Phone app offers a change-free way to pay for parking

No quarters? No Cash Key? No problem.

Drivers on campus can rest assured that the phone-based pay system for parking meters, Pay By Phone, is here to stay and may even be available in the coming years in off-campus locations in Champaign, and Urbana as well.

In 2010, cellphone-activated payments were tested on 200 of the campus parking meters. The technology works through an app called Pay By Phone, which allows patrons to load the meter through their phones with funds for extended periods of time. The app also alerts patrons when the meter is running low, and they can add more money from wherever they are, which prevents the necessity of having to leave every few hours to put more money in the parking meter.

This year, Campus Parking will begin to emphasize the Pay By Phone payment option, according to Steve Breitwieser, media communications specialist with Campus Facilities and Services.

“The decision was made after taking a look at current parking meter trends and figuring out how to best anticipate future options for campus parking,” he said.

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With 11,000 Pay By Phone transactions per month, Breitwieser said the increase in transactions indicates that people have become familiar with the service and are more comfortable with using the technology.

Based on its success, Pay By Phone is now available in 1,800 out of the 2,100 metered parking spots on campus, according to Breitwieser. He said that the remaining 300 spots will most likely not offer Pay By Phone technology, because the app is intended for spots where people can park for long periods of time.

Pay By Phone payments are allocated by hour, so someone looking to park for an hour and a half would have to pay the full two hours if they wanted to use the phone technology.

Laura Gibbons, graduate student in Business, said that it is convenient because she never has change with her, but that paying by the hour — as well as the 30-cent transaction fee — can be a downside to the technology. 

The Cash Key is another alternative to feeding the parking meters with coins. Cash Keys were adopted by Champaign, Urbana and Campus parking departments around 2001, said Elizabeth Beaty, parking administrator for the city of Urbana. She said the technology is still good, but newer technology will not require patrons to go into the parking offices to add money to the key.

The key, which works like a debit card, allows patrons to put money on the key and insert it in any of the parking meters on campus, Champaign or Urbana. Sensors in the meter deduct funds from the key. To load the key with funds, patrons need to go to Champaign, Urbana or Campus parking departments and allocate funds to either of the three locations.

On March 15, the vendor increased the price of the Cash Key from $19.50 to $25. The price increase was one of the factors in Campus Parking’s decision to stop selling new Cash Keys, Breitwieser said. It will, however, continue to sell refurbished keys for $15 and patrons can still sell back their keys for $10, he said.

Champaign will continue to sell new keys at least for the next five to seven years, said Kris Koester, public information officer for the City of Champaign’s Public Works Department. Efforts to be more customer service friendly have brought the conversation of using the Pay By Phone technology to the table, Koester said, but for now Champaign will keep selling Cash Keys.

Beaty also said that Urbana will continue to sell Cash Keys, but its is definitely talking about adopting new technology for its parking meters.

Beaty owns a Cash Key, as well, and said it is very convenient, but as the keys get older, they do not work as well. Contact with cellphones or electronic devices can cause them to stop working, she said.

Problems with the Cash Key hardware on campus also caused a temporary shutdown of the service on Jan. 29.

With Pay By Phone, Breitwieser said, these problems are avoided.

“The technology is very simplistic and has a user-friendly interface,” he said. “Especially because students have their phones on them all the time, the convenience is a real benefit. It just doesn’t get any easier than that.”

Maggie can be reached at [email protected]