With summer just around the corner, many of us are probably planning trips that involve renting cars in various locations. As more and more highways in North America move toward cashless toll systems, we can pretty much plan on two things: • Traffic will be (somewhat) alleviated. • Rental car companies will find a way…
Continue reading: How Much Is That Toll Again?? A Roundup Of Rental Car Cashless Toll Policies
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The other thing I have noticed as more and more states/regions go to cashless tolls is that they are price discriminating if you use a local transponder vs one from a neighboring state or license plate tolls.
On a recent National trip I rented a transponder in NYC but was still charged the out of state rates.
Who knows what the company is actually paying the authorities.
On a recent trip to NY, I discovered you could register your car's license plate with EZ Pass (through the NY state thruway website I think) and list the rental period and provide a credit card. It will automatically charge the tolls to that card before sending a bill to the rental agency. It worked like a charm for me at four NY bridges and tunnels that I crossed. Only downside is no-EZ Pass discount.
Agree that taking your transponder with you (provided that it works where you're going) is the best option.
Most often toll rates for services like EZ-Pass are well below the single-use rates. Rental car companies that rent you a transponder pay the lower rate and then charge you the higher single-use rate, pocketing the margin.
Thank you Steph, this is a very informative post, and actually useful for a vast majority of travelers.
I was hit with this last week on an Avis rental in Chicago. I picked the car up at a city center location and it was from out of state, and didn't have a local transponder. Thankfully most of the tolls I drove through had manned booths for cash.. but the last one I drove through was unmanned and took coins only. Thankfully as I sped through without being able to pay, I saw a sign that I could go online and pay later.
Really made me appreciate Silvercar, which I usually rent with. So much less hassle to know that all their cars automatically have transponders activated and I only pay what is charged.
I’m a bit confused - you can’t pay cash for tolls in some USA areas but can you pay with a credit card? I no longer rent cars in the USA or drive on toll roads but in Europe, where I regularly rent, the cashless toll stops have credit card lanes. These card lane machines just scan your card and charge it - not too difficult.
Thanks for posting this - I had no idea this was happening.
A bit Off Topic, but how do these cashless systems work for out of country vehicles?
As a Canadian, are they able to bill me while driving my personal vehicle with Nova Scotia plates?
A few years ago I took a huge detour driving into Boston because I didn't know how the cashless toll system worked. It probably added an extra 30-60 minutes to a 9 hour drive.
Worth adding Zipcar to the list, which like Silvercar passes through the toll cost with no other fees.
@Donna -- cashless roads in the US have nowhere to stop and put anything in anywhere; there are no toll booths or stops of any sort. There's just a high-speed reader along the road that takes a picture of your license plate. These also exist elsewhere in the world, like Australia, so I would think there must be some in Europe somewhere, but perhaps the fact that you can frequently have people from other countries who are not so easy to track down for billing tolls to driving on your local roads makes them less desirable in Europe.
Here in Portugal we have several roads where you either have a transponder or you have one week to pay on ATMs or Post Offices. There are no toll stops at all.
Chicago costs $7.99 per rental day from non-airport locations.
https://www.enterprise.com/en/help/faqs/car-rental-toll-pass/chicago.html
Just to FYI, in Chicago Enterprise has an all in rate. So the 9.99 per day includes all tolls which if you drive a lot really saves money. Off airport, the rate 7.99 per day
This is US specific, rental companies will vary greatly in other countries. e.g. Hertz in Australia provides flat per day rate regardless whether you actually use it that day or not. Just make sure you state it in the beginning of your article.
Got caught leaving Manhattan without a toll transponder in a rental car not realizing that to get out of Manhattan I would need it. I had to wait a week to try to pay EZ Pass directly on their website (they would not let me pay day of), and I hoped that National would not get the bill as well. It all worked out - National never got a bill for the toll and I was good.
