Anyone purchase a Sunpass for a rental car?

magickingdomprincess

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 5, 2015
We're getting ready for a 9 day trip to UO/Disney/Legoland/Vero Beach and will have a rental car the whole time. We usually go every year, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile/possible to purchase a Florida sunpass so that we don't have to carry change for all the tolls, and save time stopping at the toll booths. Does anyone have experience with this? I saw online you can get a sticker for $5 or a transponder for $20. Any pros/cons of doing this? It seems like it would be worthwhile, especially for the $5 sticker, but wanted to get feedback. Thanks!
 
We're getting ready for a 9 day trip to UO/Disney/Legoland/Vero Beach and will have a rental car the whole time. We usually go every year, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile/possible to purchase a Florida sunpass so that we don't have to carry change for all the tolls, and save time stopping at the toll booths. Does anyone have experience with this? I saw online you can get a sticker for $5 or a transponder for $20. Any pros/cons of doing this? It seems like it would be worthwhile, especially for the $5 sticker, but wanted to get feedback. Thanks!
We travel in the area a couple of times a year so we purchased the $20 transponder a few years ago and have never looked back.
It has more than paid for itself with the saved fees from the rental car company, the small (10-15%) saving in toll costs and the convenience of not having to pull over and pay tolls.
I should note that we also travel to the Miami/Dade area on our winter vacations (for access to cruises) and tolls in this area are "Sunpass Only" no cash lanes available, so a transponder (your own or the rental company's) is a must in that area.

The $5 sticker is a "one-time use only" sticker that has to be applied to the front window of the car to work properly. When you remove it, it gets destroyed.
Some people on these boards have noted that they have tried re-using these "one-time use" stickers with mixed results.
They are essentially meant for people who drive there own vehicle in the area. ie: install once and leave in place
 


with the $20 portable there is an app that lets you quickly and easily register the TAG of the rental ... this allows the system to still process the toll even if the transponder burps (the system falls to 'toll by plate' and since the plate is attached to your SUNPASS you are OK)

it is also easy to set an automatic 'delete this tag' for the duration of your rental, or delete manually.

You can order one online .... sunpass.com
have it and setup the app b4 you leave home!
(setup the app with your home vehicle info even if you'll never have that car in FL .... later you can add the rental. A nice thing about the portable is you can have multiple vehicles on one account, I have 5 on mine usually. Since the sticker is not intended to be moved, this 'feature' is not available ... or wasn't last time I had a sticker. Interesting side point .... with a valid SUNPASS account <portable transponder> and the TAG registered to the account .. you don't really need the transponder in the car. Hence, why I have 5 cars registered and the transponder is usually in a drawer at home! But ALSO why it is IMPORTANT to delete a rental TAG lest you continue to pay tolls for the car!!!!!)
 
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Thanks so much for the replies! Sounds like the $20 transponder is the way to go! And thanks for the tip to make sure to change the license plate from the rental. That could be easy to forget!
 
I've had the portable transponder for about a year now. It's wonderful. When you go into the app and list your rental car, you will plug in the dates of the rental....that's nice since it's really easy to forget.
Because I arrive so often after dark, I now just get my car and drive to the cell phone lot. There I can plug in the info that I need...make/plate number. I haven't been able to do it in the garage at MCO due to really poor reception! But the cell phone lot works beautifully!!!
Just remember to remove it from the rental when you drop the car off!! I forgot mine last month...thankfully, Alamo spotted it (at the Dolphin), called me and mailed it home to me!!!
 


I've had the portable transponder for about a year now. It's wonderful. When you go into the app and list your rental car, you will plug in the dates of the rental....that's nice since it's really easy to forget.
Because I arrive so often after dark, I now just get my car and drive to the cell phone lot. There I can plug in the info that I need...make/plate number. I haven't been able to do it in the garage at MCO due to really poor reception! But the cell phone lot works beautifully!!!
Just remember to remove it from the rental when you drop the car off!! I forgot mine last month...thankfully, Alamo spotted it (at the Dolphin), called me and mailed it home to me!!!

Thanks, I was wondering about that actually because I can never get reception in the garage either when trying to pull up my gps. The cell phone lot sounds like a great idea. Glad Alamo sent yours back to you! That would be so easy to forget.
 
We went with the one time use sticker which worked fine for us. We typically don't rent a car while in the area, so it really was a one time need for us. If you expect to rent a car in Florida on future vacations, the transponder is worthwhile. Otherwise, I'd do the sticker.
 
All rental cars have these installed already and they just add the toll to your final bill. Actually, the last two rentals we have had (through Hertz) we have driven through tolls several times and never got billed the amounts afterwards. I don't know if they just include it into the rental rate now or what, but one rental was in San Francisco and the other was in Orlando. They were both prepaid rentals. Never got an additional charge put through after returning them.
 
All rental cars have these installed already and they just add the toll to your final bill. Actually, the last two rentals we have had (through Hertz) we have driven through tolls several times and never got billed the amounts afterwards. I don't know if they just include it into the rental rate now or what, but one rental was in San Francisco and the other was in Orlando. They were both prepaid rentals. Never got an additional charge put through after returning them.

I thought this was only if you paid for that service. I remember a few years ago I accidentally missed a toll plaza (can't remember if I realized it or not at the time), but I got a bill from the rental agency for the charge, plus a $10 fee.

ETA: This does raise a good question though, if the rental car already has a sticker or transponder in it, how would it know which to charge? Or do they not put it in unless you purchase the service?
 
I thought this was only if you paid for that service. I remember a few years ago I accidentally missed a toll plaza (can't remember if I realized it or not at the time), but I got a bill from the rental agency for the charge, plus a $10 fee.

