on cannery row down here in Monterey we now have parking meters that take credit cards. Youve always been able to use a prepaid parking card, but now they take visa, mc, and Amex. This means I can put 10 cents on my card at the meter, and then $2 at starbucks and get 2.1 cents back on my Amex!!

What I'm wondering is this...
you put a predetermined amount of time on the meter, but if you go over that does it just charge more on to the card or do you get a ticket?

 

you get a ticket.

 

laaaaaame. At least I can still get that .1¢ if I use my Amex

 

So say like you put 10 bucks on it and you only use 5 worth of time...do you get the 5 back?

 

I doubt it. Down the street from cannery row they have coin meters that reset when the car leaves. It'd be nice if they combined both so that you get the remainder of your time back, or if you're still there it adds more time

 

in san francisco sunset district we used the meters where you text your credit card information from your phone and the time will change on the spot. pretty high tech too.

 

I hate these things, they're all over Oakland.

 

there are a few meters like that in the north beach area of SF.they have posts with a number on them and you have to walk to the middle of the block where the pay machine is, type in your parking spot, tell the machine how long you wanna park for, then pay with cash or credit

 

do they do like a minimum charge? I was at Oakland a while ago and park on the street using one of those pre-paid thing. I only had to be there for 20 minutes but I was forced to pay $1. $1 is no big deal, i just hate the fact that I HAD to. oh well...

 

the meter is base on how long you planning to stay there. for example oakland. they print out the expire time, so when the times up, and meter maid saw it you will get a ticket.

 

well seeing as its actually against visa and MCs terms of service to require a minimum for CC purchases, they'd have to enforce the same limit for cash payers.

 

The other problem with these automated shizerboxes is that you can no longer put change in them (at least the ones I saw). Complete garbage IMHO. What the hell am I supposed to do with all these nickel and dimes?

-Brian

 

turns out there is a $1 (1 hour) minimum for a credit card. I'm not sure how that doesn't contradict Visa/MC's "no minimum purchase" rule