Friday, June 06, 2003

Nijmegen accepts credit-cards in parking meters

Epaynews reports:

Jun 06 2003 : Credit card payments for parking are possible in the Dutch city of Nijmegen under a cross-border credit card parking initiative that also supports payments with the domestic e-purse, ChipKnip. Nijmegen’s initial pay-and-display ticket machines for parking, accepted ChipKnip payments, but German visitors to the city were unable to use their e-purse, GeldKarte, at the machines. Consequently, Nijmegen’s municipal office chose to install new ticket machines alongside the cash/ChipKnip versions, with a GSM modem for the online authorization of card transactions, instead of adapting the old machines for cross-border payments.



Eleven parking ticket machines have been set up in Nijmegen, with CardEase technology from UK firm, CreditCall Communications, enabling the acceptance of credit cards and international debit cards for sums as little as €1. When a motorist enters their card in the machines, provided by UK vendor, Metric, CreditCall leverages its in-country infrastructure and the GSM network, to route authorization data to its servers in Bristol, UK. Cards from Visa, MasterCard and Maestro are accepted at the machines, and a bank in Ireland acquires the transactions, which generate a ticket in about 15 seconds.




See also the Nijmegen parking website. As a matter of fact, Nijmegenaars may also pay with the citychip (a local loyalty system). Or with the mobility card of ANWB, a card that combines the Chipknip, a loyalty-system for filling up gasoline and a Visa credit card and costs only 16 euro per year for ANWB members.