I seldom need to pay for parking down town but thought I would investigate the hot spot parking buzz. I downloaded the app and entered my car data and then went to purchase some parking time. As I seldom need to park I thought I would buy $5.00 of parking time. Whoops. There is a $1.99 service fee. Thus I am expected to pay a 40% surcharge and rely on the parking cops to check their tech gizmo to see if I have paid. (This does not trigger the meter apparently, the parking cop needs to use his gizmo to check some data base).
I think I will just stay with dropping the occasional quarter in the meter if I need to park.