I’m no Luddite, I love technology, when it works to make our lives easier but parking apps can’t claim that. They’re making our lives worse.

A survey found that one in 20 drivers still got a fine even when they thought they’d used the app correctly. One in six find the apps not user-friendly.

The first problem is that there is not one app to rule them all. Depending on the car park you’re in you need a certain app. On my phone I have RingGo, PayByPhone, JustPark, PhoneAndPay, GoPark, Mobon, Saba Park, Easy Park, MiPermit, and Tinder for when I’m really really struggling to park somewhere. Then I wonder why I don’t have any space on my phone.

The process of parking always goes like this. You drive into a car park and see the sign saying you need a parking app you don’t recognise.

You go to the App Store, try to download it but find you already had it, but it needs updating. You update it, which logs you out, so you go to the log in page. You know your email address but you don’t remember which password you used. Then you click Forgot Password, which send you an email with a link, so it’s off to your email app. You type in the password you’d like to use, but it’s already in use. Of course it is, it’s your password, so back to the log in page, and you’re in.

The you find you haven’t used this app for so long your credit card details have changed, which you update and you have to approve that in your banking app. Finally you’re back to the parking app to book your parking. And when you’ve done all that you’ve been there so long you got a ticket.

These apps are complicated and if you make a mistake on their badly designed app you’re the one who gets the fine. You can’t appeal if it’s your mistake.

It’s not really the parking apps I’m upset with; at some point in the future they might work well. It’s the fact that more and more car parks are going parking app-only. Car parks are literally saying to you, your money is no good here.

If you don’t have a smartphone or if you don’t want your banking details in your phone you can jog on, because you won’t be driving into town.

I don’t mind having the option to pay using technology but if we go fully cashless I’m just one phone dropped down the loo away from having to move to a remote island and start a new life.