If you want to be cashless in the UK you will find that there is very little to stop you and, based on my experience over the last 28 weeks, cashless payments remove so much hassle when paying for stuff.
Six months in and very few cash challenges remain – the cash only payments that I still have to crack are limited to ‘pay and display’ parking machines, tips in restaurants, charity cake sales and a pound coin to use the supermarket trolley at Tescos.
But it is paying for parking that is top of my annoyance list!
This week, Philadelphia’s mayor signed a bill that would ban cashless retail stores. The move makes Philadelphia the first major city in the USA to require that brick-and-mortar retail stores accept cash.
But even Philadelphia doesn’t completely ban cashless parking lots & garages, wholesale clubs, retailers that accept mobile payments through membership programs & rental companies can be cashless.
Even Philadelphia’s officials realise that cashless parking works! If cashless parking can work in Philly then surely it can work in Maldon.
However, cashless functionality on ‘Pay and Display’ machines are far too complicated to use, are often badly lit at night and there are far too many parking apps which all work differently.
Finding a parking space in Maldon’s ‘Pay and Display’ car parks is a challenge in itself but actually having the right coins (or any coins at all) to pay for the parking is an even greater challenge.
So with a rare streak of wisdom the officials at Maldon District Council have decided to roll out car parking payments via the parking app Ringo.
No more trying to find coins to pay, no more trying to read a badly lit payment screen – cashless parking has (finally) come to Maldon.
The future has arrived in Maldon!
Download the RingGo app today via the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Phone Store or even teh Firefox Marketplace.
Or check out the RingGo web site at https://www.myringgo.co.uk/apps
So, with thanks for Maldon District Council, I have a cashless parking solution in Maldon – now I need a solution for tips in restaurants, charity cake sales and a pound coin to use the supermarket trolley at Tescos…..
Cashless in the UK is a reality and the future has (finally) arrived in Maldon.