Parking PCNs
On street and council car park penalty charge notices are the most common fines in the UK and the fastest to escalate.
Planned at launchComing soon to the UK
One fine should
never become three.
Most councils will not let you pay a parking fine in instalments. We are building the option that will.
- One email when the pilot opens. Nothing else.
- No payment details, no credit check, no cost.
Penalty charge notice
PCN 04521 · Camden
Due in full by 14 March
£160.00
With PayMyFines
4 × £40.00
per
month
The problem
A £160 ticket can escalate to £559.
Fine escalation is not an edge case. It is how the system is built. Here is the timeline drivers are up against.
-
£80
Within 14 days
Pay early and most councils halve the penalty. This is the lowest payment window offered.
-
£160
Day 15 to 28
The discount expires. The full penalty is due and the clock keeps running.
-
£240
Charge certificate
Left unpaid after the Notice to Owner, the penalty rises by 50 percent automatically.
-
£559
Court and bailiffs
Registration at the Traffic Enforcement Centre adds £9. Enforcement agent fees add £310 more.
Figures based on published council PCN guidance and the Taking Control of Goods (Fees) Regulations 2014.
How it works
Three moves, once we are live.
01
Send us the notice
Upload your PCN while you are still inside the payment window. Parking, bus lane, or moving traffic.
02
We pay the council in full
The penalty is settled straight away, before the discount deadline passes or extra charges land.
03
You repay in fixed instalments
Clear amounts and clear dates, agreed upfront. No rolling interest and no moving target.
See the full process, step by step
What you will need to hand.
- 1 The penalty charge notice itself, as a photo or a forwarded email. The reference number is the part that matters.
- 2 A UK bank account that can set up a Direct Debit, in the name of the person taking out the plan.
There is nothing to prepare today. This page describes the service we are building, and the pilot has not opened.
Fines should be a one off cost, not a debt spiral.
Councils treat a parking fine as all or nothing. Full amount, short deadline, and for most drivers no instalment option at all.
For anyone without a spare £160 in a given week, that turns a parking mistake into court fees, enforcement agents at the door, and months of pressure over something that started as a ten minute stop.
We want to break that at the earliest possible point. Pay the fine before it escalates, then let people repay it at a pace their actual income can handle.
Why we are building thisWhat we cover
The fines we plan to cover.
Council issued penalties are the priority, because they are the ones that escalate fastest and hit hardest.
Bus lane and moving traffic
Camera enforced contraventions such as bus lanes, box junctions, and banned turns.
Planned at launchClean air and congestion
Penalties from Clean Air Zones, ULEZ, the Congestion Charge, and Dart Charge crossings.
Planned at launchBeing straight with you
What we will not do.
A short list matters more than a long one. These are commitments we are designing the product around, not marketing lines.
We will not pay a fine you are challenging
If you think the penalty is wrong, appeal it. An appeal can cancel the fine entirely, and we are not going to talk you out of a free outcome.
We will not let the total move once agreed
The figure you agree to is the figure you repay. No interest accruing in the background, no fee that appears at month three.
We will not sell your data
Not to insurers, not to brokers, not to anyone. The business model is the fee on the plan, and that is the whole of it.
We will not sign people up who should not be
If repaying us would leave you worse off than the alternatives available to you, we would rather point you at the alternatives.
About
A ten minute stop should not cost someone six months.
PayMyFines exists because of a gap in how council penalties work, and because that gap falls hardest on the people least able to absorb it.
J. A. Hector
Founder ·
I have experienced receiving a penalty notice at the most inappropriate time. I had bills to pay and people who depended on me, and the money just wasn’t there. My ticket increased until the bailiffs arrived, and I had to borrow money from my nearest and dearest to cover it.
That’s why I created PayMyFines.
We are a small pre-launch team, so replies come from a person rather than a helpdesk. Give us a couple of working days.
Where we actually are.
-
Done
Mapped the escalation path
We went through the statutory route a council penalty takes, from the discount window to enforcement agent fees, and priced what intervening at each stage is worth.
