No credit card? No smartphone? No parking: Parks Canada ditches cash option at Rideau Canal lots : canada

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Edit: this is for app based parking in general, not parks Canada specifically.

The apps calculate how many people are at the lot and the best time for them to come around and give the most tickets when payments are expiring. This is huge revenue for private parking companies.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

In my experience, indigo parking is also accompanied by an indigo pay machine for exactly this purpose. It spits out a little ticket you put in your windshield.

Idk about this case specifically, but their pay machines are all around Halifax.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

This was my first thought. Instead of an app and relying on a consuner to have the technology, why dont we put in a parking machine that can accept cards and cash?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Everywhere I've seen indigo (or hotspot) around Halifax, they've supported both pay at a physical terminal, or pay via phone (which gives you extra features like feeding the meter remotely, or refunding unused time).

Personally I think it's a pretty good system.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Is that legal?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Conversely, if you don’t have those things, is it legal to park without paying?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 4 days ago

Honestly, I fucking hate parking apps. You always gotta download a new one, you gotta create an account, verify it, type in your credit card by hand, search for the stall ID number, then the app errors out and tells you that they encountered an error.

So then I just uninstall the app and hope I don't get a ticket for a 15 minute errand.

Back in the day, I loved stuffing a $5 bill in the parking meter cash box and then not having to worry about it for a few hours.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago

What is really stupid about this is that Canada has some of the highest mobile internet rates in the world. And they expect everyone who needs to pay to have internet all the time.

[+] [email protected] -28 points 5 days ago (7 children)

One of the modern mysteries I can't quite get is people caring so much about paying stuff with cash. Are people out there paying for gas using cash as well? How many people have a car and don't have a credit card or smartphone? So many questions...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Countries, especially Canada can and will freeze bank accounts as a back channel way to control people that they disagree with. Cash avoids this demonstrated risk and must be preserved as a primary payment method to preserve freedom

[–] [email protected] -1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

especially Canada can and will freeze bank accounts as a back channel way to control people that they disagree with

lol indeed cash is very fit for the tinfoil hat crowd

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

And you are not just a clueless idiot, but an asshat as well.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

some might even say a poopyface too

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (2 children)

One: Using a card means all transactions are tied to my financial history. For better or worse, I don't want all my personal habits in a ledger somewhere.

Two: Fees. Merchants have to pay fees on credit transactions.

Three: Consolidating financial institutions between a handful of company's. (Visa, MasterCard, Amex, etc)

Four: Complexity. At least one side of the transaction must setup a system to interact with banks or credit cards. Cash is as simple as counting and handing it over.

Five: Budgets. It's been shown that people spend less when they use cash. When someone can see the money actually leave and what they have dwindles they are more responsible with their spending.

Six: Tax evasion. Sometimes, if the waiter/waitress is struggling tipping in cash means it's easier for them not to report that income.

Seven: It makes it much harder to make financial transactions that aren't "approved." Whether or not you like it, some people want to be able to buy drugs or something else that isn't legal. Or even worse, the whims of whatever payment processor they use. A private company shouldn't get to say who can be a merchant and what they are allowed to sell.

Eight: Gifts. Cash is just a simple, nice gift that Zelle or Venmo can't replace.

Nine: No chance of overdrafting and getting hit with bullshit fees.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Huh, that's actually a pretty interesting collection. A few I kind of don't really think hold any weight but some I haven't thought about before. Cheers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Yea. I could go on and on about why I prefer cash a lot of times. Not always, but I always carry a couple hundred bucks on me. I also usually hide $20 or so somewhere in my car. Just in case I need gas and I forgot my wallet or the payment system was down or anything like that. It won't get me a full tank. But it will get me home.

The odds of getting robbed are slimmer than getting my credit card skimmed. I've had credit cards skimmed multiple times in the last few years. Last time I was robbed was over a decade ago, and that's cause I passed out at a party and someone told my wallet.

One could spend thousands of bucks before getting shut down (and thankfully I have good fraud protection so I didn't pay) while the other got 50 bucks.

