Last week I arranged a dinner meet-up with Michele Poole, so that I could give her a CD with the photographs I took of her as she completed her 20th consecutive run at the Freihofer’s Run for Women. We agreed to meet at my favorite Troy restaurant, Brown’s Brewing, on Wednesday night.
That evening, as I drove over to Troy, I noticed that parking in the River Street area was almost non-existent. “Rockin’ on the River” events tend to soak up all the available street parking spots. No matter, I thought. I’ll just park in the lot next to the Hedley Park Place building. No big deal.
As I pulled in, however, a man walked up to me. “That’ll be $5 to park here,” he said to me.
Great. Another cash grab, I mused. What was once free parking is now a money machine for someone else. Grr. I dug in my wallet and pulled out a $5 bill.
“No, sir, we can’t accept that.”
Huh?
“It’s credit or debit card only,” he said, showing me his portable credit card reader/printout machine.
“You’re kidding, right?” I replied. “You’re not taking cash?”
“No sir,” the man replied. “They don’t want us out here with a bunch of $5 bills all night.”
Okay, now hold on a second. The parking attendants can’t take a $5 bill – a piece of legal tender that clearly states on its obverse that “THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR ALL DEBTS, PUBLIC AND PRIVATE” – a clear Federal Reserve Note with a big fat picture of Abraham Lincoln on the front and a shot of the Lincoln Memorial on the back? What, are they afraid the $5 is going to bounce?
And instead, they want me to hand over my credit card so that it can be swiped in a portable card reader? Correct me if I’m wrong here, but at what point did I miss the Federal edict that cash was no longer considered acceptable currency for transactions?
Not only was the guy motioning at me to give up my credit card, but the car behind me – some piece of junk Toyota Corolla with more rust than rust color – was laying on the horn, telling me to move it. And I was about 5 minutes away from my meeting with Michele.
I had no choice. I glumly handed over my credit card. The attendant swiped it and handed me a dashboard receipt. I parked over by the water, and made my way to Brown’s.
At the same time, Michele was trying to find a parking spot of her own – rather than deal with the credit card collectors, she eventually found a free spot two blocks away. Needless to say, although we did enjoy our meal and she LOVED the pictures from the Freihofer’s Run, we were both still plenty miffed about the payment method extracted by the Hedley Park Place parking lot attendees.
Let’s get a few things straight. I don’t have a problem with paying for parking, if it’s necessary or required to do so. I get that. It’s the Hedley Park Place’s parking lot, they own the land and they can do with it as they see fit. It’s not like Brown’s or Ryan’s Wake or any of the other River Street nightspots are getting a cut from the parking lot profits – they aren’t. It’s not like my paying $5 to park is being funneled back to them, because it’s not.
What I DO have a problem with – when one thinks about it long enough – is that the Hedley Park Place parking lot attendees will only take a credit or debit card, and not cash. It’s not like I’m driving up there to hand them ten rolls of pennies for a $5 fee. It’s not like I’m handing them a $100 bill and demanding change. The parking fee was $5, I handed them a $5 bill. Every other parking authority in the Capital District will take cash; some also take checks or credit cards, that’s their choice as well.
See, there’s this thing called the Coinage Act of 1965 – otherwise known as 31 U.S.C. § 5103 – which states that “United States coins and currency (including Federal reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal reserve banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts.”
And it’s not like I’m paying with Linden dollars or Bitcoins, or with Monopoly money or with chicken feet.
But at the same time, I don’t want some joker with a credit card machine sitting there, waiting for me to cough up my credit card info – so that some other joker can rob the attendant of his credit card machine and get my card info (as well as the card info of every person who parked in the Hedley Park Place parking lot).
So I’m resigned to a compromise. I will use a credit card to park in the Hedley Park Place parking lot.
A prepaid credit card – with about $20 on it (good for three days of parking, once you factor in the prepaid credit card transaction fees). This way, if these turnip-brains at the Hedley Park Place parking lot need a credit card so badly, they can use the one I provide them that doesn’t possess my contact information or any personal banking records.
In other words – you want to be a jerk about this… then I can be a jerk about it, too. Fair is fair.
Chuck The Writer 
Plus it probably cost them $2.50 to run the machine each time….morons. Maybe the real reason is that they don’t want the attendant pocketing the cash..just stealing and selling your identity.
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I agree with what you are saying , BUT, why are you attacking the messenger calling them a jerk or joker? They are only the attendents hired to collect the fee for the property owner who created this set up. By the way there are other cases that do not take cash. You can not rent a car with cash .
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My comment vanished:
Seems to me to be another example of helping someone else do their job, and it’s a real DRAG. Needless to say, we have to check our credit card receipts for this silly amount now. I travel to “free parking” hotels ten times more than I do to major hotels…often because everything there is a drag.
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I paid in cash . . .hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm . ..!
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mub, that’s a silly argument, because for renting a car you need to put down a deposit in case there’s any damages to the rental car.
As Tony pointed out, it’s ironic they ‘only’ accept plastic, because after merchant interchange fees they’re not getting a full $5. Plus, they now have sales receipts and a record of income, so they have to pay income tax on it, as opposed to cash sales (think waitressing) where they necessarily wouldn’t have to report all the income. Way to go Hedley!
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They probably just don’t want to be robbed.
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We went there last week for dinner at Brown’s and paid the $5 to park. We also handed a $5 bill and were told it could not be accepted. We, unlike you, didnt feel it to be such a big deal that you chose to blog about it and just handed over a credit card. Especially seeing the nice retired old gentlman supplimenting his income by working the lot. Dont you have anything more important to write about? Or, complain about? Seriously.
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Just because something is “legal tender” doesn’t mean they have to accept it…they can ask to be paid with a credit card, a rock, a picture of Nipper or anything else…that’s up to them.
If they send you a bill after the fact then you can use “legal tender”.
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#5 While in transit to Ft Lauderdale, I realized that I had left my credit card at home. I called the Ft Lauderdale airport Hertz counter and told them my predictament. No waaaay were they going to honor my reservation( made with my card weeks before).I asked if a friend could call in with her card number, putting it on her card.No way. No, it had to be my card and in my possession. I had more than enough travellers checks to pay cash. when I told other friends about this, they all agreed that their experience was, no card, no car. I would love to know the name of a car rental that honors cash.
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I can’t believe any of you would even pay to park in that lot.
Spend 2 minutes looking for a spot a block or two away and walk.
Jacob St, King St and 5th ave are all available for parking and frequently have spots open.
I’m sure everyone could spare to burn an extra calorie or two.
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greckoMeirs:
That was part of my initial post. I couldn’t find parking on King Street or Jacob, due to the “Rockin’ on the River” concert that night. And the only other lot available would have been behind the old Cloud 9 establishment, which isn’t exactly one of the safest lots out there. Believe me, on Monday trivia nights I can park on Jacob Street with ease.
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What happened to the Troy Trolley? It would be nice if they dusted that off to run a few nights a week so people could go from downtown to Brown’s without having to park.
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Mondays are free, Chuck. It’s just Wednesday through Saturdays the lot charges.
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Similar situation – LabCorp will not accept cash. They require a credit or debit card. Why? So in case your insurance company rejects the claim they can charge your card for thousands of dollars with no notice. This is the only place that my insurance company “allows” me to get my blood work done. If I don’t get it done there, I have to pay double the co-pay. Thanks for the idea of a pre-paid card! I think I’m going to use one of those instead. I don’t have credit cards, only a debit – so if they charged me for my labs, I’d be in BIG trouble.
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