If it has a ticketing or payment collection machine, they will know. Just enter your rego on the way back to the car. The display will advise if it’s free or the fee to be paid to exit. Some machines take cash or card. Others card only. I’ve used at least 4 different facilities in the broader Brisbane area recently.
Doubtless paying by card creates some linkage to the service and record of times and rego. It’s the same to park at the Airport or any major automated city car park. As a bonus for Westfield etc one can become part of their customer programs. Optionally providing your rego and gaining extra free parking (limited offer). Add the Westfield App and free internet in store it’s likely one has agreed knowingly. We do not participate. Although every transaction leaves a marker in some small way.
When we lived in Brisbane the companies which provided the automatic number recognition using driveby cameras mounted on cars installed their own signage at the shops in question. This gave a clear indication that surveillance services had been paid for and contracted out. Our few of our local shops had service provider specific signage and we often saw a small car with roof rack mounted cameras patrolling the carpark.
There were centres which had their own signage and assumed they weren’t patrolled as never saw vehicles. One centre we went to at Annerley, shop staff did a visual surveillance and sometimes asked questions. They had a problem of their carpark being used by hospital visitors to avoid parking charges (in the street or dedicated carpark)
At Sunnybank, one of the shopping centres installed above car monitoring system (red and green light to indicate vacancy). The signage indicated that the system also monitored for overstayers … commuters using the carpark was a known problem. I am not sure if the camera system installed logged number plates of overstayers or just flagged when a carpark was occupied greater than a specified time.
Major shopping centres had boom gate ticket systems (e.g. Garden City) or number plate recognition system on entry/exit (e.g. Indooroopilly). These systems were more sophisticated and one had to pay any parking fees accrued before departure otherwise the exiting boom gates wouldn’t open.
Actually this is not so in every car park with registration plate recognition. I was in a car park I have been in many times, however, on this occasion the ‘free’ period had been reduced to 2 hours. I was visiting a gym in the centre and returned to my car just over the 2 hours. I attempted to drive out as usual when I was stopped and a fee of $4 demanded. I had apparently overstayed by 14 minutes. All well and good BUT the only payment method was credit card which I did not have. I offered cash and was sent to a machine. The machine did not accept cash! I return to the gate only to be accused of refusing to pay the fee. I disagreed and held up the $5 I had to prove I had the money. Back and forth we went. I asked for security to be sent down and was told they had all gone home . It was about 6.30pm and some shops in the centre were still open! I was forced to hand over my full name, registration number and a phone number to a disembodied voice before they raised the gate and let me out. I must admit I did ask if they were going to issue a summons for the $4 I was more than willing to pay them in cash.
My point in all this is that not everyone has a credit card (or has it on them 24/7), or uses mobile banking (I don’t use my phone to pay for anything) and whilst cash is legal tender, there should always be the option of paying cash.
Cash handling machines are expensive to run. You need to be able handle all sorts notes in various states of presentation. Needs security services to clear note bins, and handle change bins.
Would you agree to a cash handling surcharge to cover the costs?
In these times of credit and debit card surcharges that is an interesting juxtaposition. Since there was no credit/debit surcharge reported at the car park, a cash surcharge? [Would that be priceless, or] 1.5%?
So, you pull up at the gate, and your free parking time has expired. The machine says $4 to be paid before the gate will open and let you out.
You can use a card, or the machine is also set up for cash handling and the extra complexity of that as I previously said.
If cash option selected, would you accept a charge of say $1 on top of the $4 to pay for the costs of cash handling provided by the business in this world of ever-decreasing use of cash in transactions?
I may misremember, but my understanding was that it is unlawful to charge a customer extra for using legal tender. (There are limits, so your payment of $40 using 5c coins can be rejected.)
A business is perfectly entitled to set the method of payment they will accept for a transaction to take place. There is no legal requirement in Australia to accept cash, notes or coins, for business transactions.
They are allowed to charge certain fees for types of payment methods, but it must be made clear before payment. Any fees need to be reasonable.
It is well known that, say Visa, charges a merchant fee of around 1 to 2 %, so passing that on is reasonable.
How much could be reasonable for a car park to charge to provide a cash facility machine for the very few that can only pay by cash?
Simpler I would think to just not provide such a facility and avoid the outrage of charging the few cash payers a very heafty fee to try to cover the costs.
That depends. The $4 itself presumably already contains a surcharge for the costs of operating the credit card system (where much fraud occurs). So the correct way of doing it would be $4 minus the CC surcharge plus the cash surcharge. Yes, that could end up being $5.
The surcharge(s) should be disclosed.
A business that chooses to accept only CC may be unable to trade when equipment or communication has failed. So a business might choose to accept cash if only as a backup.
In practice the phasing out of cash to pay for parking would be slow - since so many car parks already have the necessary equipment.
Would I pay a premium for a lack of surveillance? Quite possibly “yes” but it is a sad indictment on the world in which we live that this is even a question.
On the other hand, many merchants set a minimum amount that can be put on a CC. I assume that this is because there are fixed merchant charges as well as the percentage charge. So it is not financially viable for the business to accept CC for a trivial payment like $4 (approximately).
(Maybe the economics do happen to work out for a car park where they have negotiated a special deal with the card service provider under the understanding that the car park will generate a ridiculous number of trivial transactions, and where the likelihood of fraud is low.)
There are multiple components to the charges for the ‘valuable services blah blah’ card issuers provide. The first link is US centric but puts the entire process in perspective; I could not find a similar Australia centric description. The second is Visa (Australia) that shows one component; MC is slightly different, and Amex and Diners charge merchants more for the ‘privilege’ of eg. selling to supposedly higher net worth individuals and business travellers on expense accounts.
