From today, motorists in Budapest may pay for parking exclusively via mobile phone — a change accompanied by a sharp rise in fees that drivers would do well to note. Payment is now limited to mobile applications, SMS or voice calls; cash is no longer accepted, a move that has already drawn criticism. More than 3,000 parking meters are set to disappear from the city’s streets in the coming weeks.
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The decision to phase out parking meters was approved by the Budapest General Assembly on 27 November 2024 through an amendment to the city’s parking regulations. The measure came into force on 1 July 2026. According to the Mayor’s Office, approximately 3,300 machines will be dismantled by service providers, with City Hall anticipating a significant reduction in operating costs.
Districts operating paid parking zones will install uniform signage in Hungarian and English. These will display the zone code, charging hours, tariffs, time limits, operator details, customer service contacts, and a QR code linking to the National Mobile Payment Plc system for further information.
Parking charges rise sharply
The overhaul also brings higher parking fees, effective from Wednesday. In the central “A” zone, hourly charges rise from 600 to 800 forints; in zone “B”, from 450 to 600 forints; in zone “C”, from 300 to 400 forints; and in the outer “D” zone, from 200 to 300 forints per hour.
Night-time parking at guarded park-and-ride (P+R) facilities has increased to 300 forints per hour. Monthly daytime passes have been withdrawn, while the northern paid car park on Margaret Island now charges 800 forints per hour.
Night transport overhaul
Changes will also affect Budapest’s night-time public transport network, with a redesigned system launching overnight into Thursday. According to the Budapest Transport Centre (BKK), the revamped network will offer broader coverage and faster journeys across both the capital and its surrounding agglomeration.
The restructuring aims to create a clearer, more comprehensive system, ensuring that all districts are accessible from the city centre and the Grand Boulevard area via the main transport corridors, while better serving commuters from suburban areas.
Far-right party: cash ban violates constitutional rights
Csaba Balog, Budapest leader of the radical right-wing Mi Hazánk Movement, called on Wednesday for the retention of cash payment options at a press conference in the capital. He described the city leadership’s decision as legally unacceptable.
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Balog argued that the move infringes the constitutional right to use cash, which, he said, “even a liberal-led capital cannot override”. He added that the measure unfairly disadvantages hundreds of thousands of people who do not possess smart devices.
He further claimed that most of Budapest’s districts are aware of the alleged unconstitutionality of the measure, noting that in some areas cash payments are not entirely abolished but merely restricted — for example, by reducing the number of operational parking meters.
“The Mi Hazánk Movement will not allow cash payments to be pushed into the background; we will stand up for the constitutional rights of Hungarian citizens,” Balog said.
How will a foreigner pay? No Hungarian phone, no credit or debit card, no ability to pay. I have a friend from Belgium who is pondering this question.
Gene, the long and short of it is that if you don’t have a phone and bank card of some sort, you cannot pay for parking. The phone doesn’t have to be a Hungarian one, but does need to be a local number if you seek to pay via SMS. A foreign phone can be used to call the displayed number, or more likely, to download the Nemzeti Mobilfizetes payment app. I would have thought that 99.99% of foreign visitors will have both a mobile phone and at least 1 bank card in their wallet. They’re more likely to have these than sufficient Forints to hand in coins which was a perennial problem even for local residents back when this was the only way to pay for parking! I remember the days when I’d keep a big bag of coins in the car harvested for this purpose, then spend about 5 minutes feeding a sufficient quantity into a payment machine which would randomly reject some of them for no apparent reason.