Mobile parking: Ciao change, hello handset

Since July 1st, 2006, some of the woes associated with parking in Budapest have been eased by a new system which makes it possible to pay for parking by mobile phone. While it does not make finding a parking spot easier, the advantages are obvious: you no longer need jingling with loose change, you can extend your parking time without returning to your car, and you never have to pay for more than exactly the minutes you use.

Before you can use the service, you have to sign a contract with Első Mobilfizetés Elszámoló Zrt (First Mobile Payment Accounting Zrt), the company operating the system. This can be done on their (Hungarian-only) site, www.emert.hu, or at one of their customer centers listed on the site. There are two in Budapest, at XIII, Hegedűs Gyula utca 20/b and at IX, Bakáts utca 8. If you don't speak Hungarian, take a driver with you who does.

Once the contract is signed and you are an EME client, you have to deposit at least Ft 3,000 to your new "parking account": via bank transfer (account number: 11600006-00000000-14821840), with a yellow check at the post office, in cash at the customer center itself. Or, if you are a T-Mobile customer, by sending "3000" without quotes to 06-30-4444-222. When you run low on funds, you can also deposit any amount above Ft 1,000 to your account using one of these methods. Negotiations are under way with other mobile phone providers to allow users to deposit money to their parking account via text message. Once the account is active, you receive a sticker, which you keep behind the windshield to identify yourself as a mobile payee. When attendants come across your car, they dial into the central server to check whether the meter has been started.

The service covers all of Budapest except District V and these 16 rural towns: Ajka, Balatonfüred, Debrecen, Eger, Gyöngyös, Kaposvár, Keszthely, Kiskunhalas, Miskolc, Nagykanizsa, Ózd, Szekszárd, Székesfehérvár, Tapolca, Veszprém and Zalaegerszeg. In time, the service will be extended throughout the country. Once you park your car in one of these zones, look for the zone number on the parking machine - a phone number beginning with 06-80-98. You can then pay in one of two ways: by calling this phone number or by sending the last four digits of the number in a text message to 06-30-344-4330. When you want to notify the system that you are moving on, call the zone number again or send an empty text message to 06-30-344-4330. If you prefer, you can also specify the time you will be leaving when you park, to save sending two messages. The fee is deducted automatically from your parking account.

When you first sign up with EME, you receive a PIN, which you can use to modify any of your settings by sending a text message to 06-30-344-4370. For example, if you want to change the language of the service to English or German, you send "telefonnyelv" followed by your PIN and the desired language (en, de, hu), e.g.: "telefonnyelv 3254 en" (though again, without quotation marks).

You can also sign up for several optional services, which make "mobile parking" even more convenient. For example, you can request regular text alerts stating your balance or a reminder text 15 minutes before your specified parking time expires.

To download our printable, English-language guide to using this service, please click on the link below.

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