The Harris Country Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) has a mobile app which lets you conveniently pay for tolls in a rental car. After downloading the app:
- Enter the rent-car's license plate number into the HCTRA App
- Sometimes it will say that this license plate has toll violations and cannot be used. There is no way to recover from this error. Swap to a different rent-car.
- The App will almost always say that your license plate is already on another account. Simply confirm that you keyed in the license plate number correctly.
- It will ask for the ending time. I like to set the time for several hours after my planned return (in case of a lengthy flight delay or I decide to fly out later than planned).
- Once you return the car, go to the App and end your association with that license plate.
- Tolls tend to post to your credit card about 3 to 5 days after the fact.
The current version of the app works for all toll roads in the Houston area _EXCEPT_ the Grand Parkway.