Santa Barbara offers new ways to pay at downtown parking lots

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The city of Santa Barbara made paying for parking in the downtown lots even easier with a new pay-by-phone option.

The option, called "Scan - Pay - Go," allows customers to do just that. Parkers can use their smartphone camera to scan the QR code on their parking ticket to bring up a payment portal.

Then, customers can use their phones to pay the parking fees. The portal accepts Via, MasterCard, Discover, ApplePay, and GooglePay, according to city spokeswoman Shelly Cone.

Then, when leaving the parking lot, the pay-by-phone system works with the new license plate recognition hardware to automatically raise the gate.

The new system does not require customers to register or download an app, and payment can be completed up to 10 minutes before exiting the lot.

"Pay by phone compliments other recent equipment upgrades, which expanded the existing payment options by adding NFC payments and tap-to-pay." Cone said. "So, the next time you visit downtown, park and pay the easy way. Scan. Pay. Go."