New York City Considering Accepting Apple Pay For Parking Tickets

New York City is currently mulling the idea of having its drivers instantly pay for parking ticket fines by using Apple Pay, the mobile payment system created and launched by Apple a few months ago. Apart from Apple Pay, the city is also considering accepting other mobile apps and even Bitcoin as options for paying the parking tickets.

As reported by MarketWatch, New York City issues roughly 10 million parking tickets every year. From these tickets, it collects about $600 million in payments. 

The current payment system used by the city, however, is a bit outdated. People with parking fines can only make their payments online, via post mail, or personally at the courthouse. And if they fail to pay the fines on time, the late fees could accumulate (they are usually applied 30 days after the date of issuance of the parking ticket). 

As for the existing online payment system, it is not compatible with mobile devices. Plus, credit and debit card payments are subject to a 2.5 percent convenience charge.

New York City is working to change all that. With the use of cryptocurrencies and mobile apps, they could make the parking ticket payment process a lot faster and even easier for offenders. More importantly, the city would be able to minimize losses from unpaid fines.

Of course, if a new payment system is put in place, there should be requirements that need to be met in order to facilitate and validate payment. The Department of Finance of New York City has outlined these requirements, specifically noting that the system should let users take a picture of a parking ticket, or even better, scan the ticket in order to see the details of the parking violation.

Additionally, city officials further stress that the graphical user interface (GUI) of the new payment system should be simple enough for most people to use, and should facilitate quick and easy payments that meet payment-industry security standards.

By considering alternative payment methods, New York City is definitely taking a bold progressive step forward. Over the last few years, new mobile payment technologies have emerged, the most popular of which is Apple Pay which was released in late 2014. Apple Pay and the ever reliable PayPal are now being accepted by thousands of retail stores and establishments. 

Even bitcoin is growing in popularity. Business entities such as Overstock.com and Microsoft now accept bitcoin for specific items bought online.

As of now, no definite plans have been finalized. But New York City has already issued a Request for Information (due January 15th) to get more information about potential payment systems.