SmartMeters: Is your credit card number safe?

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — On Monday, the city announced the smart meters would eventually take the place of all existing meters. These allow you to use a credit card, but some folks are wondering, how safe is this option?

It almost seems like second nature to swipe your credit card at a retail store, or while picking up groceries, but those locations have locks on their doors.

This leaves some folks a little hesitant to do the same outside with a parking meter. What’s the difference in these? Turns out, there really isn’t one.

All the new parking meters in downtown Wilmington are PCI compliant.

City spokesman Dylan Lee says folks parking downtown should have nothing to worry about.

“That is the same standard that’s required for all merchants nationwide, whether in a grocery store, a gas station or in this case a parking meter,” Lee said. “They’re just as safe as anywhere else you’d swipe your credit card.”

City officials want to install another 460 SmartMeters downtown before January 2015 and hope to replace all meters in the future.