Headie Aster / 10 July 2025 / Categories: City, Transportation & Parking

Parking the Pay By Phone app and the price of convenience

You could be paying 20% more by using a parking app

I’ve got used to using my smart phone to park. In London they’ve completely done away with machines you can put money in so I am in the habit of using one of the few parking apps available depending on where you are across the country, Pay By Phone, Sippi, Ringo, there’s a few different ones.

I would never have discovered in a local car park in Leicestershire I paid a 20% premium for the privilege and convenience of using an app had it not been for an older gentleman asking for my assistance on how he might pay for his parking without the aid of a smartphone.

Yes there are people left in the world whose whole life is not centred around their phone.

I am still in the habit of keeping loose change in the ashtray in the car for grabbing a quick cup of coffee or historically paying for parking, a practise I have been forced to abandon in favour of digital app convenience training and too many times encountering poorly maintained payment terminals that eat your money, something that has happened to me quite a bit in the past.

Tasked with offering assistance to someone without a smartphone phone I discovered the same parking period would have been 20% cheaper had I paid cash and not used the Pay By Phone app. Which admittedly isn’t much money when the time purchase is short but in high value neighbourhoods that 20% can be significant.

I don’t know if it is true for all car parks and on street parking spaces across the UK but might be worth considering if you happen to park somewhere where paying with cash is still an option.

Of course the app doesn’t tell you would save money by not using it.

Personally I don’t find it that big a deal to pop money in the machine if the option is available and the parking payment machine actually works.

If you spend a lot on parking like me it could work out at quite a saving over the whole year paying cash instead even if you have a smartphone and are comfortable using the technology.

I am all for progress but surely technology should make things cheaper and easier for the community. I don’t see the value in technology if I can save 20% just by putting money in a machine instead. Where’s the value for me in that?