No Change for Parking Meter? Pay by Cell Phone

Starting now, you can pay parking meters from your cellphone, get a text message warning the meter is about to expire and even top up the meter without going outside.

The city is hoping the service -- which officially began Monday -- will increase revenue without costing much.

It is being provided under contract to Verrus Mobile Technologies, a Vancouver company that has already signed up commercial parking lots and cities in Canada, the U.S. and Britain.

Verrus gets paid through a 30-cent surcharge paid by the driver, which it calls a convenience fee, on each parking transaction using the service.

The approximately 8,000 city meters are not changing except for new decals with a meter number on them. All Vancouver meters will have decals within a few weeks