Plate Pass?

[Oregon Duck]

Can someone help me with the best way to handle tolls in the Orlando and Cape Canaveral area? I am flying in to MCO and will be renting a car...driving around the Orlando area and then headed east for a Disney Cruise. The Rental company says that you cannot stop and pay tolls with cash and if you go through a toll you will get charged the toll plus $15.00 each occurrence. They are pushing a PLATE PASS that you purchase that will handle the tolls I guess....seems a little sketchy to me....Is there a better way to pay tolls in Florida....Thanks in Advance....The Duck

 

[BagOLaughs]

Sounds like your rental company is trying to do you over.

When we went in 2013 you could pay via cash. You just threw it into a bin type device and it just sucked it up and opened the barrier.

Maybe what they mean is if you just drive through without paying you'll get fined.

 

[JimMIA]

The story the rental car company is telling you is absolutely false...but there is a scrap of truth buried in there somewhere.

Many parts of Florida are rapidly moving away from cash toll collection because of the personnel expense of people collecting tolls. There are many places where there are no toll-takers; where I live in Miami, it's 100% automated. But at those sites, you either use SunPass (Florida's statewide toll card) or one of the local passes (I think it's called E-pass in the Orlando area) -- OR your tag is photographed and you are billed by the tag. Bill-by-plate fees are 20-25% higher and there is a small service charge ($1, I think), but nowhere near $15 per pop unless the rental car company is charging you a fortune for processing the billing and payment.

I would NOT get a toll device from the rental car company. Every time I've done that, I've gotten overcharged -- usually $50-$75 per rental.

My suggestion is to go to Customer Service at any Publix supermarket and buy a SunPass for $4.99, and attach it to your rental car windshield. You have to activate the SunPass and you can do that by phone easily and quickly. When you activate the SunPass, they deposit $4.99 to your account -- so the pass costs you nothing. Put a reasonable amount of money on the SunPass prepaid. Do NOT use automatic replenishment via credit card, because if you forget to tear the SunPass off the car when you turn it in, your credit card could get billed for someone else's tolls.

When you turn the car in, remove the SunPass, tear it up, and throw it away.

 

[HopperFan]

I live out of state and both myself and DS have a Sunpass. We did this after hitting enough of the man-less toll booths without exact change. If you choose to not have a pass I would suggest you carry ample change with you.

Sunpass info is as above but I don't think you will get any credit to your account. I bought a sticker transponder (at CVS) for $4.99 and we now have two portable transponders ($19.99) and have never gotten credit for the purchase price. We had to load it with a minimum of $10 and now have them on auto-load. So when I registered our $4.99 pass, I only added $10 knowing we wouldn't need all of it. I then got a bill when I got home because we had gone over our $10 I loaded. I contacted Sunpass to ask because I was told this by someone too. They told me no, that $4.99 is pure purchase price. So maybe it was in the past but not current info and I wouldn't plan on any credit. I want to say it was something like a $5 fee on top of the tolls I owed.

https://www.sunpass.com/faq

 

[JimMIA]

I live out of state and both myself and DS have a Sunpass. We did this after hitting enough of the man-less toll booths without exact change. If you choose to not have a pass I would suggest you carry ample change with you.

Sunpass info is as above but I don't think you will get any credit to your account. I bought a sticker transponder (at CVS) for $4.99 and we now have two portable transponders ($19.99) and have never gotten credit for the purchase price. We had to load it with a minimum of $10 and now have them on auto-load. So when I registered our $4.99 pass, I only added $10 knowing we wouldn't need all of it. I then got a bill when I got home because we had gone over our $10 I loaded. I contacted Sunpass to ask because I was told this by someone too. They told me no, that $4.99 is pure purchase price. So maybe it was in the past but not current info and I wouldn't plan on any credit. I want to say it was something like a $5 fee on top of the tolls I owed.

https://www.sunpass.com/faq

You're apparently right -- I guess they no longer refund the purchase price. Thanks for the correction.

However, they will refund any unused prepaid amounts left in the SunPass when you deactivate it -- which is a good deal for out-of-staters.

Also, there are two types of SunPass. One is the $4.99 sticker pass that attaches to your windshield. That can only be used on one vehicle, and is supposed to be destroyed by the process of removing it from the windshield (but that doesn't always happen, and I suggest destroying and discarding it yourself). The other option is a transponder ($19.95) which can be moved from vehicle to vehicle. For someone visiting Florida regularly or having multiple cars, the portable transponder may be a better solution.

