I would not be surprised if this per-session is to cover credit card processing fees.

But what would be nice is being able to preload a balance and get hit with the fee only once.

Every place I’ve been, the fee isn’t charged if you use the pay station with your credit card. It is only charged if you use the app.

I miss the old CashKeys[1]. Some cities had a digital 'key' (basically an EEPROM in a funky key-like TRRS form factor) that you could buy and preload $10-20 at a time on. When you clicked them all the way into the meter, it acted like you inserted one quarter. You'd pull it out a click and click it back in, and it'd drop another 'quarter' in. Repeat as much as you needed, and you could mix the CashKey with actual coins being dropped in the slot.

They lasted to the mid-2010s, when Duncan stopped selling keys and software and eventually, support.

[1] https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/0816/08/duncan-...

https://ggwash.org/view/35377/its-a-little-harder-to-pay-for...

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