The PayByPhone app simplifies your journey. From registering and paying for your parking in seconds, to extending it without having to return to your vehicle, and reminders of when it ends, we know you have more to worry about than parking. The PayByPhone app can be used in over 1,000+ cities worldwide & is now available in 12 languages, making it easier than ever. As the highest rated parking app in the world, PayByPhone has helped over 43 million motorists pay for their parking simply and easily, so they can focus on what matters most to them.
For businesses signed up to PayByPhone Business, the app allows drivers to simply switch between business and personal payment cards on the PayByPhone app when they park, so no time-consuming monthly expense reports or saving receipts. Paying for parking with PayByPhone is more environmentally-friendly than paying with cash: there are fewer vehicles on the road adding to air pollution to collect cash from pay and display machines.
App features
• Start and extend parking session from your iPhone
• View your session with the Today View Widget
• Use Maps or Nearby feature to find out where you can use PayByPhone
• Opt into notifications about your parking session
• View parking history
• Pin location of vehicle once parked to find it easily
• Get receipts emailed to you for convenient expense reconciliation
For the past three days, multiple location codes have come back with errors saying the location cannot be found. Almost got a ticket the first time since I was a block away trying to fight with the app; when I gave up and went back to find the machine, there was a parking cop standing behind my car. They didn’t understand or care that something is wrong with the codes for the app, but at least didn’t ticket me. If it can’t do the one thing it’s meant for, this app is rendered useless.
The app itself works fine. It’s convenient to pay for parking but there is usually a kiosk around so it’s not needed. My main problem is that this app aggressively tracks you and sends information to other vendors like urban airship or amplitude. If you install duckduckgo you can see the data it’s sending and how often it’s trying to get it. The rare cases I’d use this aren’t enough for me to keep this installed with my data getting sold one
After the first time using it, it will no longer let me pay for parking or add a new vehicle. Customer service is not helpful, telling me to reset the device, close the app, etc., with none be of that working. Their section on “what to do if you get a ticket” states that you’re essentially out of luck and need to take it up with the parking authority.
It is extremely difficult to install and use if you are doing it on the parking lot: tiny light- grey font is almost invisible, the app does’t fit well on the phone screen and need constant switch between keyboard view and app view. Finally, it is claimed to be a free app, but it added 7% to the parking cost.
TLDR: You’ll find a better parking spot long before you figure out the registration process. Just pay manually. The coding is bare minimum for what is probably a data mine. I never received a text confirmation. I checked and rechecked my registration information. The app has no user friendly features like autofill. It can’t even figure out multiple phone number formats (you have to key the hyphens, and no, it doesn’t tell you to do that).
For a metropolitan area such as Miami, you’d think a simple app like this would work seamlessly. Says can’t find parking zones, even when you enter the numbers correctly. Sometimes it just loads forever and ever. Tried restarting the app, even rebooted my phone. Still didn’t work and had to go pay at the machine. App clearly needs more development.
It should not be hard to get an app like this right. The functionality is simple and straight forward. Usability is terrible and for some dumb reason NFC only works on the iphone version. Some very easy improvements would make this infinitely better. They could add auto-renew, or any kind of spot history. The only history is lacking any information and seems to be in random order??? I wish i could just pick a competitive app but this seems to be the only one that works in this area.
I dont have much choice in using it, if i want to park at my local lot. But in general it has been easy to use. Occassionally I forget to hit the last submit payment button, particularly if there is a delay in connection or i can’t get internet connection so I can’t purchase my parking time. But over all it works, it is nice not having to find change, being able to add time without going to the car, and being informed when it is not necessary to pay.
I spend more time standing around trying to get the app to work than I would if I just payed at the pay station. 95% of the time, after I press pay, it freezes up and sits on a forever spinning circle. Sometimes I can restart the app and start the whole process from scratch and it will work, but it’s more likely to freeze again. Cool.
The android version is too inconsistent to bother. The first time using this app was cool. It accepted both car and credit card information. Once stored, you can just punch in the location code and duration and the app confirms the location. Out even notifies you when your time is running out! So why only one star? Subsequent attempts was met with a unresponsive app. Much faster to just use the parking meter!
Astonishingly bad for the most basic use cases that you can imagine. Do you want to look for parking locations and pricing before choosing whether or not to take a bus instead? Too bad, because you need to know the parking spot number just to try. It seems that the only viable way to use the app is to find a physical sign at the physical location after you’ve parked. Good luck if you don’t find one. Just browse the other reviews for additional examples of the futility of using this app.
Convenient, but the simplicity in the app sometimes actually leads to confusion. For example- giving me an error that parking is not available for this time, when it should say parking is free on Sunday. I would also love to see an option to just input max time allowed, instead of having to select hours or minutes.
