Do you use your phone to pay at a McDonald’s drive-through? Not so fast…

These days, very few people carry a credit or debit card and even fewer carry cash – most payments are done through your phone.

This can create something of an issue when you're ducking through the drive-through at McDonald's, Hungry Jack's, KFC or beyond – one of the few places outside of a toll road where driving and paying happen at the same time.

RELATED: Is it illegal to look at my passenger's phone while driving?

So, is it legal to use your phone to pay at a fast food drive-through window? Yes, but only in certain states and territories of Australia.

While Australian Road Rule 300 strictly prohibits drivers from touching, using or looking at a portable device that is unmounted while a vehicle is moving or stationary but not parked, some states have added an exception for phone use at fast food drive-throughs.

Keep reading to learn where these exceptions do – and don't – apply.

Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland all have exceptions that allow mobile phone use at fast-food drive-throughs in their road rules.

In Victoria, the updated road rules for handheld devices explicitly permit drivers to "use a mobile phone or other device to pay at a drive-through".

Meanwhile, in NSW, Road Rule 300 features several exceptions including if "it is functioning as a payment device to enable the driver to pay for goods or services that are required to be paid for in the road-related area".

Queensland also has an exception for mobile phone use "to pay for goods or services, if the place where the vehicle is stationary is a place where the goods or services are lawfully paid for", for example, "a drive-through retail outlet".

However, in South Australia, the ACT, the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Tasmania, drivers are only permitted to use their phone to pay at a drive-through if their vehicle is parked.

"Regardless of how you are using a mobile phone, of which holding one is considered use, you must have your vehicle in a condition in which it is not able to move by itself," a spokesperson for South Australia Police told Drive.

"SA Police recommend that the vehicle is out of gear with the handbrake on, and parked in a safe location before using the mobile device. A drive-through, as with car parks, is considered a road-related area as it is an area open to public which is used for driving or parking vehicles. Therefore this rule applies when using mobile devices to pay for food at drive-throughs.

"As with any offence, police officers have discretion as to what action they can take on a case-by-case basis."

Similarly, in the Australian Capital Territory, police told Drive, "The law states that it is an offence to have a mobile phone in your hand while driving. This includes situations such as while stationary at a set of traffic lights, at a fast food drive-through, and during school drops-offs and pick-ups.

"Police may apply discretion when it comes to instances such as the ones described above."

While the Northern Territory observes Road Rule 300, it hasn't added an exception for use at drive-throughs, nor has Western Australia, although WA Police would likely take a common-sense approach and apply their discretion in enforcing related road rules.

Tasmania also offers no exceptions to the rule, stating that it is illegal to "hold a mobile phone, type or enter anything into a mobile phone, turn a mobile phone on or off or operate any other function of a mobile phone" unless it is parked.