How To Never Pay For Parking At Shopping Centres Again

Most large shopping centres offer free indoor parking for the first two to three hours, followed by a gradually rising fee. If you’ve just spent a bunch of money in their complex and don’t particularly want to fork out a gratuity for the privilege, here’s a simple hack that will raise the boom gate for free.

Boom gate picture from Shutterstock

All you need to do is bend the magnetic stripe on your parking card — the machine will still suck it in but wont be able to read it. Nine times out of 10, the parking staff will just open the boom gate rather than walk all the way over to your machine. This goes double if there are other vehicles queuing up behind you. The hack works best in complexes with large footprints such as Westfield, as the staff are spread pretty thin. You’re welcome.

This post is part of our Evil Week series at Lifehacker, where we look at the dark side of getting things done. Knowing evil means knowing how to beat it, so you can use your sinister powers for good. Want more? Check out our evil week tag page.


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