More and more, parking is becoming an automated thing around the word. The days of depositing coins into parking meters is long gone, and nowadays you pay via a machine with a credit card or download an app and pay on your phone. If you are planning to rent a car in your next international destination, be prepared and arrive with the parking app preloaded onto your phone.
On a recent trip to Italy, we had downloaded the popular EasyPark app which let us pay for public parking just about anywhere straight from our phone. The app would also warn you when your parking was running out and would let you top-up the parking in the app if still exploring a site, without having to run back to the parking meter.
Further, there didn’t seem to be a limit as we paid for over 24 hours of parking at our hotel in one transaction. It sure beats topping up the meter every few hours!
I later read that EasyPark can also help you locate available parking spots, but we didn’t get that far with the app.
Download the app from the app store
Of course, be wary of scams. We heard of a scam where a rogue app had put a QR code sticker on the parking meter sign enticing people to ‘download the parking app and pay’. They would then have you download their fake app, take your money but not really pay the parking so people would get tickets or get towed!
Be sure to download the app from the app store (you can google ‘what is the parking app in Italy’ or wherever you are going). If possible, download it from the app store before leaving. This way you get the legit app and you’re not downloading it in the parking lot with a bad connection or while using your limited roaming data or trying to figure out how to get the instructions in English.
You can also preload your credit card info into the app so all you’ll have to do is enter your rental car license plate when you pick it up.
Downloading the parking app before leaving will save you time and money and make parking a breeze. Alternatively, if you forgot to download it, you can also download it while you’re connected to the hotel Wi-Fi when checking-in.