Last time I rented alamo out of BWI I declined the transponder since I had no toll roads planned. A month after I returned the car I got a bill from Alamo for not paying a toll in delaware, a state I did not visit. No proof, just a letter with the car plate on it and the date I 'skipped' the toll. I asked for the toll booth photo and they said the toll company does not supply it. It was only $15 ($1 for the toll and $14 fee), an amount they certainly picked thinking people would rather just pay it then fight it, but I took it up with BBB and alamo dropped it pretty quick, stating I was a loyal customer and they would let it go this one time. No more alamo for me.
There is a toll paying App you can download to your phone called Pay Tollo. You can add a rental license plate to it and it will charge the credit card you register with the App when you go through a toll. It works in several states, including FL. There are two catches. You have to remember to remove the rental license plate from the App as soon as you return the rental car or you may get charged for the next renter driving the car through a toll. You may get charged by the rental car company for the toll even if the App pays the toll. That happened to me once in FL with Enterprise. All I had to do was take a screen shot on my phone of the App showing that the App had paid the toll and e-mail it to Enterprise customer service, and they quickly credited the charge on my credit card.
I live in Ohio home of the Ohio turnpike. I have not been on the pike since 1997 when they started raising tolls. I live less than 5 miles from a turnpike exit but they will not get my money. The money I save from not using the pike pays for my vacations. I make sure I send the ohio turnpike commission a thank you post card for raising the rates enabling me to travel
Advantage Rent a Car was the biggest rip off I've ever experienced when it comes to toll fees. I was in Raleigh-Durham and only went through one toll and they charged me a fee for every day of the rental. Tried contacting them - what a joke.
Their rates may be cheaper than the bigger companies, but absolutely not worth it.
This company is a major rip off and has abysmal customer service. Never again!
I wonder if you should just bring a screwdriver and your own license plate. Probably not legal but cheaper to just pay by the plate.
Silvercar FTW! Being under 25 I rent an Audi cheaper with them for cheaper than a corolla or similar from the big companies when counting rate + young renters fees. Havent rented with another since 2016. Never going back, like 30 flawless rental experiences and counting
I had a recent 14-day rental out of DFW where I was unable to avoid cashless tolls three times (twice in one day). Alamo charged me $9.99/day for each day of the rental (once I had been charged even once), but a maximum of $100 for the "service." The tolls were less than $10 total. The TX state agency in charge refused to let me pay the tolls directly, but directed me to pay via the rental car agency. This is clearly a new profit center for rental car companies.
Ohio EZPass transponder is easy to get without much of a deposit/balance required, reloads magically and emails me when it does, maintains a transaction record by transponder number, and works on most midwestern/eastern tollroads and bridges (there's a map on the EZ-pass website). It's small. When I travel, it goes with me, getting velcro'd to the rental car windshield. Every Hertz I've rented has a "transponder-proof" cover for their transponder, so mine gets to pay.
Not sure if you’re only referring to the US but I just rented with Sixt in Portugal and it was only about $2/day for the e-toll system.
Has Hertz changed their policy? In 2016, I took one toll road and paid $4.95 for every day that I had the car. I don't have a lot of companies on my lifetime ban list, but Hertz is one of them.
We rented from Advantage in Florida for the last time, after they charged a $4.95 fee PER DAY on the car rental contract after we ended up (by mistake) on a cashless toll road. I understand paying the toll, but a daily fee for every day? When Advantage wouldn't budge, I disputed it with Capital One. They graciously removed it from my bill and closed the dispute. Lesson learned, thanks or posting the policies!
smallmj, I don't know about driving Canadian cars into the U.S., but I know it works in the other direction. I drove on the 417 around Toronto and the toll authority sent me a bill to my home in Missouri. This was all the way back in 2007, so I have no idea what the policy is now.
Based on these numbers, Uber or Lyft may make sense for short distances. Car rental companies wonder why rentals are decreasing and fail to understand that Uber and Lyft are disrupting their businesses for a good reason.
Did Hertz change their policy recently? I remember them having a limit on their toll fees in the past, which I believe was $24.75 (or 5 days worth of service fee). Even though I still think that's a lot of money, at least there's a cap for longer rental which seems reasonable.
This service fee is particularly painful in states where there's no cash tolls anymore (like Massachusetts, for example).
