Service NSW app: The secret spot in your phone where you can keep on top of parking fines

You can avoid overdue parking tickets and even driving suspensions from not paying fines on time by using a ‘secret’ function on the Service NSW app.

The app has a menu for fines and demerits, which clearly shows any parking offences, as well as pictures of the vehicle and time stamps from the time of the offence.

But the feature has been dubbed ‘a secret’ because there are no push notifications, inbox indicators or alerts when a fine is added.

They also automatically drop out once they become overdue, making the fine impossible to find if you don’t have a reference number.

‘You need to check the fines section every few weeks, just in case, heaps of councils don’t issue actual tickets now,’ one person wrote on a Reddit thread about overdue fines.

‘I had one fine that got so overdue they sent me a suspension notice – but I didn’t get anything in the mail and only knew because they texted me to say I couldn’t drive.’

The average parking fine in Sydney is $120, this doubles once it has been sent to the debt collectors and doubles again once your licence has been suspended.

Once a licence is suspended it can be difficult to have it reinstated without paying the full fine, even if you haven’t received any letters or emails to alert you of the outstanding ticket. 

‘I tried to tell them I was never notified of a fine but I had to pay $440 on the spot before I could drive as I couldn’t prove I didn’t get them,’ one woman wrote. 

One man on a separate Reddit thread became extremely frustrated when he realised his car’s registration had been cancelled due to unpaid fines.

‘So I was about to renew my vehicle’s registration online, but ServiceNSW said “registration cancelled” and wouldn’t let me renew it. It doesn’t state any reason why it’s cancelled,’ he said.

The app shows off the fines and has more options to look at them in detail. Once in the final screen you can pay the fine or request a review

‘My best guess is that there might be some fines on my vehicle which haven’t been paid? I moved between three houses this year and although I’ve updated my address on the ServiceNSW app each time, I just realised I’ve never received any mail from them this year,’ he said.

So he went online to check if he had any outstanding fines but found it impossible to know.

‘There isn’t any way to do that without having a penalty notice reference number,’ he said.

Adding: ‘Which I obviously do not have. It’s extremely frustrating.’

The man assumes he was booked for parking illegally but has no idea when the offence took place and says he never ‘got a ticket’.

‘As far as I know, parking fines are the only ones that you don’t receive via mail. All others you do, and I haven’t received any communication whatsoever from revenueNSW or ServiceNSW,’ he said.

Fines can take up to 28 days to appear in the app but typically appear within two weeks of the offence.

Fines can be paid and contested through the app.