Should we be concerned about this or is it normal?

Tringa

Tringa

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Dave
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Mrs Tringa parked the car yesterday in a pay and display car park she has never used before. The only way to pay was via a mobile with a credit/debit card. When she typed in the card details the text reply said something like, "Does the car you are parking have registration number xxyy zzz?" Somehow it had access to our car reg.

There are a few places that might have a note of your car's reg number but I'm assuming the only places that definitely hold a car reg number are the insurance company and DVLA. The car parking company is unlikely to know which insurance company you use so does this mean the car parking company has access to the DVLA database?

Is there a data protection issue here?

Dave
 
Yes quite normal, many (too many) companies have access to your registration. Just look at tyre companies, Amazon etc all can identify your vehicle by your registration.
 
As ecoleman said it'll be an ANPR camera as she drove in.

If you don't use the system & pay they'll contact DVLA for your details, if you do connect it'll offer you the most recent car number plate and work backwards until one is accepted as yours.
 
I've encountered this a few months ago. Went to go into a carpark. Usual one (closer to shopping centre) was full so used one a little further away. No coins and the machine didn't accept card payments (why not in this day and age?) so used the telephone service. It recognised my car (presumably as I was the only one who had entered in that time frame) and I paid. A big faff when something like a card payment (or even contactless) would have been far quicker.
 
omens said:
I've encountered this a few months ago. Went to go into a carpark. Usual one (closer to shopping centre) was full so used one a little further away. No coins and the machine didn't accept card payments (why not in this day and age?) so used the telephone service. It recognised my car (presumably as I was the only one who had entered in that time frame) and I paid. A big faff when something like a card payment (or even contactless) would have been far quicker.
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But much more expensive for the parking company. This way they only have to have a few terminals in their contact centre? instead of one in every car park.
 
Steep said:
But much more expensive for the parking company. This way they only have to have a few terminals in their contact centre? instead of one in every car park.
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And much more inconvenient to the point where I try to avoid them where possible. I guess they make enough money from people who do use them to continue.
 
Steep said:
But much more expensive for the parking company. This way they only have to have a few terminals in their contact centre? instead of one in every car park.
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Last year I used a car park where the choice of payment was either by coins or phone a number to pay by card. Between my son and I we didn't have enough change to for the parking so had to telephone and pay by card. The minimum charge by phone was more than the cost of a minimum stay by using the machine.
 
I think most carparks now are heavily automated in this way, allowing car park machines to have card readers just means more parts to maintain and more risk of card fraud.

Personally I don't use many paid car parks much but I think the one I used earlier this year just took paypal as a payment option.
 
I find it makes it much easier to "make" a carpark - rough bit of land, stick a sign up for parking and payment by phone only. Some of the carparks that operate like this look like rough ground after a building has been torn down.
 
Has she used a similar car park payment before? She probably has and they've got the car details against the card
 
we have a park and ride up here ,you put in your car reg in when paying ,you then scan your ticket on the bus on the return journey and when driving out the anpr recognises your car and lifts the barrier
 
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