Disproportional parking fines

Passed my test at 17, 47 now. Never had a parking ticket. Not one.

If it’s your first time not paying the Dart charge you can ring them and they may well waive it. Happened to a few people I know. You have nothing to lose.

I agree with you - modern life is challenging. You’ve got to be permanently switched on to not inadvertently get fined or in some other trouble. Especially when you’re doing your best. My brain isn’t wired that way and it’s hard work!

So you're super busy, and didnt get round to paying your fines?

We're all busy, but most of us manage

As someone who's never used the Dartford crossing, I wouldn't have known in advance to pay, but forgetting after the fact is on you. It's also never going to be acceptable to park in a taxi rank.

I'm sorry it's all come at once but they're high for a reason. They're supposed to be a deterrent.

They’re only disproportionately large if you firstly don’t pay, then secondly don’t respond within the states timeframe. Most (all) parking fines are much lower if you pay quickly so not having time (being bothered) to get round to it meaning you pay more, I think you can put down as a self inflicted loss.

If you use waze, you can ask it to give both toll and toll free routes.

but you also say this, @NameChangeParkingProblem

I drove over the bridge for a holiday trip with my children

So unless you weren't aware of the Dart Charge (which is fair) then you would have known in a way that this was en route.

Anyways I feel like I'm veering into being difficult and I don't mean to -

My suggestion (if helpful) is to try and pre-plan where you're going and look up any tolls. But also if you're this way inclined, you can use Siri or equivalent to remind you.

I press a steering wheel button to do it while driving, but my sister uses a phone cradle with her car and she can legally then press the button and do the same. As long as you're not holding the phone handset in your hand while driving of course!! then you can make that reminder happen on the post. * *

Seriously, there are signs everywhere!

Sympathy about the broken machines. There should be no need to use an app to pay for parking, you should be able to pay online, or ideally at a working machine by credit/debit card.

The taxi rank to me should be points on your licence not a fine in my opinion, so you can have your day in court and plead your case if you wish.

Yes, the signs are so visible that if you missed them, I'm not sure you should be driving.

The Dartford toll has been in place for years, and is very well signed for miles. If you couldnt see the signs, what else did you miss ;)

My experience is the reverse - I don't think the fines are high enough in some places. Take the notoriously anti-car Brighton. Very difficult to park anywhere free or at reasonable cost in the town/city centre for more than an hour or two. Yet a parking ticket is only £70, reduced to £35 if you pay within 14 days. As a result, I park in any bay near where I need to be, and take my chances on a fine. As a day in a long stay car park is at least £25. And the chances of getting a parking ticket are less than 100% A £100 fine with no discount for propmt payment would make me think twice - but £35 does not.

Isn't it quite unusual not to have a pick up/drop off point outside a station?

I've had 3 Dartford Crossing fines waived.
One - I simply forgot to pay. Rang and explained, they could see my crossing history that it was a one-off and waived the fine.
Next - We changed vehicle, but it was exactly the same model as the old one. Meaning that when I checked my Dart Charge account with a quick scan I failed to notice that the vehicle was right, but the number plate was the old car. They waived again.
Finally - I did the crossing in a hire car, went on to my Dart Charge account when I got home and added the car. I didn't realise that they wouldn't take the toll money, because you get 24 hours to pay. They waived that fine too.
I call that great customer service to be fair.

You just need to sign up to auto pay and Ringo. I manage not to accrue parking/toll/ulez/congestion/ zone fines. Register your car, register your card.

It’s horrible. Car parking customer service is shitty.

Always get the app eg. RingGo and JustPark so you don’t have to use machines. Doesn’t help for tolls but you can set up auto pay accounts for the Dartford crossing.

So... you are telling friends to get taxis and not going out as much because you couldn't manage to remember to pay the Dartford Crossing Charge, parked in a taxi space and didn't get around to disputing two parking fines? Pretty daft isn't it?
Did you contact Dart Charge about the Dartford Crossing incident? They usually waive the fine for the first offence.

Parking fines are meant to be frustrating. The trouble is, everyone thinks their reason for parking illegally is justified "just that once".

I have a friend who is very well off. She’s always getting fines because she can easily afford to pay them. Could you ask your friend to pay half of your fine?

@JacquesHarlow

autopay for the dartford crossing works the same. So easy.

That is bad luck. Sorry you’ve had multiple things go wrong in a short space of time - it’s shit.

I got caught out on the Dartford crossing on the way to a funeral and once I’d paid off the fine, I set up the dart charge and the automatic congestion charge payment so that it didn’t happen again.

What do you mean you called and left a message?! With who? Most pay machines have ringo now. Download the app.