to think "convenience fees" on parking apps are ridiculous & unfair?

[MargoLivebetter]

Very happy to be proven wrong if someone can persuade me that it is not ridiculous & unfair for parking companies to charge a 20p "convenience fee" for you using their parking app.

Surely it is more convenient for the parking company to have you use their app, which is managed centrally. The physical parking machines have to be serviced and checked and so on. Or am I missing something?

Total rip off in those locations where there is no choice.

No. I mean it is a convenience. They have to administer the app - cost of development and updating it. Plus there are the micro fees charged by and credit card use. Plus features like topping up make it more convenient than meters. I think the winners are the councils as they don’t have to pay to maintain the meters. The apps are privately owned.

and they used to have to pay for machines and for paper and printing and people to empty machines and restock consumables, and repair them

No its a cost that should be included in the ticket price (like concert tickets should be!)

😅 Come off it!!

I am unmoved by it. 20p is a tiny amount for what is, to me, a much more convenient way to pay

I agree with you. Sectors like this are full of cons and sludge practices that would be banned in other sectors (such as financial services - imagine the headlines if banking apps charged you for reminders or something).

It’s a total rip off, especially when you have to use an app to pay for parking. It’s also a total rip-off when you’re paying seven quid for a couple of hours parking also which really gets my goat.

It’s the fee for using the app, obvs. The actual parking cost goes to the council.

I noticed a few months ago that the one I use most regularly was charging me 20p a time to send me a text message telling me I had paid, when I had the app which has a screen showing my current session anyway. Was annoyed at how long I'd been paying for it without realising!

(Commuter parking, so it's done by the day, not hourly)

I think it should be paid for by the car park owner, who is benefitting from the saving on ticket machines and ticket inspector time.

That said, I can't really get riled up about 20p.

One of the most useful things about using a parking app is you can extend your parking length of time via the app😊