If you are a city, a college/university, a hospital or any other large organization, you may find that the parking credit card account piggybacks on a large "general" account run by the larger entity. This is done primarily since the credit card companies offer lower rates to larger customers. Makes sense.
However does it make sense for you? I have been hearing problems about municipal parking operations that take credit cards, but the money goes directly into the city’s general fund. So the parking operation gets no credit for that money.What if a charge is returned? How does the master account holder figure out who to bill?
Most private operators have sub merchant accounts for every garage so the credit card charge can be tracked back to where it originated. Many public sector organizations don’t.
I know it seems pretty obvious, but I’m being told that many organizations simply don’t track the funds. In one case, the parking manager told me that he simply billed his university accounting department for the amount of credit card charges they had every month and the money was credited to the parking account. When I asked how they knew if it was the right amount he simply said "They never asked."
Just something to keep in mind.
JVH
