[valleyer]

Yeah, I've seen more than a few public parking facilities that got rid of their existing payment terminals (which take credit card, and sometimes cash) in favor of smartphone-based payment.

I struggle to understand what would motivate it, from the perspective of the parking lot owner. I would presume the up-front cost of the old terminals was already paid off. And they certainly are more user-friendly.

Is it that the new smartphone payment providers are taking a smaller fee? That they are easier to switch between if the fees increase? Or what?

[Spooky23]

The cost for those freestanding systems are usually pretty outrageous.

It’s a market like hotel WiFi. Early on, fancy hotels signed long contracts for shitty WiFi. Remember when you’d pay $10 for some awful WiFi service at the Marriott? Those parking things are the same.

I consulted for an entity that was paying $7.50 for a $25 dip. There’s hundreds of competing smartphone apps… you can even buy a square reader in a trivial scenario and pay 3%. In the government space, stuff like EZPass at airport parking costs $2-5 per transaction!

[throwawaysleep]

People vandalize the terminals. People have to collect cash from them. Have to make sure nobody put a skimmer on them.

Physical infrastructure is to be avoided.

[supertrope]

This is like Apple Pay. Banks wanted to reap the benefit of technology without paying for the hardware. Better yet people are clamoring to pay $800 for the widgets. Like banks other businesses and even government agencies want to take advantage of BYOD. Better yet if the app replaces manual assistance.