Parking should be charged at the end, when you “clock out” like in the parking garages with tickets. This will also eliminate the possibility of making mistakes when estimating the time or confusing minutes with hours. Or at least you must have a way in your app to cancel the parking! I only used 7min out of 7 hours that I paid. Is really unfair. Having to chose the time in the beginning, is absurd. Most of the times I don’t know for how long I’m going to be in a place or I’m rushing to get there and I don’t have the patience to go through the app steps. If you overpay they will not give you a refund because ‘funds from every transaction go directly to the parking authority. They do NOT allow us to issue refunds on their behalf”. Or if your estimate fell short and you need to add time, it will be way more expensive! This app as it is, is a rip-off. The convenience of using the smartphone is diminished by the inconvenience of paying in advance and not at the end.
Convenient and easy-to-use, but if you accidentally select the wrong vehicle there’s no way to change it… which seems kind of unreasonable. Twice now I have had to pay for two cars because the app defaulted to the wrong vehicle and would not let me change it. I understand that it was my mistake, but it still doesn’t make sense why there’s no way to simply switch which vehicle you parked on the app
I’m guessing that all of the good reviews for this app are just new users who haven’t had a problem connecting yet. The app is very convenient when it works, but eventually you’ll be depending on the app to connect and it just won’t. To make matters worse, instead of giving a connection error, it gives various “invalid credentials” errors. No support within the app! Basically, this app is exactly what you would expect from a company that makes its money via government contracts: it works until it doesn’t, then there is no support or accountability.
App has been inconsistent at best. For a year, I was unable to use it because something was “broken” in my account connecting an API to my credit card. No matter what card I used, I would have my payment declined. Finally convinced customer service to let me delete my account and start over. That fixed the problem. Convienent App, when it works.
So much more convenient than sticking my card in that darn machine and waiting in the cold!! Love the option to extend parking if I’m going to be just a few more minutes, all directly from my phone!! When I think of government related websites or apps, the words pleasant or efficient don’t typically come to mind!! But in this case I am completely happily surprised with how awesome this app is!
Overall one of the worst apps I have the privilege of using everyday. Super buggy and unresponsive. Click to park in one lot and if you are not paying attention they will switch the location to another lot. Multiple times I’ve had to pay for parking twice because the app will glitch and change my location, and since there is no refund or change policy you are out of luck.
Payments hardly go through, I often sit waiting for them to finish processing until I get too paranoid that some meter maid is about to show up so I kill the app and start over from scratch. Often times more than once. This just makes the whole getting extorted for lawfully using public streets thing so much more fun. Other than that, a truly life changing experience. 10/10 wouldn’t recommend.
Loop of agree and continue. For the past 3 days I try to log in it asks me to agree and continue to the new terms and when I do it closes the app and, since this happens on their website too, it stays on that same page and does not load/clear me from the agreement. It’s super frustrating, since I use this app for parking at school, and it’s basically a useless service.
These meters are a rip off. I got the app, entered all the info and somehow the app switched to a different spot. I called customer service and they told me I had to pay again! When I did this, the app put me in the wrong spot again. I enter one code 4 digit code and it changes it to a different code. So we end up putting quarters in and it shorted us that way too. It says $1 per hour, but I ended up paying nearly $6 and only got an hour and a half. I will never park at these meters again and I’m deleting this app now!
This app almost never works for me. As soon as I hit pay, it gets stuck on the loading screen until I eventually force-close the app, restart it, and then MAYBE it will work if I try it a couple more times. When it works, it’s very convenient, but I can almost always just buy a regular parking sticker before the app works for me.
I’ve used this app for years with very few issues. The past few weeks have been a nightmare. I can NOT add any new vehicles without getting a “SERVER CRASHED” message, doesn’t matter if I’m on the app or website. I HAVE to be able to add new vehicles daily, I pay for my customers parking, daily. I contacted support & told them this is happening across multiple platforms, apps on different devices and the website. They told me to reinstall the app. Yeah, I tried that one already. SUCKS!
Its cool that you can extend by phone 1st thing after 8a when parking payments begin. Thereafter you can only extend by physically paying. Try and find a 4 hour if you plan on parking for that long to avoid that $47 ticket! Overall its not a big deal to be able to pay fron your phone unless you were able to as long as needed. 2 to 4 hours paying by phone is no big deal. As i said at 8a when payment is mandatory is the only beneficial time to use the system. Best thing to do is pay the max amount
Utter rubbish. I am not sure why I need to find a ‘location code’ when GPS, Glonass, BeiDou & Galileo have been able to globally provide location services. This was in a large MBTA parking lot with tons of spaces open. The sign stated to press a “PARK” button on the app which is not even there or in the menus. It seems like not only is testing seldomly done best but ergonomics and usability are barely considered. It would up taking between 10-15 minutes to pay at MBTA Riverside. And by then I had so little faith in the app I saved a screenshot just in case it was needed later. To get the location code I had to use Google which it still refused to take for a few minutes. The App worked well in the past but now it does not always seem to work. If you are able, save your money and park elsewhere when you see “PayByPhone’ signs. Unfortunately some of these lots are tax payer funded and instead of hiring someone to work a booth they get to keep more of the parking fees. I will give them back 1 star for following up with peoples reviews. However some of the other negative reviews mention similar problems with older dates.
