In Katowice, we will pay for parking with a smartphone

From September 4, we will pay for parking in the Katowice Paid Parking Zone via the mobile application. On the occasion of this implementation, mPay introduces for the first time in Poland an additional facilitation for drivers.

At the beginning of this year, the authorities of Katowice announced that they were preparing for the tender for the purchase of control devices allowing for the verification of mobile parking fees in the city and the selection of operators for these payments.

Previously, drivers paid a fee to a zone employee, and only from 23 July 2020, parking meters returned to the streets of Katowice, after a few years of break. There were 50 of them and they support cash and non-cash payments.

In other cities, car drivers took a liking to mobile payments for parking. For a simple reason - it's an extremely convenient form. First of all, we do not have to run around the parking lot in search of a parking meter, and also search our pockets to find some change. Secondly, there is no need to operate the parking meter itself, which is important during the coronavirus pandemic for hygienic reasons and in line with the recommendations of the Polish Parking Industry Organization. Third, the driver pays for the actual parking time, not for each started hour.

When we use the mobile application, parking is done according to a simple pattern: we find a place, run the application and leave the car. When we finish the stop, we just press "stop". This saves money, but also less stress - when we have paid an hour in the parking meter, and our meeting is extended, for example, we have to come back and pay extra, or take into account the fine. The mobile application solves this problem.

We will pay for parking in Katowice with the mPay application

One of the operators that will serve the Katowice Paid Parking Zone is mPay. Of course, mobile parking payments are not new to the market. Many Polish cities have been offering such a possibility for quite a long time. Katowice is the 34th city where payments can be made via the mPay application.

Drivers from the capital of Upper Silesia, however, will be pleased with one more convenience. When parking, the application will display an interactive map that will allow you to easily determine whether you are in a paid parking zone and if so, in which specific sub-zone you are.

It is enough for the driver to approve his location and the fees will be charged in accordance with the price list provided for a given sub-zone. However, users of the application should remember to confirm the location proposed by the application according to their actual location and do so before they move away from the car. The identification is based on the location of the device with the application, not the car itself.

In the near future, this solution is to be delivered to other Polish cities, where mPay provides mobile parking payment services.

mPay is - you could say - a supermarket with payments

Payments in the mPay application are divided into several categories. We can find there public transport, parking, railways and buses, admission tickets and mobile top-ups.

A service worth mentioning is the multi-search engine, thanks to which we can plan a trip by various means of transport: by rail, coach or combined. Importantly, we will pay for journeys as part of one fee, taking into account the discounts we are entitled to, even in the case of purchasing several tickets. In addition to the ticket, we will receive information about the duration of the journey and the time needed for the transfer. We will also see a map with the course of our route.

Another feature of the application is the possibility of sending a parcel via the Furgonetka.pl platform. It allows you to use the services of leading courier companies: DPD, DHL, UPS, FedEx, Poczta Polska or InPost.

And that's not all - mPay also makes it easy to purchase games and software. We will also pay for services such as Netflix, Filmbox or Spotify.

The operator also allows you to make donations to charity. During the pandemic, help was given to the medics fighting the coronavirus on the front lines.

Payment apps are changing the way we use our services

In order not to sound groundless, I will give you a personal example from a recent leave. As a mountain lover, I went to Zakopane in July. The summer months are not the happiest time to walk in the Tatra Mountains, which I remembered about when in Kuźnice I encountered a long queue to the kiosk with entrance tickets to the Tatra National Park.

Fortunately, I remembered the possibility of purchasing a ticket via the application. After a few clicks in the application, I got a 7-day ticket, saving a lot of time. I saved even more in Palenica Białczańska, where the queue to the kiosk was not several dozen, but certainly over 100 m. Thanks to mPay, it took me several seconds to buy a ticket and go through the gate.

This example shows how payment apps help you with small but essential life activities. The list of services that can be paid for with a smartphone is growing successively, and payment system operators make every effort to ensure that the payment process is simple and intuitive.

This drive to provide users with intuitive solutions is not limited to the simplicity of making payments. mPay was the first non-bank entity to enable biometric verification of an account using a selfie. Therefore, customers of this operator do not have to make verification transfers, and authorization only requires an identity card and a smartphone with a camera.

Contrary to other companies, mPay has also met the needs of those customers who do not intend to perform the verification required by EU law, but want to use certain services. In this way, in accordance with the Act on Payment Services, they gain the opportunity to purchase public transport tickets, rail and coach tickets or pay for parking without the need to authorize with ID.

The text was created in cooperation with mPay.

In Katowice, we will pay for parking with a smartphone