BS: Parking ticket payments in UK

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 04:00 PM

I have a smartphone but it has nothing to do with banking or payment on it, that is for my peace of mind and I'm not changing that just to park a car.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: DaveRo
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 02:09 PM

The plethora of different parking apps seems to reducing around where I live - Ringgo is everywhere. I read recently that a single parking app might appear
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2025/may/21/uk-wide-parking-app-to-be-rolled-out-by-industry-bodies-after-pilot-scheme

I think a country-wide prepaid contactless card - like Oyster (London's prepaid underground card) - would be a good option for those without smartphones. A reader would be very cheap compared with most carpark machines. It would include the car reg, so no need for a keyboard or display beyond a one-line LED one that confirms the transaction.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 12:42 PM

"I either use the code"

By which I mean the existing car park ID stored in the app on my phone.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 12:40 PM

I don't use the QR codes on car park signs - I either use the code or let the app search my location and give me the actual address of the car park I'm in (this is on PaybyPhone). In our local car parks, you put your number in the parking machine, select the time required, and hold your phone (or card) to the reader. Been doing this for several years now, no problems.

The benefit of the apps is that they text you when your parking is about to expire, and give you the option of extending your stay - if you choose the latter you get an email to confirm.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: DaveRo
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 12:26 PM

There have been many cases in the UK of scammers pasting false QR codes on top of the ones on car park signs, which take you to a fake payments site. I've seen them myself. If they took more trouble to fix them straight they'd catch more people. But I think they employ youngsters to put them up who are not incentivised to do it carefully.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 10:13 AM

I have resisted adding a payment method into my phone for near field (NFC) payments because it seems like one more way to trip yourself up. Turn off NFC if you're not using it is good advice until you forget.

There is a parking lot at a favorite restaurant that displays a QR code in the lot, connecting you with the payment system. If I wait to get into the restaurant and scan the parking QR code in there it knows I'm a diner and gives two-hours complementary parking. I have to remember to "un-park" when I leave. I still have a few coins in the console of the SUV for parking if needed, but haven't actually seen a coin-fed meter in years.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: r.padgett
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 09:39 AM

OK yes I have a simple mobile phone ~ no smart phone/cell phone

The simplest way is by Car reg and the debit card imv

Ray

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: DaveRo
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 07:14 AM

You can pay for parking with RingGo, once you've created an account, by sending a single text message.

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: r.padgett
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 06:09 AM

Yes Robin Sheffield pubs like Kelham Tavern ~ KIT and Shakespeare
(Gibraltar St) are of the past ~ folkie venues

I will stay at home and out of the big bad city

Ray

Helen yes my phone is for me to make and take phone calls and text messages only and emergencies

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 06:03 AM

I’m 79 and you guys are making me feel like a kid again!

I’ve had a Smartphone forever - Android, I’m not getting dragged on to the Apple bandwagon - and as well as the usual calls ‘n’ texts, I use it to pay for shopping, posh coffees in posh coffee shops (as a teetotaller/non-smoker, posh coffees in posh coffee shops are my personal indulgence!), and, when I’m away from home, for sending and answering emails, PMs etc., getting directions to places using Google Maps, and…(Gasp!)…paying for PARKING!

I very much prefer paying for parking by phone. No need to fart around searching for change, pissing off others who are in the queue behind me while I fumble around in my trousers’ pockets, and the frustration when I don’t have enough - just hold my phone to the reader and it’s ‘Job’s a good ‘un’. I also like the PayByPhone app, where you enter the car-park’s unique code into the app, tell it your car Reg. and how long you want to park for, and confirm the payment - job done, simples!

As my (28 years my junior) wife constantly tells me, “Get with the program, grandad!”. :-) ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 04:42 AM

I don't go to Sheffield anymore.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: Helen
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 03:57 AM

Ray, that is a very similar issue to when we were in the COVID pandemic here in Australia. We all had to show an ID to get into supermarkets and other public places. It was a QR code and the government seemed to be acting on the assumption that we all had smart phones.

I choose to keep my phone dumb. I don't access data on it, I just use it as a phone and to send and receive text messages. It was only after people like me jumped up and down that the government decided on an alternative, i.e. download a QR code from their website and print it out, or go to their shopfront in person and ask for one.

It's the first time in my life when I felt that I was being discriminated against for being old. The other funny thing was the way the young-uns looked down their noses at me when I said I didn't have a smart phone. I used to wait for that and laugh quietly to myself because they were so predictable. :-D

Subject: RE: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: DaveRo
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 03:52 AM

r.padgett wrote: I have no mobile phone

No mobile phone or no smartphone? You don't actually need a smartphone to park with many operators, RingGo for example.

Subject: BS: Parking ticket payments in UK
From: r.padgett
Date: 05 Apr 26 - 02:19 AM

So cars and other vehicles in UK are getting more and more by the minute

A recent trip to Sheffield was a night mare ~ roads blocked off and parking meters that I have not seen the like of and a major parking lot being effectively mobile only

I am past 75 years old ~ I have no mobile phone ~ I park daily and coins, card payment and mobile are all available ~ it is frustrating when a card payment facility is not working and have no coins ~ find a different car park ~ no costly mobile is out of the question

Mobile only is preferred by the parking people, but this is indicative of the mad rush to collect payments and the drivers are simply cash cows ~ where in heaven has the humanity gone

IT technology is a tortoise and hare case ~ I do not like being ripped off and facilitis should not be there for the well off and or savvy people # keep it simple and try to avoid early death of the old drivers


The car park signs in Sheffield refer to basic but then go on to refer to web site information ~ as I say I do not have a smart phone and just how can it be that simple payment of a ticket becomes so difficult?

Ray