Yllanes

The NY EZ Pass even says not to register rental cars (in fact, it probably wouldn't work because the car will already have been registered by Hertz).

jackal

Correct. I used to bother with adding the vehicle to my account but now no longer do, both because the transponder has 100% read accuracy (so it never falls back to reading the plate) and the one time several years ago I forgot to get the transponder out of my bag and it did read the plate (and I had added the plate to my account), the bill went to PlatePass anyway (and they refunded me). E-ZPass customer service told me the first entity to register a plate is what was on record in their system, so subsequent registrations don’t do anything.

Brighton Line

This was before NYC MTA Bridge and Tunnel went cashless.
Driving a rental car thorough a cash lane I purchased my NY EZ-Pass for cash. I couldn't register it online because I couldn't get around the requirement to enter a license plate. Callingthe service center they registered the account without a car on it. Just warned me that the car owner would get the bill for a bad read or balance issues and if it was a rental I would be subject to the rental company fees.

Later on my Nephew worked for the call center for NY EZPass for 2 years and he answered the same question, you don't need to own a car or put a car on the account to use it.
Off topic, he also worked on how they were going to do EZPass carpool without going thru cash lane. Those transponders have a switch on them for carpool or not and a picture is taken and later reviewed to ensure 3 or more in the car.

Yllanes

Yes. The NY EZ Pass website explicitly says you can register an EZ Pass without owning a car (which is my situation). The online registration asks for at least one car but if you call the service center you are told to make up a licence plate using the last three letters of your name and the last four digits of your phone number.

I use it several times a month on rental cars and I've never had an issue.

critterchick

Thanks for all of the info. I live in So Cal and have used my pass so infrequently that I've forgotten the name of the program, lol, but I love it when I do. I guess I'll be getting a MA EZ Pass - I visit my dad 5-6 times/year (and it may go up as he inches toward 100 years old), so it'll be handy to have.

ijgordon

Obviously there's no workaround for the cost you already incurred. But going forward, yeah, get your own EZ Pass.

I'd be curious what the MA EZ Pass agency would say on the phone if you asked how to deal with a rental car that's probably already listed on another account. Of course I think you can still get a NY EZ Pass (don't need to list the license plate) even if you don't live in-state, so maybe just go that route?

critterchick

Just applied for the NY EZ Pass. I put in my own car's license plate so I could complete the application online. Who knows; maybe there will be a coast-to-coast road trip some day!

Herb687

I was told by a Hertz counter agent that all of their cars in the Northeast are now eligible to use E-Z Pass lanes even without a transponder in the vehicle. I had a new (<3k miles) Hertz car without a transponder and used a bunch of EZPass lanes on various Turnpikes in the Northeast. Hertz's website seems to indicate that only transponder-equipped cars can use cashless lanes in the Northeast and Illinois. Who is right?

A couple of days after my rental return, there's no PlatePass receipt available under my rental record number. Should I be worried?

Perhaps my question was better suited to this thread:

Can ANY Hertz car now be used with PlatePass in the Northeast? Even Hertz cars without transponders? I was given a car without a transponder and the counter agent assured me that no transponder is required anymore and Hertz has stopped equipping new cars with them.

Xyzzy

I wouldn't doubt that. I have at various times attempted to add Hertz cars to my own account for E-Z Pass and FastTrack. I'vre always fount that to be impossible because the cars were already on another account. ne time I called the FastTrack service center to try and it took a long time for them to pull the car up on teh screen because the account had so many cars attached to it.

Yllanes

You don't need to add the rental car to your EZPass account. If your transponder is read you will be charged correctly. Adding the car is only a backup in case the transponder does not work.

Xyzzy

Yes - and I've had that a few times s I didn't want to take any chances. I've since given up on that as more cars are already signed up these days.

themicah

More and more tollways are going fully cashless. On those that have gone cashless (like NYC's intracity tolled crossings, where I'm pretty sure all cash lanes were eliminated by the end of 2017, or the Mass Pike) you don't technically need a transponder. It should take longer to get the bill if you don't have a transponder, though I think you may be able to go onto some of the tolling authorities' websites to pay the tolls (based on the car's license plate) before they issue the bill to Platepass/Hertz. If you can pay them all online before the bill issues, you can probably save on the Platepass service fees.

On tollways that still have cash-accepting tollboths (like the NJ Turnpike, and the Port Authority's tolled crossings between NY and NJ) I'm pretty sure you'll get a fine (in addition to the toll) if you go through an EZ-Pass-only lane without a transponder. Although it's possible they've registered the car's license plate number to an EZ Pass account, in which case you should get billed like normal.

alphaod

I got a fine the other day for my own car even though I've registered my plate and I have a transponder. Basically I had an out-of-state plate which they could find my address just fine, but no they couldn't find my out-of-state EZPass account? Kind of silly, but anyways I was able to put my transponder number on the back of the "violation payment slip," hopefully that resolves the issue, but the fact that I had to do the latter is beyond stupid.

Xyzzy

It works fine fr me - and redirects to this URL: https://www.myncquickpass.com/en/home/index.shtml

stc

I suspect you're in the UK.

NY ez-pass blocks connections to their website from non-US; I wonder if that is what is happening here too? I don't have a good solution other than a VPN to the USA.