PayByPhone Reviews 510

Having used the app for parking without problems numerous times previously, the last time the app recognised the parking site and time required but would not accept payment. A message was displayed stating there was “a problem at our end….try again in a few minutes”. I had already left the car park at this stage having an urgent appointment to attend. It took over 20 attempts and nearly half an hour to eventually make payment. Surprise, surprise, on returning to my vehicle, I had a parking penalty notice (from Newcastle City Council).
Despite having captured screenshots on my phone to verify my attempts to pay, my appeal against penalty notice was rejected (on the basis that it was my responsibility to make payment before leaving the vehicle/car park) and PaybyPhone accepted no responsibility whatsoever.
Do not use this app unless you have time on your hands to wait half an hour to make payment!

Used to work well and now most of the time it doesnt work on both the app or the mobile website! Very disappointing!

I have never seen such a preponderance of bad reviews for one company! The new user interface (2025) is way too busy and not user friendly. I want to quickly pay for parking and get on with my life whether I'm going to a restaurant, a hardware store or a bakery. It stupidly asks me which license plate I want to use when I only have one on file. It stupidly asks me which credit card I want to use when I only have one on file. And then it wants to try to sell me something at the end. It should be no more than three simple screens and you're done.

Used to be fine, sort of. Now the app doesn’t load or doesn’t recognise my details. Last two days not working at all, I still have to park outside my sons house( he’s disabled and I visit him every day) but I’m constantly worried I will get a parking ticket.

this is the worst damn app ever. I have been using for years used it yesterday , TO DAY it hasn't a clue who I am
therefore I could not park this is not the first time- the nonsense one is put through just to park a damn car is beyond comprehension. WHOEVER designed this piece of crap needs their P45. USELESS RUBBISH AND DESPICABLE .

Found it impossible to connect, again. Every time there's a problem connecting, which is frequently, the app freezes and has to be uninstalled and reinstalled. I've wasted so much time trying to sort this app out when it goes wrong, it's an absolute pile of garbage. Where I live (Brighton and Hove) there is no alternative means of payment apart from calling PayByPhone directly. This is also impossible in many cases. If I don't have a phone signal I can't call them, can I? You also have to remember pass codes etc., not easy when you are out and about. Reset emails don't arrive for 24 hours or so, if at all. I'll be complaining to my council again, but they never listen, so the frustrations will continue. Grrrrrrr!

Truly horrendous unreliable app. It took at least five attempts to input my card details, and even then, my card is not always available as a payment method, I have to completely log out and back in again. Although connected to home WiFi, with everything else working as it should, paybyphone consistently tells me "payment failed" before I've even hit " verify on banking app". This is the only payment method available other than cash, but after 10+ attempts each time I park it's actually quicker and more convenient to go to a cash machine, then buy something in a shop to get change, and go back to the car park. It's worked a couple of times but it's not worth the effort, or the risk of getting a ticket during the time you are trying to pay online. Absolutely pointless. If I could give minus five stars I would.

On the25th July 2025, Following in from my experience following the changes to PayByPhone I have discovered changes in the setup on my account. The country code had been added in a bold font to my mobile number. Upon deleting the country code the app functioned properly. I thank PayByPhone staff for taking time and interest to respond to my concerns.

Why oh why isn't there only one parking app? Ringo is miles better than this terrible pile of junk app. Part of me thinks it is deliberately coded to be poor to use so that is feeds into the scam operations run by some car park companies. I could learn to code today, from scratch, and code a better app than this one. It doesn't properly record transactions (unlike Ringo), it doesn't email you a receipt (unlike Ringo), it doesn't provide you with the ability to extend your parking from your phone (unlike Ringo). If parking apps were a truly competitive market, you would have a choice of apps to use when you arrive at a car park, rather than the car park owners choosing which app they will allow you to use. That way, PayByPhone would go out of business immediately (as it deserves to), as no one would ever choose to use it ahead of the infinitely better Ringo.