You don't need to register the car on EZ pass website when using your own EZ pass, some rental companies have there own EZ pass system and you can't even register the car, I called EZ pass and was told a long the EZ pass is monunted correct there is no need to register the car, I'm doing that for a few years now and never had a problem.
Important thing to note about Washington Good to Go and tolls - the visitor account is not for rental cars, it is for people in personal cars temporarily in Washington. When I've looked in the past, I haven't found an official way of paying the toll before it gets to the rental car company (even if you have your own account, you can't register the rental car as the license plate is already registered). I have been able to use my own Good to Go pass in a rental car and it hit my account instead, but if their reader had missed my pass, it would've hit the rental car company.
Florida is nice in that if you have a SunPass account, you can officially add the rental car to your account, noting it as a rental car with the start and end dates. With that setup, even if the transponder isn't read, it will still post to your account based on the license plate, and the rental company never sees it. SunPass was convenient in Orlando, but paid for itself in discounts in Miami...
I used a transponder by accident on a Sixt rental in Portugal. What's the worst about this is I got a bill in the mail like 4 months after I had returned home from the trip. I paid it online. Can't remember the fees but it was egregious.
I have a suction cup glued to my E-Z Pass and have never registered a "temporary" vehicle and have never had a problem (our "permanent" cars are registered on the site).
When I drive on the 407 in Toronto it picks up my U.S. plate - the first time it took three months to get the bill, but now the bill comes in a couple of weeks (same plate), so I assume the U.S. can bill Canadian plates.
@Davisson - Just updated, thanks.
@Donna - It's also worth noting that in cash lanes in the U.S., they mean just that - cash. There may be a toll booth somewhere that takes credit cards, but I've never seen one.
@derek - Hah!
@mpkossen - There may be some variance location-by-location, but their generic terms and conditions specify that that there is no maximum fee (I know, I was surprised, too.)
to me these are legalized robbery, and also, if they are going to have a toll booth, for a federally funded highway, they should have someone there to collect the cash, and make change, not everyone is "allergic to cash", and if they are taking your money then they should make change for you.
Surprisingly it could be worse. In the UK for some tolls you have up to 24 hours to pay the toll. So you thing great I can log on and pay it. Trouble is the systems only allocated the money you paid to the last unpaid toll. In other words I pay the toll for my journey but in fact i am paying for someone else who has not paid. The hire company gets a fine for non payment and then has to work out who to forward it to! By the time it gets to the right person (who may well have made an innocent mistake) they have missed the deadline to pay a reduced fine.
I rented from Avis once in NYC and thought that since the cashless rate was less than the cash toll rate, the transponder daily fee would pay for itself. Wrong! Avis charges you "incurred tolls at the maximum prevailing rates posted by the toll authority". That means they charge you the higher cash rate, even if they pay the toll authority the lower cashless rate.
Literally highway robbery.
In Florida you can get a transponder for your rental car from Rental Car Transponders .com. The transponder is $7.50 and the service fee is .50¢ per toll. The transponder is live and ready to go when you get it. At the end of your trip take the transponder, either throw it away or save it for your next trip. They send you one bill at the end for the tolls plus the service fee. It works on all the toll roads in Florida and you pay the lowest posted rate.
FYI you need to update Silvercar, as they DO charge a $4.95 "Toll Service Fee" which nearly doubled the $7 toll for crossing the golden gate bridge a few days ago. Not sure when this change went into effect, but it was fairly recent. This is yet another annoying change to Silvercar's policies and I doubt I will continue renting from them if they continue all this nickel and diming. I'd almost rather them raise their prices and keep everything all-inclusive!
On a recent trip from Miami to Key Largo, Thrifty charged me an "Administrative Fee" for every freeway toll booth/freeway stretch I passed by. The lunch trip to Key Largo, about 50 miles, cost me about $200 in fees, about 3-4 times the car rental cost itself.
Am I angry? Sure! Was I ripped off? Of course!
Will I ever, ever, ever rent from Thrifty again? Of course not! Will I tell everyone I know to avoid Thrifty? Absolutely.