit cards only a cash card this is because many of them have poor credit and banks won’t offer a normal bank account or else because they worry about getting over drawn. Some of these people will also be running cars so I imagine this new trend will be very unwelcome! Also I have noticed that there is a hefty surcharge added for paying in this way! My local car park charges £1 for two hours parking using the machine but adds 40p if using your card!
I do use the app on my phone but resent the profit made by the council on paying by card!

I went to a funeral in a busy area of London and found I had to phone up to pay for my car. I would have gone by bus but following the service I had to cross town and out of London to the crematorium and couldn’t have done it on public transport.

I’m afraid I phoned my daughter, gave her my card number and details of the zone I was in and she did it for me. I’m becoming chicken in my old age.

Firstly, we who do not own mobile 'phones are definitely starting to feel discriminated against. Everything these days is App this, App that, App the other.
Secondly, all our car parks here in our area of France are free, especially in large supermarket areas. However, across the border in Swizzle, some stores have been charging for parking. We simply do not go there and shop elsewhere that is free.