Bartering is also a good one. It's easier to barter with people at stands or who make their own goods. Most handymen or trades workers will charge you less if you pay in cash. They probably aren't reporting the income, but they also aren't having to pay the payment processor 5% of the total. When you make a $5000 repair to your house, that's $250 just in fees the contractor/handyman has to pay. Cash avoids that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I work in fintech, specifically in the payments industry for a company that has a huge vertical spread. And damn let me tell you, we (along with the big ones like MC, Visa, Amex) just skim the delicious foam off the top of everything... right into the pockets of the exec team who keep doing weekly stupid motivational videos from every corner of the world.

I think governments should start thinking about nationalizing the shit out of this instead of everyone paying these stupid nepomonkeys. I don't care if I'd be out of a job, I can find something else.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I used to work for a company that converted coin-based parking meters to contactless card payment. And I completely agree.

Payment by card/app saves the companies a ton of money because they don’t have to handle cash — the guy going around is now just a fact checker and the automated systems handle the cash.

Previously, some cash was “lost” at each touch point (human handling the cash) in the chain; now this is replaced by higher fees, and a percentage going to fintech executives directly.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Oh yea. It's ridiculous that governments have let financial transactions be a private company thing.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How do you imagine elderly people that don’t really understand technology would cope with downloading an app or going to a web site to pay for parking.

How can you not have the empathy to think of people that might struggle with things. So many questions…

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

How do you imagine elderly people that don’t really understand technology would cope with downloading an app or going to a web site to pay for parking.

Using a card. If they're able to drive, they're probably able to carry a card and tap it. Maybe it's a failure of my imagination but I can't conceptualize someone being able to drive and park a car and yet this same person can't use a card.

Edit just to clarify: the article mentions "a smart phone with a credit card to pay for parking" specifically, and I guess it's my fault for going a bit off topic without a more explicit disclaimer. I don't think a smart phone should be required for anything. I'm just curious about the anti-cashless movement in general, because a smartphone isn't the only alternative to cash.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

This is just conjecture on my part, but I imagine people are against a completely cashless society as it gives companies and the government more information about us than they deserve.

Do I want the government or credit card companies knowing everything that I spend my money on, where I parked my car etc. people should be allowed to be anonymous if they so choose and paying cash allows this to some extend.

Plus, how am I gonna buy my weed if we go cashless, back to dark web and waiting two weeks for delivery, 😩.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Ever had a moment where you needed to go buy groceries but couldn't pay because the payment system is down nation wide?

Many people did many times and if you don't have cash on you, well you can't pay for shit.

A cashless society is not a good thing. And that is especially dumb since a merchant can't refuse legal tender, but the federal government is refusing legal tender by doing this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Ever had a moment where you needed to go buy groceries but couldn’t pay because the payment system is down nation wide?

Never. If it did happen, it's almost certain that I wouldn't have the cash on me to pay for it anyway 🤷‍♂️I'd rather not walk around with more than $100 in cash on me.

since a merchant can’t refuse legal tender

Where does that come from? AFAICT there's no law that requires businesses to accept cash as a form of payment. Not in Canada, at least.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You are right about the fact that businesses are not legally obligated to accept cash. I was wrong on that.

As for e-payment not working, it happened to me at least 3 times since last year, and it fucking sucks.

I don't like to walk with a lot of cash on me, but if I know that there is a outage of payment systems, I can at least use the cash I keep at home to pay for my basic needs.

More options is good in any case. We are already tracked enough as it is, so I understand people that want to use cash.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

As for e-payment not working, it happened to me at least 3 times since last year, and it fucking sucks.

Wow, I see. I would not have estimated that many.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I happen to prefer not to always have my location tracked by a cell phone company or my transactions recorded by a credit card issuer. The ability to be anonymous is a vital component of freedom. Plus, you can still pay for things in cash if something has wiped out all local network connectivity. And yes, I have been known to pay for gas in cash—not always, but now and again (and an EV doesn't need gas, anyway, so that question is increasingly irrelevant).

I do not require or expect other people to have the same priorities that I do.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Right... that's about what I imagine someone fighting against cashless is like. You actually pay for gas in cash and you don't have a smartphone with Internet.

Kind of ironic that you're excited about EVs, though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Kind of ironic that you’re excited about EVs, though.