Too rigid and no way to fix a mistake… Be careful because no refunds. If you select wrong car there is no way to change it. Wasted money. Also no way to set a favorite car. I commute with the same car almost every time. I parked my wifes car once and then it became the default choice which caused me to pay for the wrong car on many trips after that. I didnt notice because I didnt get ticket in mail until weeks later. $100 wasted! Please fix!
Overcharges in the form of nearly a 100% fee!!!! AND does not account for time already on meter; for example: if 30 mins is already on meter and you pay for an hr, the app only shows 1hr of time. It then prompts you that its about to expire 10 mins before the hour is up, BUT it doesnt account for the 30 mins that were on the meter before you added the additional hour. I refilled the meter unnecessarily. This app is incredibly dishonest and price gouging.
I hate paying for parking, but I can hate it a little less using this app. We used it in Anchorage AK. App worked great and it was easy to add time. I also received alerts when my time was getting close to expiring both from the app and a text message. If there is anything bad to say, it’s only that I had to add time in increments of an hour. However that might be on the city, so I won’t fault the app for that.
A tremendous tool for city street parking. It doesn’t help you find parking (yet) but does inform you when the meter is about to run out, lets you add time and not have to run back. I wish the notifications were more adjustable, they currently only do 10 minute alerts.
Awful, unfriendly user experience. Unless you create an account the app continually stalls out. Requiring an account to get any reasonable functionality is ridiculous. Use as a guest for rare needs should offer the same experience/speed as a registered user. Any links to register load immediately. I’ve waited 10 minutes for the screen to load from user agreement to location selection & it’s not budged. I’ve closed/reopened, uninstalled/reinstalled, & restarted my phone. Awful user interface
Can’t see license plate numbers before making payment! It’s not allowed to update license plate number or choose another vehicle. PayByPhone takes payment, but do not make refund. All the refund is needed to go through Parking Operators. What a service is!! Also, when paying without an account, the app does NOT ask for license plate number!! I made three payments for one parking. The first was paid for a rental car in the account one year ago, the 2nd payment was made without an account.
I wouldn’t use it unless I had to to. Park. App constantly crashes or stalls. Need to frequently uninstall. And reinstall. Could easily be synced with GPS and clock to anticipate you are near the same parking lot and it’s likely time to pay and proactively present the ability to do so.
Couldn’t create an account. The app just hung on a “Please Wait…” screen. The continue as guest option doesn’t work. Finally, I was able to sign in with Facebook. I don’t know what I would have done if I had actually deleted my FB account this weekend like I planned to. To the designers of this app, you just lost a customer who commutes daily. Today was the first and last time I’ll be using the app.
Very easy to install and set up. Have your license plate number handy. Only draw back is you can only pay from the app once. Meaning if you pay from app when ya park initially, you’ll have to return in the given time limit to pay the actual meter if you want more time. Whereas if you pay at the meter 1st then when your time is up, pay from app you can “double” your time w/o returning to your vehicle. ,^,
A recent change to the app appears to have added a “confirmation step” which I mistook to mean my that that was my confirmation that the parking session had been initiated resulting a parking fine. Been using it for years and I have never done a mistake like this. Please beware of UI changes that may present information In an ambiguous way.
Ripoff app from the city. They collect double fees for spots as you can’t get credit if you leave your spot early. If you pay for one spot, move to another, you still have to double pay if you have credit on the first spot. If you ever phone for help the staff. Are extremely rude and useless.
Extremely “dumb” app. I use to pay for parking for multiple people (i dont want to give them my card info) but its gives me an error message because i have to select location first then vehicle. Have to restart app to solve this. Also, when youve paid three times in a day you cant pay anymore but if i walk out to the booth it works every time. Change portal to select vehicle, THEN location would solve a lot of that.
Overall good app, but the only thing that is frustrating is that it only let’s you do hours and not minutes, atleast for android’s. Not everyone wants to pay extra when they are only going to be in the parking meter for a small amount of time especially when you can’t find a free parking spot!
Worst UI ever. If you don’t have an actual sign with your parking location literally in front of you, good luck finding your location to pay with this app. Luckily, I found a sign after hunting it down. If not I would have been responsible for getting a parking ticket. In addition, what happens if someone’s phone dies or no access to app?
New version feels massively clonky in its workflow compared to the old app. I used to be able to open up the app right into the map view and start my parking costs process but now it takes more time and clicks to finish this up. For example when starting the app, it needs a few seconds to 1. realize GPS is working and 2. get into map mode since I need to click for that first. This needs to be done as quick as in the app before since I don’t see any benefit at all as it is right now.