The city of New Haven is introducing a smart-card payment system that could be a blessing to quarterless drivers and local merchants, and might have a place in Bridgeport's future.

The New Haven Parcxmart Card, launched Wednesday, works like a debit card — it can be used for purchases at participating downtown merchants and to pay for parking, said Derek Slap, a spokesman for New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr.

Users get the card for free at one of the participating merchants, but then must give the merchant money to load onto the card. The minimum balance is $10; the maximum is $100, said John Regan, president and chief executive officer of Hampton Falls, N.H.-based Parcxmart Technologies, the system's vendor. Customers can refill the cards at any network location.

Slap said 13 merchants, nine city-operated garages and 26 private garages accept the card. He said while no parking meters currently accept the card, the city expects to have 500 in downtown New Haven by midsummer.

"One of the ideas is to make New Haven and its parking situation a lot more convenient," Slap said. "But the added benefit is that local merchants like it because it gives them something that unites them, it gets people in the store and it costs less per transaction."

The card could also save taxpayers up to $250,000 a year, Regan said. "Under the voucher program that New Haven had in place before, they were netting 62 cents on every dollar [spent on voucher parking]," he said. "With our

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program they get 90 [cents on the dollar]."

Regan said participating merchants also benefit because they generate store traffic and income by providing the cards and reloading value on them. "It's simple for the merchant," Regan said. "We provide the cards for free and they have a small, fixed fee per transaction [paid to Parcxmart]."

Parcxmart manages a similar system with merchants in San Jose, Calif., but Slap said New Haven is the first city in the nation to combine parking and local merchants in a smart card payment system.

Slap said the city was not required to pay Parcxmart for any of the costs of initiating the new system, excluding the estimated $600,000 it will cost to upgrade the parking meters. "New Haven gets a no-risk first look at the system; the industry gets a chance to see how local merchants and the public respond to the opportunity," Slap said. "No other city in the nation will ever get this kind of deal again."

Several downtown Bridgeport business owners said they would like to see a similar program there.

"I think it's a good idea," said Abi Grant, who with her husband, Joshua, owns Soul 2 Soul restaurant on Broad Street. "We get a lot of people coming through asking for quarters or having to run out in the middle of a meal to pay the meter, and that's an issue. The card sounds great."

Sonny Esposito, co-owner of High on the Hog restaurant on State Street, agrees.

"It sounds like a pretty good idea to me, because it would be a good way to market and promote my business," he said. Georgia Faye, owner of Rainy Faye Eclectic Bookstore and Gallery on Broad Street, said such a program would benefit her customers.

"Parking is such a problem in this city," Faye said. "Anything I could use to help my customers would be worth it."

Caryn Kaufman, spokeswoman for Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi, said the city card program sounds like a great idea but that the city is more concerned with initiating several construction projects downtown, including the bus station, Cititrust Building, Arcade and Bijou Square. "We've put together a task force to look at and anticipate all the different construction, traffic and parking disruptions that will be starting in the next several months. That's our primary concern," Kaufman said. "It sounds like a great program — once we're through the construction stage."

Dave Goldberg, who covers business, can be reached at

330-6324.