Anyone who has used a credit card to pay for parking in town, PLEASE READ!

Basq

Just a quick bit of advice..

If you park in town and have ever used your card to pay for an hour's parking, please check your statements for the last year or two.

I noticed on my bank statement recently that three seperate transactions of €1.20 went through from the Sligo Borough Council on the same day about 2 weeks ago (for parking obviously). Thought this was odd as:

a) I very seldom pay with a card.. can typically scrape together €1.20 in loose change
b) I'd rarely be in town twice in one day.. never mind three times - and it was a weekday as well, so even less likely!

So I rang up the Sligo Borough Council last week and got put through to the Parking / Traffic division. Told her the story and she knew immediately what I meant. She informed me (something along the lines of) that their software to record this was updated (unknown to them) and they weren't charging cards as they were used. So when they discovered this, they charged cards in bulk for periods (for example, March 2009 - June 2009 might have been charged all together one day).

Now there's two points here:

1) I don't know the legal implications of charging a card like this. Surely it's a bit dodgy charging a card so long after a certain period has elapsed.. it's a bit of a grey area I'd say. Might pop in a message in Legal Discussion or Consumer Issues about it.

2) I was charged during the Summer twice on a day as well. and ignored it. But as I said earlier, I use my card so rarely that even 5 transactions from over a 2 year period.

She did assure me that from now on, you'll be charged on the day.. but I'm a bit suspect about the whole thing. So she said I can gladly question her for any day I was charged and she'll be able to tell me where and when I parked.

Needless to say, I'm ordering a full statement and querying them on it for peace of mind. It might only be €10 tops but I'd advise people just to be aware of this.

Sorry for the long rant but thought people should know.

SprostonGreen

I parked in Connaugton Rd on Valentines Day of this year, paid with Visa and was only charged for it in late August. €2.50 it cost too, never again.

Basq

That's odd.. didn't think Connaugton Road had the day rate of €2.50.

sligopark

basquille wrote: »

That's odd.. didn't think Connaugton Road had the day rate of €2.50.

I thought it was a matter of throwing the <snip> in the car park a euro or two and you were ok (and you car wasn't scratched)?

ge_ch

noticed that a few times on my statement.
the last time it happened i got charged 3times but got 2refunded the next day. never bothered ringing up though, just stopped using credit card for parking. fair play for complaining about it

Mint Sauce

Please, no naming of different families or derogatory remarks against them please.

Basq

Just checked my statement for the last year and I've been charged 5 times..

4 x €1.20
1 x €2.50

The €2.50 I can remember using my card one morning for day parking in the market yard but since I've been driving (18 months or so), I honestly don't think I've used my card to pay for parking 4 times in town.. twice maybe!

But I'm not gonna get bent outta shape for the shape of the sake of €2, and query them on it.

I do still advise people who might use it fairly regularly to check statements. And Sligo Borough Council should have really issued a statement or small ad about it in one of the local papers.

ge_ch wrote: »

noticed that a few times on my statement.
the last time it happened i got charged 3times but got 2refunded the next day. never bothered ringing up though, just stopped using credit card for parking. fair play for complaining about it

Yeah, I'm not gonna do it anymore.. not that I used it much anyways.

I think what I don't like about it is that they had my credit card details on file to charge 6 - 8 months later.

AlmightyCushion

basquille wrote: »

I think what I don't like about it is that they had my credit card details on file to charge 6 - 8 months later.

Well I remember people in the Komplett forum were complaining about something similar happening. Komplett said they didn't keep records of credit card details as it was a breach of the DPA and illegal. Don't know if it's true or not (I imagine Komplett's legal guys would be up to scratch though) but if it is it's pretty bad they'd be keeping records of them.

jaffa20

it's not illeagal for them to do this. The transaction was authorised at the time and they basically process them as batches as it costs them less and afaik, they have up to 2years to do this as there is a limit on how long they can keep cc imprint on file so they can charge manually.

Essexboy

Where can you use cards in town?
I usually park in Markievicz Road or Stephen Street and never noticed the option being offered there, although like the OP I usually scratch around for change!

Basq

Essexboy wrote: »

Where can you use cards in town?
I usually park in Markievicz Road or Stephen Street and never noticed the option being offered there, although like the OP I usually scratch around for change!

I think most places offer it..

.. I've found a few that don't, but definitely the majority do support it I'd say.

Snark

I agree with Basquille - Borough Council should have posted an explanation on their site or in the paper.

my card was charged twice for parking just under 2 years ago. interestingly - when I asked for the person dealing with parking meters - i was actually put through to the council's PR department - they must have fielded a LOT of calls.

Essexboy

Snark wrote: »

I agree with Basquille - Borough Council should have posted an explanation on their site or in the paper.

my card was charged twice for parking just under 2 years ago. interestingly - when I asked for the person dealing with parking meters - i was actually put through to the council's PR department - they must have fielded a LOT of calls.

They have a PR department? :eek: no wonder they are in debt.

artyeva

yeah, my credit card got charged €1.20 a few weeks ago for when i used it early 2009 in stephens street. i had to run in to the bank and didn't have time to rifle through the tissues, buttons, sweet wrappers and lint in the glove box for change - thing is though, i had used my halifax visa, which is now of course defunct, but the transaction still went through... as a result it cost me about €12 what with a penalty charge that halifax applied for using my card after the close-date of june this year!!! :mad:

no amount of pleading with either halifax or the council would get them to budge... so basically i paid €13.20 to park in stephens street for about 10 mins....

Basq

That's unbelievable artveya! :eek:

magnumlady

artyeva wrote: »

yeah, my credit card got charged €1.20 a few weeks ago for when i used it early 2009 in stephens street. i had to run in to the bank and didn't have time to rifle through the tissues, buttons, sweet wrappers and lint in the glove box for change - thing is though, i had used my halifax visa, which is now of course defunct, but the transaction still went through... as a result it cost me about €12 what with a penalty charge that halifax applied for using my card after the close-date of june this year!!! :mad:

no amount of pleading with either halifax or the council would get them to budge... so basically i paid €13.20 to park in stephens street for about 10 mins....

Tha is crazy. Surely that's not right at all. It'sthe councils fault for not taking the money on time.

artyeva

No, there's nothing stopping them delaying the payments and putting them through at a later date. I used to work for a different credit card company years ago and we'd see that kind of thing all the time - although having said that if it caused a customer a fee we would as a courtesy refund it. Not so Halifax... which is now owned by Lloyds as far as I can gather. To say I'm raging with the council though would be a gross understatement.... :mad:

Basq

Bump for this..

Just checked a recent statement there, and I was charged again by the Sligo Borough Council on the 12th of this month.

I honestly don't think I've used a credit card to park in town more than 2 - 3 times, and it's a total of 6 charges as far as I can see.

Definitely something a bit off about this. I'm gonna phone them up and get a listing of where those charges occurred.

It's not the money.. to be fair, it's not a whole lot. But it's the fact that's being billed repeatedly bothers me, and the number of times in which it's claimed I've used a credit card to park in town.... which is EXTREMELY seldom.

bobcar61

You do realise that it's only the 8th of this month so far so how were you charged for the 12th of this month.

Maybe your forgetting we are in December and meant to say November?

Basq

bobcar61 wrote: »

Maybe your forgetting we are in December and meant to say November?

Sorry.. yep, meant November!