A $35 ticket becomes a $60 ticket if it is not paid within 15 days. You can ignore them (as I did) until its time for your car's annual registration. You can not update your car until your 'overdue' parking tickets are paid. So in my case last week, I had the pleasure of paying about $250 bucks in tickets+penalties on top of my $85 to renew tabs. and don't forget the $45 for your zone permit if you need one. Enjoy!

You'll get sent to collections, which hurts your credit. You said it already sucks so no big deal. However after 3 or 4 unpaid parking tickets the city will tow your car instead of writing you another ticket.

Throw them away? How cute. What do you think the point of registering your vehicle is? "The Man" knows exactly who you are, where you are (and they'll track you down if you move, trust me) and how much you owe, which will increase the longer you go without paying.

Yes, get a hearing or whatever as others suggest and figure out a payment plan with them. And I don't know if WA does this, but CA used to offer community service in lieu of paying parking fines if you truly couldn't afford it. But I'd be willing to bet WA would rather have the cash.

They will also put a freeze on your car registration that they will not lift until they are paid.

Your license will be suspended. If you get pulled over you will get a ticket around $500 dollars. You don't need the headache. Pay your tickets.

7 years in the financial desert, my friend. 7 long years. You won't be broke in 3 or 5 years, most likely. But the collections and damage to your credit will stay. take care of them now, or kick yourself later-trust me on this.

What about non-city parking tickets, like from Diamond Parking? Anyone have experience with ignoring those?

They will come back to haunt you. Trust me, I tried, but I found myself a few years later with an ominous knock on the door. Well, not literally, but they will come back to you haunt you. You drive, you park, you pay the price. If you don't want to pay parking tickets, don't get them, or better yet, Don't DRIVE!

But, lecture aside, there is an option: get a hearing, plead you case, and if you're really poor, they will let you volunteer a set number of hours en lieu of money.

I just saw it on the way into work today... the parking enforcement fairy (metermaid) calls a tow truck and they impound your car. You can't win. Pay it!

If you can't deal with paying your tickets or working something out I would suggest you learn to park correctly. Its not that fucking hard you know.

Some years ago, I visited Seattle from Minneapolis and got a parking ticket. I honestly forgot about it. Nine months later, a bill collecting agency mailed me a BIG bill which inlcuded fines and fees. I would have messed with my credit to blow it off, so I paid it promptly. If you don't care about your credit, ignore it. Ten years from now, you may regret this. Or depending on your lifestyle, you may not. You will also be hasseled to no end by the collecting agency the ticket is sold to.

Take it from someone who was in the same position in the early 90s - take the hearing, plead poverty and set up a payment plan. If you get a sympathetic magistrate, they can significantly reduce or even eliminate most of the fines. Otherwise, you get sent to collections with additional fines and interest. A collection agency will harass you at home and work until they get their money. A dozen tickets ended up costing me over $3000.

And as City Living pointed out, they'll freeze your registration/license tab renewal next year, then you'll be driving illegally and that's a whole new set of pain.
I feel for you, but there's not much you can do but try to take care of them. Or move to another state.

The fine will be doubled after 15 days. If you still do not pay, it will be sent to a collections agency (alliance one), who will add their own fees and charges on top of the ticket.

Once you have more than 3 unpaid tickets for the same car, things get pretty bad. Any further parking tickets are considered "scofflaw violations", which means the car will be impounded regardless of the severity of the parking violation. Also, your registration will be flagged with the state DOL, and you will not be able to renew your tabs until the tickets are paid.

Seattle offers payment plans, which can help you avoid the increased fine for late payment. Go down to the city courthouse in person, and ask about them at the payment window.

At the very least, you can always request a mitigation hearing. You can explain the circumstances at the hearing and hope for a reduced fine. More importantly, you don't have to pay the fine until AFTER the hearing, so it will buy you some time to scrounge up the money.

The cost will go up, up, up. The court to which the ticket was referred will dun you and ultimately submit it to a collection agency which will further cause the cost to rise. The court will likely submit it to DOL which will put a hold on your registration so the next time you need to register your car, you won't be able to until you pay it off or work out a schedule with the court or the collection agency. If it's not your car, then the person you borrowed it from will beat you up. Your license will not be suspended; that's for ignored moving violations.

Courts will work with you. You can even get community service hours in lieu of a fine. Ignoring is ignorant.

If you call the number on the ticket and talk to someone in the office, they're really friendly and great about pushing back the payment due date or splitting it up into separate payments for you. This is a good option if you can't leave work for a hearing to get it reduced.

In addition to all the remarks about not being able to renew your car's registration (although maybe if you ditch the car the tickets won't chase you to the new one), if you do end up paying up, SAVE YOUR RECEIPTS FOR A DECADE.

I accrued a shitload of tickets in the roarin' 90s and paid 'em all off in one fell swoop to renew my registration. They'd already gone to collections, and collection agencies being collection agencies, about a month later they swore I hadn't paid one of 'em off. I had proof, supplied the proof to them at the time, and then heard no more.

Until seven years later...

I'd just come back after a lengthy stint overseas and shredded a bunch of documents, thinking I'd never need them again. Yep, you guessed it: among those documents was the proof that I'd paid up, and a month after shredding it one of those tickets popped up on my credit report like a whack-a-mole. After seven years of late fees and interest, it was ugly.

I challenged it on my credit report and got it written off, but I think a lot of people woulda just paid it again. Lesson learned: once your debt goes to collections it gets sold and re-sold a gazillion times, and the onus is on you to prove you paid it. Fucked up, but that's the way it is.

Bad karma...BAD BAD Karma...

You will not be allowed to renew your driver license. Also, you will receive a bill for the fine plus late penalties.

Depends on who issued the ticket. If it's a city parking ticket, you best pay it if you want to continue driving, or else you'll encounter some expensive difficulties when it comes time to renew your registration. If it's a private parking lot where you pay to park, they'll send the ticket to collections and it might impact your credit. If you continue to ignore it, they probably won't bother to sue you, so you'll ding your credit but that'll probably be the end of it. If it's a private *non-pay* parking lot (such as a private business or apartment building), the ticket is illegal and you can totally ignore it. (Example: the Shell gas station @ Pike & Broadway likes to issue these bogus tickets. Just ignore them.) (I am not a lawyer, so take that advice at your own peril. But if you want to know more, check this out.

I got 4 parking tickets from when my registration was expired and I was too damn lazy to update it. (Damn South Lake Union parking cops!!!) I was also too damn lazy to pay the tickets. So I have 4 tickets on my credit report (now they are paid, but it's still on my credit). No one towed my car, I was able to register the car without having to pay the tickets, and I'm still alive and well, just without perfect credit. Got called incessantly by collections to pay though, FYI.

You won't be able to renew the registration on your car. When you try, you will be confronted with a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucratic bullshit that is compounded by our state government being mired in '80s technology. I paid the damn tickets and still ended up dealing with it yesterday. Pay them. Keep good records of paying them.