The City of Rochester to Add Card Processing Fee – Will Parking Ramps Be Affected?

The City of Rochester announced yesterday that on January 1st, 2027, they will start charging a processing fee on card transactions for certain City services.

The big question that this brought up for me is: Will this fee be charged at parking ramps?

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Why is the City of Rochester Charging a Processing Fee?

The City said in the announcement that they currently absorb the processing fees that come with cards being used to pay for services. However, in 2025, they report that the amount they absorbed was approximately $511,000.

This caused the Rochester City Council to approve the new payment card processing fee.

How Much is the Rochester Payment Card Processing Fee?

The processing fee is going to be set at 3% of the total transaction for most instances. The only difference has to do with parking, which we'll get to in a second.

How Can You Avoid the Rochester Card Processing Fee?

If you want to avoid this processing fee, you'll have to pay for the service with cash or check. (Does anyone still use a checkbook, or even have a checkbook, these days?)

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Will Parking in Rochester be Charged a Processing Fee?

The big question that this brought up for me (and I'm sure others) was if this processing fee would be added to parking options in downtown Rochester.

For the parking ramps, there will be no processing fee added. There is also no processing fee that will be added for transit services. Ok, I'm happy about that.

There will be, however, a processing fee added to parking that is not ramp parking. So for street/metered parking there will be a processing fee. This processing fee is different from the 3% that I mentioned above. The City writes:

For parking-related services, excluding parking ramp usage, the City will instead apply a flat service fee equivalent to 3.0% of the transaction amount.

The City mentions that more information about the new processing fee will be coming before January 1st, so keep an eye out for that.