5 good reasons to ditch your parking coupons and use the Parking.sg app

In case you haven't heard, Singapore drivers can now pay for their parking coupons online using the Parking.sg mobile app.

But, apparently, despite the app being easy to use, many people have resisted using it, preferring instead to stick with paper coupons.

We just can't understand why Singaporeans, who are famously tech savvy and order everything from groceries to electronics online, would not want to use this parking app.

So we came up with a list of five big advantages Parking.sg enables drivers to enjoy:

YOU SAVE MONEY WITH PARKING.SG AS YOU CAN PAY BY THE MINUTE

Parking apps are already widely used in cities in the US, UK, France and Australia, so we are actually a little behind the times.

There's a really good reason people overseas have taken to these parking apps so quickly even if they're not as smartphone-addicted as we are. And it's that you're likely to end up paying LESS for parking when you pay using an app.

That's because you can stop the parking session the minute you get to your car. This allows you to pay on a per-minute basis. You get refunded for any unused balance on your parking coupons.

You also don't have to worry about activating a parking session and then changing your mind and deciding to leave, since you can simply end the session through the parking app instead of wasting an entire coupon.

With coupons, on the other hand, you're always forced to pay in chunks of at least 30 minutes. Unless you time yourself so you reach your car exactly when one coupon is expiring, you'll always be overpaying a little.

YOU GET AN ALERT WHEN YOUR PARKING COUPON IS ABOUT TO EXPIRE

When you go out, you want to have a good time, and not be checking your phone every 10 minutes to see if your parking coupon has expired.

The parking app makes life a lot easier by sending you an alert whenever your coupon is about to expire.

If you're one of those people who actually sets an alarm on your phone to alert you to the expiry of your parking coupons, Parking.sg can now do this for you automatically.

YOU CAN TOP UP YOUR PARKING COUPONS WITHOUT RETURNING TO THE CAR

Every driver has experienced that super fail moment when they had to run to their car to top up their parking coupons.

Kiss those days goodbye, as you can choose to extend your parking session on your phone, or just ignore it and then pray the parking enforcement officer doesn't show up.

YOU SAVE TIME BY NOT HAVING TO BUY OR USE PARKING COUPONS

Imagine all those wasted minutes you've spent sitting in your car, punching those holes in your parking coupons, contemplating how many coupons you should display on your dashboard.

Then there are those dreaded moments when you realise you've punched the wrong date. Or when you discover you've run out of parking coupons and start looking around helplessly for a fellow driver who might be kind enough to sell you a few.

Those days are now over. The parking app is much more convenient than coupons, and lets you activate your parking session within a few seconds. All you have to do is select your car park.

YOU CAN PAY WITH A CREDIT CARD THAT GETS YOU CASHBACK, AIR MILES OR REWARDS

All payments on Parking.sg are made using a credit or debit card. Which also means that you can benefit from your parking sessions by using a card that will reward you.

For instance, if you use the American Express True Cashback Card, you get 1.5 per cent cashback on all your parking fees.

Do you prefer the using the Parking.sg app or parking coupons? Tell us in the comments!