General Chat

I have been reading an article on the BBC news website today about how councils are changing their pay & display meters to be an "App " only service. You need a smartphone and then have to download an App, open an account and then be able to pay to park.

This new service being rolled out will exclude ,many older people who may not have a Smartphone but also will not be confident in downloading the App etc.

The article says for those without a smartphone or App, you would be able to pay in a local shop! Really? What if there isn't a shop close by and then when you find one, you come back to find a parking ticket on your car!!

Also if I read it correctly, for each council you would need to download an App for each area. So if you decide to go away for the day out with your council area, you will need to download an App with whatever area you park in.

My smartphone has only 8Gb of space and currently I have about 2GB free. What if you try to download a parking App and then realise you don't have enough space on your smartphone??

I do understand that people are using less cash and its more cost effective for the council not having to empty the machines so often but why can't we just pay by debit card like we do in the supermarket? What is wrong with this system?

Does anyone have this new system in their local area?

Florence in the hebrides

Not as far as I know. Some of the car parks in the towns I use went to card payment a while ago, don’t know if they will change.

I saw that about the local shop, I think it was those that does the key top ups, can’t think of the name. And I believe they can be difficult to find.

I don’t have a smart phone and don’t always carry my mobile so parking could be fun…. not.

We came across this in a car park when we were away for a few days in March. Totally by chance I found there was still one machine that took a cash payment but it wasn't obvious and there were no direction arrows pointing to it. The council obviously didn't want people to use it.

We both have smart phones and are fairly tech savvy but we don't want to fill our phones up with unnecessary apps. I'm very much on the side of those who either can't use an app on a smart phone or don't want to.

Our council carparks are all pay by card at the moment, but a lot of locals don't use them because there is still quite a lot of free parking if you know where it is.

The article I read said 20 councils were switching, but it didn't say which ones.

I've just re read the Computer Active answer to this question. it is a shop doing PayPoint. Probably easier to find than than a public payphone if you can't get a signal.

I think a lot o fthis is down to the cost of upgrading the machines to ??G which means I won't be able to use my little mobile anyway. Grr!

I use an app to park and it’s great

As I don’t get out much having cash to put In machines is problematic cos I shop online and only get cash every so often from an atm for business who don’t do cards

I use Ringo and usually pay for two hours basic for dental appointments etc

Would sooner overpay rather than worry if the appointment is overrunning,plus if it does the app tells me I need to extend and will let me pay for more time

Takes the stress off tbh

Andysmum, I think a lot of the London councils were named. They say they are doing away with 3G so unless you have an up to date smartphone, it wont work.

Personally, there should be a choice. A cash machine, incase the net fails and you cant pay by App.

Up here, we still have a free car park and the shoppers one(max 3 hours) still takes coins. If you are an early shopper, you can park for free on the road for an hour if spaces are there or you can park a few minutes away from the centre in a side street and walk back into town.

Our Coop car park is huge and free to park all day. I once did some shopping, moved the car to the bottom of the car park and walked into town and back. The car park was virtually empty so wasn't preventing shoppers from a space.

Not against apps as such, but there should be one standard app that can be used everywhere - can't see that happening though. We holiday mostly in the UK and I always make sure I've got plenty of change before we go, for car parks. It's OK using a card or app in the big town centre places, but if you just want to explore a little place for a couple of hours, cash machines are more convenient. I also hate the machines where you have to put in your reg. number, usually the keypad is worn, and it's tiny, so you can't see what you're doing!

I am sure there are very few cash machines in this area, plenty of pay by card but I think our council were talking about at least one car park being pay by App. I think it is to do with the onset of 5G

I had to have a chuckle Shirley. there are lots saying it is hard for elderly people and to you it is easy peasy :-D :-D

I still don't understand why you cant pay by debit card? I'm sure there are many shops near car parks that let you pay for items by debit card so how come these machines cant do the same? If they are on 3G, surely all it would take is for the system to be upgraded just as other companies and small shops have to do?

If smaller individual businesses can upgrade than a huge corporation such as the council must be able to do this.

I already have enough Apps on my phone and don't need anymore!

Edit: I'm not a driver anymore but still take an interest on behalf of friends and family. My dad does not have a smartphone and refuses to have one and im sure there are many others like him.

The car parks around here (London Borough) use RingGo too....I wonder whether it is a Nationwide App :-)

I like Shirley find the App great. When I haven't been able to connect on the App I just phone the number by the car park machine and it automatically marries my mobile number up to my RingGo Account. It is very quick and easy :-)

I think the alternative is to pay by card at the machine but like Sheila I hated doing that because not only do you have to type the car reg but the long card number as well and often the display keypad is small and and it is difficult to see the display especially when it is sunny :-(

Although I was dubious about using the App at first, it works fine for me now:-)

I’ve never had to type in the card number. Choose between tap and go or slot the card in.

Same here Belle.

Our local car parks allow you to tap the card on the machine so no need to put in any numbers.

I don’t need to carry cash as every shop in our village allows a card payment without a minimum payment.

I’m with Shirley on this one learn to use the system whilst you are still able.

In my case in is not about learning to use the system it is that I hardly use my little mobile and have enough to lug about without a huge smart phone.

Even when I do have to give in when my mobile won’t work any more the parking apps are probably the only thing to get loaded as I have no wish to read stuff on a tiny screen. Fiddling around with 2 pairs of glasses plus the phone in public leaves me open to all sorts of issues. Also, whenever OH passes his over I do something wrong and he has to right it.

I don't use the machine but stand corrected :-D. Think you still have to put the car reg in though :-)

There are some up sides to parking machines not working.

We parked in our local town last week and there was a notice on the machine saying it

was not working.

The instructions said to proceed to the exit and you would not be charged :-D :-D

But if you cant get a signal, then what? The scanners in the carpark scan your reg and if you haven't paid, you will get a fine. Even if you set off to look for a shop with a pay point by the time you come back, chances are you have a fine.

At least when our machines were both out of order, I simply took a pic of the screen and kept it for 6 months so if i got a fine, I had evidence of why I hadn't purchased a ticket.

Also what about foreign tourists who come here with a car. How on earth will they managed to download an App now as its not free is it? Dad went to Greece in April and had to pay £20 for 2 weeks worth of calls whilst on holiday.(ise to be free).

I checked our local website re parking and ours are still good old fashioned pay & display coins :-D

Trouble with one of the machines in a car park not working you have to check all the others because one of the WILL be working.

:-D :-D :-D ' names well I did but we only have 2!

RingGo App is free :-)