battlezone123

Last year we travelled to Portugal from Spain and ended up paying about 150 euros in tolls one way. I have been on the website and there is

Buy 3 TOLL SERVICE (3 days) "Vignette"

If you plan on coming weekend and make unlimited travel on the highways without manual toll collection, you can purchase prepaid 3 days.

The cost of this is about 20 euros. We are travelling on the A3, A20, A1, A10, A13, A2, A22. We will be travelling on a Friday and on their website it says that you can purchase 3 days with unlimited travel for weekend travel - but does the three days start on a Friday?

Also as we will be using the above motorways will this prepaid "Vignette" be useable on these roads?

Last thing, what am I missing - as I said last year we paid about 150 euros in tolls but this "Vignette" for 20 euros seems too good to be true.

Thanks for any help.

cedricp

Yes, that seems to be true. However, you can only purchase three of the pre-paid passes in any one year period.

Ingles

Hi.battlezone123 :- Please could you supply the link for this, it's seems to good to be true, & as a cynic ,I bet there's a catch some where in the wording.

thanks in advance

RichardHenshall

It's all here, if you know what to look for! There are maps which show the motorways on which this payment system can be used.

Home - Portal de Portagens

The key point you may have missed is that "these products are only valid for roads with electronic-only tolls", which appears to be missing from the CTT website you were looking at.
You may recall from last year that some motorways have toll-booths - the TollService Vignette system does not apply to them - you have to take a ticket and pay for them separately.

The TollService 3 day ticket is targetting occasional 'weekenders' but will be valid for your chosen 3 (consecutive) days.

Casa Santo Estevo

News from the Galician newspaper:
La Voz de Galicia

The system is too complicate and that there may be changes made in the future.

mikelincs

Read this thread as well..

http://britishexpats.com/forum/europ...es-egg-855722/

RichardHenshall

Maybe. But it's unlikely to change without warning during a 3-day visit.

EMR

Do not even think of doing this.last summer friends staying with us did this. An 18 euro toll charge ending up costing just under 60.

Red Eric

Presumably they didn't drive through the Via Verde lane at the end of their journey?

I think gedscottish was talking about using at both ends

RichardHenshall

Are there no instant alarms that indicate that a car going through the ViaVerde lanes (on a traditional toll-road) has no transponder?

I'm sure that they will try to catch up with you eventually but I'm more interested in whether they'll catch you sooner or if the driver can immediately realise his/her mistake.

EMR

Yes in their case ,his wife telling him what an idiot he was.

Red Eric

Yes - there's a raised barrier like those that you encounter on entering or leaving a paid car park. The barrier presumably comes down if you have no transponder - whether it would do so quickly enough to stop you if you drove through at eg 100 kph (you're supposed to slow to, I think, 60kph as you go through) is another matter. Perhaps ged could get his friends to try it so that we know for future reference.

gedscottish

How did they get caught though, bill was sent to uk?

Or do you mean they entered in via verde and stopped at pay toll at end?

Yes rederic, via verde all the way was what he done! If there is no transponder it will just take a photo

battlezone123

Home - Portal de Portagens

If the link works you will see "Easy Toll" and then underneath is "Toll Service" which is the 3-day pre-paid unlimited use.

Toll Card - Main paths by Motorway This link shows the motorways covered by this scheme.

Last year, and with apologies to anyone who was in their car behind us (and there were many) we made a huge mistake with the toll roads. We got about half way down Portugal with no problems. Anyway we drove up to one toll and pressed the button for a ticket, barrier went up but no ticket. Up to this point every time we paid at the tolls we asked for a receipt so we thought nothing of it and all we would have to do was produce the receipts at the next toll showing that we had paid but at the last toll the machine was faulty by not dispensing a ticket. Big mistake on our part. The guy at the toll would not have any of it - he wanted to charge us again for the whole trip, up to that point, from entry into Portugal. When the price flashed up on the screen ahead of 120 euros to be paid (bearing in mind that we had already paid for the tolls except for the last section) I was stunned. We gave him the receipts which showed proof of the previous payments but no, he wanted 120 euros. At this point we realised that the only toll booth open, which accepted manual payments, was the one we were in. The OH told the operator to call the manager, and then the OH turned the engine off. The noise from the drivers behind us was horrendous. I do not know how long we waited, but it was probably only minutes, but the cars joining the queue was getting longer and longer, and louder. The guy in the booth then started ranting at his machine (probably about how useless we were!) and then the 120 euros screen changed to 0 euros and the barrier went up and then he told us to start the car and leave.

This is the reason why I am trying to understand the Portugal road system as we are having another holiday in Albufeira this summer.

tootlewagon

I brought my UK reg car down to the Algarve last October, and during the six months it was on UK plates, (btw it's now matriculated), I regularly crossed the border into Spain, pulled into the electronic toll for "estrangeiros", inserted my UK credit card, got the confirmation slip, and carried on with my business for the next 30 days, confident in the knowledge that I had proof that I had fully complied with the law.

To date, not a penny has been debited to my credit card, although I have used the toll roads on many occasions!!

That's Portugal for you........