ETA: This does raise a good question though, if the rental car already has a sticker or transponder in it, how would it know which to charge? Or do they not put it in unless you purchase the service?

It used to be the case that once you passed through a toll plaza, you "activated" the service and were later charged a small fee plus the cost of tolls. That's why I thought it odd that the last two rentals we used the express toll lanes and there WAS a sticker on the windshield in both cases, but we were never charged an additional amount. It wasn't something we added on in advance or anything. Come to think of it, they also used to explain the toll thing when you checked out the car and they didn't say anything about it the last two times. Maybe they build in a set amount per rental and only charge for tolls above a certain threshold? I really don't know. We use Hertz exclusively and are Gold Members. As far as I know, all Hertz cars are fitted with a transponder in markets where toll roads exist.

If a rental has a transponder (usually a sticker), you are not allowed to take it off. Your only option is to use the cash lanes and pay tolls in cash. I guess you would need to double check that the rental car doesn't already have a sticker before you apply your own.
 
The Sunpass here.... works in Georgia as well... I used to drive back and forth all the time and still do a few times a year... A friend said you can use it in S.C. and N.C., but I have actually done it myself...
 
If a rental has a transponder (usually a sticker), you are not allowed to take it off. Your only option is to use the cash lanes and pay tolls in cash. I guess you would need to double check that the rental car doesn't already have a sticker before you apply your own.
The rental companies in Florida do not use a transponder in the vehicle, they use "Platepass", which uses the Sunpass lanes to take a picture of the plate on the vehicle when passing through the Sunpass lane and then bills the owner of the plate (usually the rental company). If you put your own transponder in the vehicle, the sensor in the Sunpass lane will pick this up and bill the transponder (not trigger the PlatePass system)
If your transponder is not read for whatever reason (damaged, incorrectly installed etc), then the Platepass system will kick in and bill the vehicles plate number.
For this reason, it is recommended to add the rental vehicles info to your Sunpass account. If the transponder is not picked up, Platepass takes the picture of the vehicle plate. When the system checks the plate, it will see that your transponder is now attached to the vehicle plate and you will be charged the toll correctly
 
We're getting ready for a 9 day trip to UO/Disney/Legoland/Vero Beach and will have a rental car the whole time. We usually go every year, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile/possible to purchase a Florida sunpass so that we don't have to carry change for all the tolls, and save time stopping at the toll booths. Does anyone have experience with this? I saw online you can get a sticker for $5 or a transponder for $20. Any pros/cons of doing this? It seems like it would be worthwhile, especially for the $5 sticker, but wanted to get feedback. Thanks!

Transponder has been such a convenience for us for the rental cars.

Had given up on EZPASS ever working & purchased a few years ago

I've had the portable transponder for about a year now. It's wonderful. When you go into the app and list your rental car, you will plug in the dates of the rental....that's nice since it's really easy to forget.
Because I arrive so often after dark, I now just get my car and drive to the cell phone lot. There I can plug in the info that I need...make/plate number. I haven't been able to do it in the garage at MCO due to really poor reception! But the cell phone lot works beautifully!!!
Just remember to remove it from the rental when you drop the car off!! I forgot mine last month...thankfully, Alamo spotted it (at the Dolphin), called me and mailed it home to me!!!

Last summer had an issue with the transponder not registering for one of the tolls back to MCO on 417. Next trip all was well, then had issue again early in December & mid January.

Each time it was one of the last tolls pre airport. I only found out when i received emails from the various rental car companies (Alamo, Dollar & Thrifty) indicating that they would be charging my CC on the reservation within a few weeks unless I contacted them.

All i had to do was send the rental car’s agent that handles the fines proof of prior usage during the trip (screenshot of my sunpass activity) and they promptly waived the assessed penalty but did charge me the small tolls as sunpass said there was no way to run them though the pass after the fact.

Sunpass started that it can take 24 hours for charges to post to your account. Since the license plate is removed from the transponder upon return to the garage, they said it is not uncommon.
 
The rental companies in Florida do not use a transponder in the vehicle, they use "Platepass", which uses the Sunpass lanes to take a picture of the plate on the vehicle when passing through the Sunpass lane and then bills the owner of the plate (usually the rental company). If you put your own transponder in the vehicle, the sensor in the Sunpass lane will pick this up and bill the transponder (not trigger the PlatePass system)
If your transponder is not read for whatever reason (damaged, incorrectly installed etc), then the Platepass system will kick in and bill the vehicles plate number.
For this reason, it is recommended to add the rental vehicles info to your Sunpass account. If the transponder is not picked up, Platepass takes the picture of the vehicle plate. When the system checks the plate, it will see that your transponder is now attached to the vehicle plate and you will be charged the toll correctly
This has been my experience as well. I was concerned, early on, how tolls would be handled when I got my Sunpass. But, it's never been an issue! And yes, always add the rental info to your Sunpass account, and be sure to put in the end date!!
 
Thanks for all the explanations and replies! :thumbsup2 It makes me feel much more comfortable with how it works and now I can explain it to my DH! Will be purchasing soon!
 
Our rental car from Avis last month had a plastic thingie near the rear view mirror that needed to be switched to "OFF" if using your own transponder.
 
I have the portable Sunpass and love it. But do remember to remove it. I'm on my third :sad2:. Left one in rental when transporting late DH back to New England after original cancer diagnosis, and a second last October when I had my granddaughter with me. If I'm with someone else I try to assign them the task of remembering the transponder.

Even so I still think I've saved money over the toll booths as often as I travel to FL.
 

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