wahooflyer

It would be nice of some of the "cashless" tolls follow the same procedure as Illinois for missed tolls. I have gone through several tolls in the Chicago area without my own E-ZPass or a PlatePass from the rental agency, and the tollway gives you a 7-day grace period to pay the toll online without surcharges. You just type in the vehicle's license plate number and pay with a credit card. Works beautifully. And no surcharges from the rental company.

Westcoaster

Last fall in Pennsylvania we were able to pay cash at toll plazas that featured EZ-Pass. We're going to be driving in New Jersey and Delaware next month with a Hertz car and were assuming that we'd be able to do the same. I checked the DOT websites for both states and it looks like they accept cash for tolls. Of course websites can be out-of-date.

Is anyone here aware of cashless toll plazas in those 2 states? We don't use EZ-Pass locally but would be willing to get the necessary apparatus for travel if it comes to that.

cordelli

Don't know about Delaware, but New Jersey has been trying without success to put in cashless tolls. There are some that are unmanned, exact change or ez pass only though on the Garden State.

Westcoaster

Thanks. We'll make certain that we have plenty of small bills and change so that we'll be ready for exact change situations.

Edited to add: Regarding the thread topic my attitude is that I'm going to try to avoid giving rental car companies the extra revenue they get from all the fees associated with cashless tolls. If they'd add what I consider a reasonable amount as a service charge I'd pay it but the idea of paying an extra fee every day of the rental for just one use of PlatePass or EZ-Pass is too much. I did read the contract when we were in Pennsylvania and when I saw how much extra we'd pay for using the EZ-Pass lane with our rental car I made sure that we paid cash.

weave

There are no cashless tolls in Delaware.

Westcoaster

Thanks. We've been looking at possible routes to get where we want to go. It'll be nice not to have to avoid toll roads.

Westcoaster

Update: The car we picked up at PHL had a Maryland license place and did not appear to have a PlatePass transponder. The car we had last fall had a transponder that we could slide out if we wanted to use it. I couldn't find anything similar in the car we got last week. So either they have a different type of transponder or not all of the PHL cars are set up for PlatePass. In addition, the rental agreement said that they were now charging $4.95 per day for using PlatePass where last fall it had said $2.95. They did have a cap of $24.75.

It was fine in our case as we successfully navigated roads in Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania for a whole week without paying a single toll. I was ready with cash to pay tolls but once I told my husband about the whole thing he decided to personally take on the challenge of not paying any tolls at all. We had the time to take regular highways instead of the turnpike and had a nice time driving around.

What to take from this? If you need a car with a transponder be sure and check for it before leaving the Hertz lot.

adambadam

I saw PlatePass come up on my CC for a recent rental where I was trying to avoid having to use PlatePass (used tickets at all the booths and total tolls were $0 anyways [Western MA]). It seems like I got hit with $25 in service (9 day rental) and $5 in tolls. Don't get me started with Hertz that they didn't at least email me an invoice and instead just sneakily added the charges to my CC.

Can someone confirm where the following places are though because I think they are picking up the wrong car:

LEE and DTR

I feel like LEE relates to the Lee Solomon Expressway but I guess it could be Lee, MA where I was, but I wasn't on the road when they say I got charged the toll. In addition, I believe DTR is the Dulles Toll Road, where I was no where near. Correct?

Anyways, this is just an annoying thing I have to now go sort out.

themicah

Those are both codes for toll plazas operated by the Virginia DOT, so if you were driving in MA, it sounds like they have the wrong car. Here is a complete list of all the EZ Pass toll plazas and their abbreviations/codes:

https://my.bestpass.com/tolls/tollingagencies.aspx

rylan

There are no tolls on the turnpike in western MA once you go past the rt 84 interchange, so sounds like they whacked you for charges in a different state where you were not driving.

I'm waiting for a nice big class action suit against platepass. That is one where I don't care if the lawyers suck them dry, because the charges are absurd.

RickT

Platepass is the biggest scam I've encountered in a long time. I've rented from Hertz and am well aware of where I am traveling and when I will encounter tolls. For those trips where I only go through 1-2 tolls a week there is no point in paying the expense, rather than do that I pay the toll on-line directly which provides proof that the toll was paid. This worked fine until a recent trip to Chicago.

(In addition to providing toll passes they also bill you when/if you drive through a toll and the toll isn't paid. They charge the toll fee plus a standard daily rate for the full length of the rental.)

60 days later a charge from Platepass appeared on my credit card. It took 3 calls and over 60 minutes on hold before I finally spoke with someone who answered "while you must have driven through a toll" as the reason for the charge. I explained that I had all receipts and had verified with the Illinois Tollway that the charges for my travel were paid. It took 2 mths of no response from Platepass which included multiple calls and e-mails (including e-mailing proof of payment 3 times) before I gave up and I finally complained to the BBB and got my money refunded. Not renting from Hertz again!

Platepass has previously been found guilty in a class action lawsuit (http://www.topclassactions.com/lawsu...-pass-charges/) and it seems that nothing has changed. They hope the dollar amounts are small enough that it's easier to pay then to deal with.

Trinob

Just got a charge on my CC from a Hertz rental back in April. I never use the plate pass so I went t othe site to look at the receipt as I thought perhaps the plate pass was picked up by accident.

Come to find Platepass had a Rhode Island Toll charge of $.10 and then a $4.95 a day charge.

RI has no tolls that charge $.10 (and only one toll that i am even aware of) so I have no idea what they are thinking or if they are just hoping to pull one over on unsuspecting people.

So double check your CC statements.

themicah

Does it definitely say Rhode Island? Or is it possible the code is for something else? I think this is a complete list of all the codes (hit "expand all" to search the list for the code that popped up on your bill):

https://my.bestpass.com/tolls/tollingagencies.aspx

docbert

Yeah, it does. According to http://www.ritba.org/tolls, the Sakonnet River Bridge Toll is 10 cents per crossing.

Trinob

Wow I stand corrected. What a waste to charge only $.10

Now i am just more annoyed that i have to pay $19.80 in fees for a $.10 toll.