🚀 go-pugleaf

I dont live in Boston but I live in Seattle where I learned recently that
Seattle has decided to have contract collection agencies handle late
parking tickets. The way it works is this:

The city open bidding for a contract to collect late parking tickets where
the collection agencies bid by the percentage they keep. The lowest comission
wins. The comission as far as I under is the percentage of each parking ticket
debt that the agency keeps. For example, if the percentage is 10, that 
means that the agency keeps $10.00 on a $100.00 parking ticket debt they
collect.

Because the city awards based on the lowest comission bidded, that means
that the agency's profits on each ticket is thin. The agencies are betting
that they will have a high enough hit rate to make that low comission pay
into a profit.

You can bet that based on the above, the agency will try its hardest to get
the debt paid. Like any collection agency, I think they have the right
to access your credit record and make any applicable notifications on the
timeleness of payment, etc. I think they also have the right to garnishment
as applicable to your state. 

In short its like any other form of debt that you incur but fail to pay
in a timly manner.

As far as the driver license is concerned, I think that there are relatively
new agreements between states that allow for shared information regarding
violations made in a state that is different than the state that issued
a particular license. I even speculate that someone might be running a
database for this purpose. Technically, there would be nothing to it. A 
few hundred megabyte oracle database on a Sparc 2 would do the job
nicely. Dont assume that it is not being done.

If I were you, I would pay them off. After all, you will sleepy better.

Mark Allyn

PS Happyness is getting rid of the car and using a bicycle. I have never
   heard of parking tickets for bicycles. If you cant do that and you
   need to go to Boston, drive to one of the numerous satalite MBTA 
   station and take the T in. Dont hassle with Boston driving/parking.