Apply for capitol one credit card

Have you ever been in downtown Austin and needed a place to park, found one, and then realized you had run out of change? Then you look closely at the parking meter and notice there is a slot for some kind of plastic card (you suppose), and wonder what the "#@*%&" THAT is all about? You look carefully at the meter, then for a sign on the block, and shrug your shoulders.

After a few tries at this, you get a little curious. You know that people can buy bus passes at most grocery stores, so you go in and ask about these parking meter cards. The customer service rep looks at you strangely and says, "Huh?" You try this at a local bank and get the same reaction. Perplexed, you then check out the city's website for "more information."

Unless you are pretty good at site searches, even this technique will be unsuccessful. But, Eureka!, buried within the site is the information you have been looking for. You can actually purchase - and later recharge - a parking meter card directly from the city parking meter poh-bahs at their offices at 1111 Rio Grande - near Austin Community College's Rio Grande campus - and nowhere else. And within that strange fact lies quite a story.

The website page states that, under the "Downtown Parking Plan," mechanical parking meters "will be replaced" (we think this project is now complete) with electronic meters and the "current" parking fee structure of eight different hourly rates will be simplified to one hourly rate citywide - with the number of time limits (except in a few cases) reduced from six (ranging from 15 minutes to 12 hours) to two (2 and 5 hours). There is to be a 5-minute grace period that does not apply if you park, realize you have no change, and go in search of some.

And, oh, by the way, the entire "capitol area" - from Trinity Street to Lavaca Street between 10th Street and MLK Boulevard - is now the bailiwick of the state, which installed its own, incompatible parking meters after lawmakers realized the state was losing revenue by letting the city have the parking concession in the area. Do not try to pay a state meter fine to the city - or vice versa.

The city's website still says these meter conversions "will be completed in fiscal year 1998," then in smaller print notes that parking cards can be purchased for amounts from $5.00 to $50.00 in 25-cent increments - but fails to note that the City Council recently imposed a $5.00 surcharge on these electronic "smart" cards. The reason we were given is that people were throwing them away rather than recharging them, the cards cost money, and they are in short supply. The city has gone through its first order of 2,000 cards, and has quite a few left of the second 2,000 - but that, too, is yet another story.

Why on earth, we wondered, would Austin initiate a program for the convenience of its citizens and then bury the program so that few can even learn of it? And make it difficult for anyone to participate in the parking card program by having only one location to purchase and recharge the cards and not advertising even this single location? Well - that was not the original plan, but throw in the usual SNAFU's and here we are, hiding a jewel.

Mind you, the ordinance amendments required to implement the electronic meter and parking card program was enacted in August 1997, even though the city had appropriated $163,200 in December 1996 for a contract with Duncan Industries to install the meters by September 1998. Duncan also makes the parking cards for the meters.

Some time afterward, we are told, the city entered into a contract with AmStar Systems, Inc. (as that company is now known) under which AmStar installed, at no charge and as part of a demonstration pilot project, five of its trademarked eca$hierO"multi-function financial centers" (you can find them at the main library, the police station, and one or two other locations) that someday - fairly soon, we are told by AmStar President Bob Farris - will be able to recharge these cards and also accept payments for parking meter violations.

eca$hierOis described in company literature as "like a financial vending machine, accepting credit cards (though those in Austin may not), debit cards, "smart" cards (like the parking card), and cash, and dispensing "a virtually unlimited amount of media gift certificates, phone cards, money orders, and much, much more." Farris says the machines will be especially useful for non-banked customers (including parking meter scofflaws whose banks are out of state), whose numbers are growing rapidly nationwide.

The city first got connected with AmStar via Austin Energy, which thought these machines might make it easier for some of its customers to pay their electric bills (and everything else that is rolled up into them). While we heard conflicting reports about the status of Austin Energy's contract with AmStar (which had floundered for a while, we were told, over the issue of credit card discount fees), Farris assured us that all woes are in the past, the system is now ready to accept these payments, and all that is waiting is for his company to complete negotiations with major retailers (grocery stores, for example) for installation of the $45,000 machines at 25 to 30 Austin locations.

The city then negotiated a separate contract with AmStar for handling fines and other fees due at Municipal Court, and later realized it needed another revenue-producing stream in order to keep the machines busy enough (and profitable enough) to justify their placement with local retailers. Thus the link with the parking meter program, and the reason that the parking meter recharging effort is last in line for inclusion on the eca$hierO system.

Farris acknowledged that AmStar has still not completed its work to implement easy payments to Municipal Court, which means that startup work on the parking card project - which will require a special interface of some kind - is still way down the road. And that is why the city is still hiding the parking card program - the Rio Grande office could not handle the demand if the program suddenly became well known and popular with people who hate paying parking fines.