-
Now
Validating demand, in public
This site is the current step. We are collecting waitlist signups and, more importantly, the notes people leave about their own experience. That is shaping which fines we handle first and what the plan lengths need to be.
-
Next
Authorisation and the payment engine
Paying a fine and being repaid over time is regulated consumer credit. Getting that right with the Financial Conduct Authority comes before writing a line of the payment system, not after.
-
Then
A small, closely watched pilot
A limited group, one or two councils, and every plan reviewed by a human. We would rather be slow and correct than fast and sorry.
FAQ
Questions, answered straight.
Where we do not know something yet, we say so rather than filling the gap with something that sounds better.
Is PayMyFines live yet?
No. We are in pre-launch. We take no payments, we hold no customer money, and we do not pay fines on anyone's behalf. Everything on this site describes a service we are still building.
When will it launch?
We are not going to give you a date we cannot stand behind. Paying a fine and being repaid over time is regulated consumer credit, and the authorisation process sets the timeline more than we do. Joining the waitlist is the way to hear the moment that changes.
Who is this actually for?
Anyone for whom a penalty charge notice arriving in a bad week is a genuine problem rather than an irritation. In practice that has meant delivery and gig drivers working to tight drop windows, parents doing the school run, tradespeople and van drivers parking in unfamiliar streets, and anyone whose account does not have a spare £160 in it on the day the notice lands.
Why does the early payment window matter so much?
Because almost all of the value is in it. Most council penalties halve if they are paid within fourteen days. Getting to the council inside that window can save you more than the entire cost of a repayment plan, which is why speed is the thing we are optimising for above everything else.
Is this a loan?
Functionally, yes. We would pay a third party on your behalf and you would repay us over time. In UK law that is regulated consumer credit, and we would rather be blunt about it than hide behind softer language. It is why we are going through Financial Conduct Authority authorisation before launch rather than after, and why this site currently sells you nothing.
What will it cost?
Pricing is not settled. Anything we published today would be a guess, and a guess about price is the worst kind to publish. What we can commit to now is the shape of it. One fee, disclosed before you agree to anything, folded into a total that does not move. No rolling interest, no daily accrual, no charge that appears at month three.
How long will payment plans be?
When we launch, payment plans will range from 3 to 6 months, subject to credit eligibility. You will see the plan length, every payment date, and the total before you agree to anything, and the total does not move once agreed.
Will you run a credit check?
Some form of affordability check is a regulatory requirement for consumer credit, so yes, there will be a check at the point of taking out a plan. Joining the waitlist involves none of that. There is no check, no search, and no footprint from signing up today.
What will happen if I miss a payment?
Missed payments will incur a late fee. The amount will be set out clearly before you agree to a plan, so there are no surprises. If you think you might miss a payment, tell us as early as you can.
Would this affect my credit file?
Regulated credit agreements are generally reported to credit reference agencies, so most likely yes once plans are live. We will spell out exactly what gets reported and when before anyone signs anything. Worth weighing against the alternative: an unpaid penalty that reaches enforcement can do considerably more damage.
What if I think the fine is wrong?
Appeal it, and do that before you talk to us. Challenging a council penalty costs nothing and a successful challenge cancels the fine outright. There is an informal challenge stage, then formal representations, then an independent tribunal. We will not put you on a payment plan for a fine you are contesting. Charging you for something that might be about to disappear would be indefensible.
My fine has already gone to bailiffs. Can you help?
Honestly, no. Once a warrant sits with enforcement agents, paying the original penalty no longer closes the matter, and the fees attached at that stage are set in law rather than by us. At that point free, independent advice will do more for you than we can. StepChange, National Debtline, and Citizens Advice all deal with exactly this and none of them will charge you or sell you anything.
Waitlist
Tell us if this would help you.
We are validating demand before we build the payment engine. Your email and your experience shape what we launch, and how.
- One email when the pilot opens. Nothing else.
- Your details are never sold or shared.
- No payment details, no credit check, no cost.