"Excited" isn't really the word. It's more that I acknowledge the inevitable. Even if we ignore the damage done by burning it, the world supply of gasoline is finite, and the extraction and refining process is not only messy, polluting, and making many parts of the world beholden to countries with bad human rights records, but also has chokepoints—a relatively small number of large refineries—that are increasingly at risk as the climate gets worse. Better to get off it before we're forced to do so one way or the other.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Fair enough. I am in fact looking forward to a future where e-bikes and other electric micro mobility bring the freedom that the oil & gas industries promised and failed to deliver.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago (2 children)

An EV... So a car that's tracking you? 😂

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago

Also literally every car. Why the hell is my sexual activity in the privacy agreement KIA?

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/blog/privacy-nightmare-on-wheels-every-car-brand-reviewed-by-mozilla-including-ford-volkswagen-and-toyota-flunks-privacy-test/

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

Nah, a converted electric milk float. 🤣

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 days ago (1 children)

When I decide to visit a park and arrive to find that I can't pay cash, it's a problem. Visiting a park is a transient event, there does not need to be ANY permanent relation between myself and the park operator. There is no reason to require trusting some random site with payment details, generating another set of account credentials, and installing some mystery app that wants way too many permissions just to visit a park.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

There is no reason to require trusting some random site with payment details, generating another set of account credentials, and installing some mystery app that wants way too many permissions just to visit a park.

But those are all details that pertain to a specific type of digital payment. Like I said in a different comment, sign me up for better digital payment options and increased privacy guarantees. Sticking to cash is not the only way to achieve this.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But cash exists right now. There is no reason to drop support for it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I mean, there are reasons. But I'm not really advocating for businesses to stop accepting cash, I'm more like curious on why people hold on to having to carry cash so dearly.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Ah, I misunderstood your meaning.

Personally I'm not a cash guy, I used a debit card for 99% of transactions. If the machine looks sketchy I'll use a credit card as there is better financial protection at the cost of privacy. But for transient, time sensitive, interactions, like a park I only visit once a year or a fast food place that I may never come back to, I want them to take cash. If there is a problem with their electronic payment system (their site is broken, their cloud provider is broken, their cloud provider's ISP is down, ...all the way to local network trouble) now I am being denied access to physical thing that does not physically rely on electronic infrastructure.

My angry example above of needing to make an account to visit a park actually happened to me this week for an Ontario Provincial Park. It was extremely frustrating because there were no employees present to take payment that day, only a large sign with a QR code instructing everyone to pay online. Now every person in the line of cars a head of me had to scan the code, make an account, fill in their info, etc. Had there been a machine present to take cash (even if it was exact change only), most people could have scraped the coins out of their cup holder in half the time it took to interact with their phone.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Do you like the idea of all our payments for everything going through a private duopoly who takes a cut of every transaction?

We don't have a digital option that's open or private.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

The closest thing we have to a private digital cash that is not crypto is GNU Taler.

https://taler.net/

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

Do you like the idea of all our payments for everything going through a private duopoly who takes a cut of every transaction?

I don't, so sign me up for the fight for better digital options. In fact I frequently advocate for a BoC-managed alternative to Interac. Even the US with its ridiculously contrived banking system is already working on it (FedNow).

But I don't see the need to wait for that, we can go cashless AND work on better digital options simultaneously.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 5 days ago

That man is beyond the hands-on-hips pose that other Ottawa based articles all use.

[–] [email protected] 45 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You would hope that federal agencies would be the last to abandon using actual currency.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago

The ability to monitor and trace all financial transactions is a feature to governments, not a bug.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 5 days ago

I checked their site, you can't buy parking using just the website, even a monthly one. But you sure can pay your parking tickets! (although even that requires a credit card it seems)

[+] [email protected] -8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

All good, I'm ditching going downtown because it's pointless to go there. Everything closes at like 3, or it's some shitty bar. Why bother with a downtown anymore. Literally everything I want or need is walking distance

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Me me me, amirite!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago (1 children)

What are you talking about. I WANT those businesses open past 3pm...currently they only cater government workers who were forced to go back downtown to suppose the businesses that refuse to cater to the neighbourhood.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 days ago

Why bother with a downtown anymore. Literally everything I want or need is walking distance.

Kinda reads like you think because downtown doesn’t fulfil your needs you don’t see a point to it.

Who do you imagine is responsible for the state of downtown areas? Capitalism seems to be the culprit for decimating downtown areas.

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