You must pay: parking 'fines' from councils, Network Rail car parks, police tickets (but you should appeal if you think you've being unfairly ticketed) You should bin: parking 'charges' from shopping centres, McDonald's, motorway services, supermarkets, basically anything from companies called 'Parking Eye' or 'Euro Parking' or similar. And bin the follow-up 'demands' from debt collectors, usually with the same PO Box as the original charge.