What went wrong! everything!
We parked up outside the ROCKWATER Restaurant in Hove. We had booked the restaurant for lunch. What a parking fiasco!
The app is slow, confusing, totally ridiculous and designed to create high blood pressure, which it ultimately did. My husband almost burst an artery!
This is by far the worst parking app I have ever endured. We waited over 15 minutes for the wretched thing to actually acknowledge that we were just wanting to park our car.
How does taking a photo of your car help the process may I add? We had given our reg plate and a description! This is not a necessary requirement.
The company wants all your info - a violation in itself!
Utter rubbish!
Hove Council - Your staff who decided to use this company are probably taking a back hander. Look into this nonsense please because we definitely will not be parking there again, so a shame for the restaurants in your town. They will no doubt close within the next 5 years. Your town will be a dead town, like so many other towns in this country because of council workers like yours.
Shame on you! Also shame on you for employing a French company to organise something which many English companies could have done quite easily . What an utter shambles.
If I could give this review Nil POINTS, I would.

Cannot register my email. I get the code but when I try to enter it in the app it says," error please try later". I've been trying for two days and have now given up.

BEWARE their data security may be suspect. App said I needed to register as a new user (I wasn't) then it filled in ALL my credit card data from their electronic records. The next day I had my first ever warning from credit card provider of an unusual charge. Coincidence??

In their reply the suggestion is that I have been the victim of a scammer. However, I only used their smartphone app (from "play store") and didn't go near any other way of logging on. So the problem can only reside in their app.

I would give 0 stars if I could. I first installed this app a couple of years ago and it used to work well, but recently it won't work at all. Keeps asking me to verify my payment method but by the time I've gone into my banking app to approve the payment, the paybyphone app has timed out and I end up going round in circles. I have uninstalled the app and reverted to carrying cash.

App doesn’t work. Reset password link never arrives. Unable to pay over the phone and speak to someone. USELESS

Unusable pile of garbage

If it was possible I would give it zero stars
The paybyphone app is an unusable pile of garbage. It is not fit for purpose.
Firstly it informs me that I have an account with password; which I don't
Secondly, it repeatedly tells me I have paid for parking when it has not processed the transaction; this morning this pile of (choose your own expletive) cost me £25 in parking fines; the screen on my phone clearly told me I had paid for 2 hours parking .. when I had not.. it transpired
If the owners/directors of the company had any integrity they would cease trading

7 contraventions à cause d'un bug

What a nightmare. The APP was updated but malfunctioned. I have two cars on my account. No matter which car I uploaded it reverted back to the car at the top of the list. I got caught twice and can't prove it was an APP problem. I'm now £80 down and none of that will even go to local council funds. It'll go to paybyphone. Yet another shity American company.

AVOID. I USED THIS UNRELIABLE APP. IF I COULD GIVE ZERO STARS I WOULD. WHAT A CON. ENDED UP WITH A PARKING FINE DESPITE PAYING. SENT THE NATIONWIDE PROOF OF PARKING TICKET PAYMENT TO COUNCIL AND THEY STUPIDLY REJECTED IT?🤮

TOTAL HASSEL AND IMPOSSIBLE TO REACH THEM. NOW EXPECTED TO PAY £35 FINE. (EDIT Now £70 because I refuse to pay THE BANKRUPT BRIGHTON COUNCIL who are running A PARKING SCAM (8PM TO 8PM, with machines and parking phone numbers that don't work and with EXORBITANT PARKING FEES).

PAY BY PHONE S/WARE IS BUGGY AND THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HOPELESS...

WHAT A TOTAL LOAD OF RUBBISH. AVOID.

PayByPhone app repeatedly informs me to connect my App to a network or my server and does not accept me. I have consulted Apple and been told that my phone is up to date and should & does work. I have gone into PayByPhone Chats which acknowledges that they cannot help me. Certainly no Customer Service exists. One should be able to speak to someone. One star is too much praise. Who can help me?

Tried to verify email with no luck gave up was told to open app and enter code can't open app without sending for code which I have still not working removing app