 

[BagOLaughs]

How do I pay tolls? Do I need to have cash?

You can pay by cash or by SunPass, the state’s prepaid toll program, which discounts tolls about 25 percent and saves time at toll booths. Where all-electronic tolling is in effect, you can also pay by Toll-By-Plate, where a camera takes a picture of your license plate, and you are mailed a bill for tolls plus a $2.50 service charge.

 

[BagOLaughs]

This is directly from the florida's turnpike website:

The Miami section of the Turnpike no longer accepts cash. Drivers use SunPass or Toll-By-Plate, which takes a picture of your license plate and mails you a bill for tolls and a $2.50 administrative fee per monthly invoice.

 

[bankr63]

This is directly from the florida's turnpike website:

The Miami section of the Turnpike no longer accepts cash. Drivers use SunPass or Toll-By-Plate, which takes a picture of your license plate and mails you a bill for tolls and a $2.50 administrative fee per monthly invoice.

But if you are in a rental car, the bill goes to the rental company who owns the plate. They may pay the $2.50 to the state, but they can charge you $15.00 if they want.

There are a few issues with rental cars and transponders in FL that I see.

As many have mentioned, you can use the cash lanes where available, but if the car has a transponder mounted (many do, and you may not know) you could easily get double charged if the scanner in the lanes nearby pick it up.

If the car has a transponder and you mount your own temporary transponder, I imagine you could get charged double (both ids will be transmitted to the sensors).

Note that if you use a portable transponder, the license plate of the vehicle(s) in which it will be mounted are supposed to be registered with SunPass. You can do this online from your cell phone before you drive off, but you need to ensure that you unregister the plate as soon as you drop the car. The next renter's plate charges could go to your account if you don't.

 

[BagOLaughs]

But if you are in a rental car, the bill goes to the rental company who owns the plate. They may pay the $2.50 to the state, but they can charge you $15.00 if they want.

There are a few issues with rental cars and transponders in FL that I see.

As many have mentioned, you can use the cash lanes where available, but if the car has a transponder mounted (many do, and you may not know) you could easily get double charged if the scanner in the lanes nearby pick it up.

If the car has a transponder and you mount your own temporary transponder, I imagine you could get charged double (both ids will be transmitted to the sensors).

Note that if you use a portable transponder, the license plate of the vehicle(s) in which it will be mounted are supposed to be registered with SunPass. You can do this online from your cell phone before you drive off, but you need to ensure that you unregister the plate as soon as you drop the car. The next renter's plate charges could go to your account if you don't.

Good point but the reason I copied that was because they OP won't be in Miami. I should have been more clear.

It seems it's only Miami that has cashless tolls???

 

[JimMIA]

Good point but the reason I copied that was because they OP won't be in Miami. I should have been more clear.

It seems it's only Miami that has cashless tolls???

The Florida Turnpike Authority started the program in Miami-Dade County, and there are now no human toll collectors in our county -- but Miami is not the only place. In fact, at quite a few of the smaller exits on the Florida Turnpike, you'll now see SunPass/Bill-by-Plate only notifications.

It will be everywhere eventually -- humans are just too expensive and too problematic for such low-revenue work, and the toll booths create huge traffic jams during rush hour. Our traffic changed overnight when they got rid of the toll booths -- now we whiz through at 60-70 MPH. (of course, it took them about 5 years to get rid of all of them )

 

[Woodview]

To the Original Poster..... TOLL BOOTHS TAKE CASH.

ALL around Disney & to Port Canaveral

WE PAID CASH this afternoon Wednesday.

 

[BagOLaughs]

To the Original Poster..... TOLL BOOTHS TAKE CASH.

ALL around Disney & to Port Canaveral

WE PAID CASH this afternoon Wednesday.

BECAUSE TYPING IN CAPS DOESN'T COME ACROSS AS PATRONIZING AT ALL.

Just a friendly point Woodview, caps reads as if you're shouting. Use bold instead

Oregon Duck I've got a similar thread on another forum and it seems most of the toll booths around the Orlando area have cash collection. Its only really Miami that has cashless.

We've hired a car through Hertz and have the same plate pass as you so I was also panicking a bit.

Just stay away from the sun pass toll lanes and I think you should be fine. That's what I'll be doing.