“The city of New York issues eight to ten million parking tickets annually,” Jennifer Booton reports for MarketWatch. “But great news: Drivers will soon be able to use their smartphones to pay their fines instantly with mobile apps or cryptocurrencies.”
“The city’s finance department is looking into alternative payment methods like Apple Pay, PayPal and Bitcoin for the roughly $600 million in parking ticket revenue it collects annually by issuing up to 10 million tickets,” Booton reports. “There has been a proliferation of new mobile payment technologies in recent months, including Apple Inc.’s Apple Pay, which saw its share of the mobile payments market climb to 1.7% in just its first six weeks on the market.”
“Hundreds of thousands of retail locations now accept Apple Pay and PayPal – and the two are expected to grow significantly in 2015,” Booton reports. “As of now, the parking bureau’s system is pretty outdated. Drivers currently pay for tickets online, via mail or in person at the courthouse. However, the online system is not mobile friendly and credit and debit card payments are subject to a 2.5% convenience fee.”
Read more in the full article here.
Yeah, having to pay for a parking ticket, no matter how, is definitely not ‘Great News’😠
ApplePay works great for transactions the purchasers wants. I’m pretty sure traffic tickets aren’t going unpaid due to lack of an easy payment process.
Lulz….”Bitcoin”
Right now, you don’t need anything as the NYC police have virtually stopped issuing tickets.
Arrests plummet 66% with NYPD in virtual work stoppage
http://nypost.com/2014/12/29/arrests-plummet-following-execution-of-two-cops/
“Drivers will soon be able to use their smartphones to pay their fines instantly with mobile apps or cryptocurrencies.”
I wonder how many will get shot by policemen who think they are pulling out a weapon when in fact they are pulling out their iPhone to pay the ticket?
This may be more true than any of us would hope…..
Whatever can be done to make it as painless as possible.