NYC Contemplating Mobile Payment Option For Parking Tickets

Paying off parking tickets is about to get a modern world makeover, at least in New York City, where officials are looking into opening up mobile payment options. Among those options could be PayPal, Apple Pay, and even Bitcoin, giving those on the unfortunate end of a parking violation citation the ability to quickly pay it off using their smartphone. The plan is still a work in progress, however, and for now residents are left with more archaic — and time consuming — options.

Thus far city residents are able to pay off parking violations by heading on down to the courthouse, mailing in a check, or — the most modern option thus far available — paying online, though as MarketWatch points out, that latter option involves paying an extra percentage as a convenience fee.

By embracing mobile payment options, citations could be paid by firing up an app, and if all goes as anticipated, it'll also decrease the number of unpaid violations by making the entire process faster and more convenient. The project is still being looked into, and so thus far there's no single system that is guaranteed to be implemented.

Among the ideas being tossed around is the ability to scan a barcode on a citation using a smartphone, which will link to details and a mobile payment option. In another proposed method, residents would snap an image of the citation instead.

SOURCE: MarketWatch