Cashless Tolls

[bumbershoot]

You have all been so helpful....I appreciate it! I spoke with Thrifty several times and I still don't like the way they handle things. Just for information..they told me after you turn your rental car in, you can go to rentalcarticket.com and enter your rental agreement number and license plate number and see if you owe anything and pay from there to avoid the penalties. They said to do this for 5 business days after your trip because that is how long they have to post the fines.

Of course, NO ONE told me this info at Thrifty when I rented from them. I guess I am supposed to be a mind reader.

So what about continuing with this complaint, since no one told you? Take it higher up, see if that extra fee can be taken off? Of course, before doing that, scour any of the paperwork or email confirmations you were sent, to make sure it wasn't there. I once messed some stuff up at Universal because I hadn't read the paperwork I was given...it was there the whole time for me to find, but I hadn't read it.


Check this out for the upcoming trip. Better than having to use the info on this page after the fact!



And, FWIW, with National I was under the impression that if you didn't sign up for the toll pass you would be sent a bill of the tolls and a fee as well. Not just an impression, but DH *got* such a bill from National, with a hefty fee tacked on, when traveling in two states on work trips (one of which was Texas).

 

[kkendle]

I did take this up further with them. The best they could do was offer me the plate pass for 45....what they originally offered me at the time. Said they would take the fees off and just charge as if I had gotten the plate pass. Better than 120.

In orlando now...went to sea world today...great day but rained off and on all afternoon.

Tolls are both cashless and cash options thankfully.

Will be at universal next Wednesday.....cant wait!

 

[truck1]

I did take this up further with them. The best they could do was offer me the plate pass for 45....what they originally offered me at the time. Said they would take the fees off and just charge as if I had gotten the plate pass. Better than 120.

In orlando now...went to sea world today...great day but rained off and on all afternoon.

Tolls are both cashless and cash options thankfully.

Will be at universal next Wednesday.....cant wait!

Where are you staying. We can tellntou how to get from point a to b and avoid the toll roads completely.

 

[kkendle]

Thanks...we did fine while in orlando. Right now we are driving to pensacola...long drive!. Will be coming back wednesday!

 

[kkendle]

Forgot to say...we are staying at royal pacific 2 nights and then moving to holiday inn across street the last night to save some bucks.

 

[rramsr]

Does anyone know if there are cash tolls from Orlando to Port Canaveral? Will be visiting Universal then a cruise and will be driving to the Port.

Thanks

 

[Loudbmw]

Sadly the rental car companies have discovered that the toll roads in Florida (and elsewhere) are big revenue opportunities.

Paying a daily pre-paid toll rate on your rental when it sits parked at the hotel for the week is a big rip off. On the other hand, the outrageous "admin" charge for a toll by plate the original poster mentioned defies explanation. I would avoid that rental company for that reason alone.

We live in Virginia and visit Florida about 3 times per year and are lucky enough to not need a rental. Since our Virginia EZ Pass doesn't work in Florida, I opted to get a Sun Pass for each of my cars that I drive to Florida.

Each Sun Pass (the a sticker with a chip version) costs only $5 plus what you upload in tolls. You can't move it between cars. Unused balance is refundable when you close the account.

https://www.sunpass.com/howSunPassWorks

 

[truck1]

Does anyone know if there are cash tolls from Orlando to Port Canaveral? Will be visiting Universal then a cruise and will be driving to the Port.

Thanks

Yes there are cash tolls. The one by the airport I believe is still a traditional toll plaza and the next 2 are the new type. Basically if you want to pay cash get into he right lane after the airport and stay there. 2 reasons. 1 is the maned toll lanes are to the right. Youll see a sign that says toll plaza cash toll stay right with a digram. Just take the fork to the right pay the toll and rejoin traffic.
The other is that the beach line splits by the entrance to KSC. If you miss the bend to the right its a pita to get to Port Canaveral. You can't turn around as there is no eastbound reentry and you have to go almost to the space center before catching the road back to the port. Its prob a 20-30 minute detour easy if you make that mistake.

 

[glocon]

The only toll road I know of coming in/out of Destin has cash toll booths also. If you drive past them in the cashless lanes, you're expected to have a cashless payment method set up. It's pretty hard to miss the bank of toll lanes. Did you just not understand how it works? That's the way (most) all the booths around central FL look too--booths on one side (usually the right) and cashless (SunPass) breezes by on the left.

Nope, last couple of years we went thru toll booths which had the sunpass which we did not use. I know about those. This year we came in to Destin down 331 (I thinks that's the number) but went home over the mid-bay bridge and paid that toll no problem. It was after that when we went through some area that had no booths but a toll. There were signs that a toll was coming up but there were never any booths, nothing. We thought that FL was in the process of putting some up and that was why there were signs but no booths. Apparently there is a camera hidden somewhere that snaps a picture of your license plate then bills you. The bill is for the toll and the charge for paperwork and billing. I would much rather go thru a booth and know that I am expected to pay a toll, not drive and get billed and not know what was going on. Kind of Twilight Zone.

 

[cgattis]

Nope, last couple of years we went thru toll booths which had the sunpass which we did not use. I know about those. This year we came in to Destin down 331 (I thinks that's the number) but went home over the mid-bay bridge and paid that toll no problem. It was after that when we went through some area that had no booths but a toll. There were signs that a toll was coming up but there were never any booths, nothing. We thought that FL was in the process of putting some up and that was why there were signs but no booths. Apparently there is a camera hidden somewhere that snaps a picture of your license plate then bills you. The bill is for the toll and the charge for paperwork and billing. I would much rather go thru a booth and know that I am expected to pay a toll, not drive and get billed and not know what was going on. Kind of Twilight Zone.

A lady I work with just told me today (as we were renting a car) that there are lawsuits pending in TX and CO (she thought those were the right states) over that exact thing!! I guess they are intended for locals who are supposed to know they are there, but seems they forgot that other folks passing thru might NOT. Duh. I'll definitely be doing some research before we head to the gulf next time!!

 

[jcano]

Expecting to hear about a class action suit against Thrifty soon. That's just ridiculous!

 

[Lynzer4]

I just rented from Alamo in July. I checked when I rented and they said that they now do the plate toll automatically for all FL rentals. They don't even ask you anymore if it's an option you want. I noted that the car would be parked for a few days and I didn't want to pay the $6 day fee when I wasn't even using it. They told me I would only be changed the days a toll was used plus the tolls for the day. It was exactly what I was charged for. $12 for the two days I drove through tolls and the $5 worth of tolls.

Now I did question them because I had bad toll experiences on the East Coast but it worked great (for me)!

 

[bumbershoot]

This year ...went home over the mid-bay bridge....we went through some area that had no booths but a toll. There were signs that a toll was coming up but there were never any booths, nothing. We thought that FL was in the process of putting some up and that was why there were signs but no booths.

http://www.mid-bay.com/connector/index.php

The Mid-Bay Bridge Connector is a toll road that utilizes “all electronic open-road tolling” that allows customers to pay tolls without slowing down or stopping. Tolls are collected with SunPass transponders or by using a new TOLL-BY-PLATE program being implemented state wide by Florida’s Turnpike Enterprise.

Ugh. It's like we have to have a PhD in road-planning to drive!

 

[cgattis]

http://www.mid-bay.com/connector/index.php Ugh. It's like we have to have a PhD in road-planning to drive!

Don't worry...if you successfully complete your FP+ PhD program, it will qualify you to operate a car on the toll roads also. I used to think I loved vacation planning.......