Owning a toll card rather than hiring from car hire places
#31
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 185
Re: Owning a toll card rather than hiring from car hire places
With reference to my post above
Link for toll post payment:
https://paytolls.vialivre.pt/PortalWeb/
Sanef email:
We have been informed that customers shouldn’t use their VIA-T tags in a Portuguese hire car. This is because Portuguese hire cars have their Licence Plates registered with the Toll Road Operators. This enables the Toll Road Operators to quickly identify the registered keeper of the vehicle and the hire car company to provide the details of the hirer. The hire car companies typically charge an administration fee of circa 35€ to provide the customer details to the Toll Road Operator.
This issue is exacerbated by the free flow technology used on the Portuguese motorways. It seems that some of the toll gantry equipment does not always work correctly. When a tag isn’t read the transaction is allocated by the Licence Plate – and the above scenario results. Therefore we very reluctantly need to inform you that you shouldn’t use a VIA-T tag in a Portuguese hire car.
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However we have been informed that there is an alternative and that is to make use of the Portuguese Post Office App or Website. The App is easier to navigate than the website as it's multi-lingual. All you need to do is install the app or register your hire car on the website / app and then check 2 days after the transaction – if one appears in the list, the TAG wasn’t recorded by the gantry as you drove under it and needs to be paid for including a small transaction fee.
If you have any outstanding trips on the A22 motorway you can pay them by clicking here. For payment of other Tolls you will need to visit a Portuguese Post Office.
If you choose to use this solution you do so at your own risk.
NB. VIA-T had not been informed that their tags cannot be used in hire cars – we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.
We have also included this information in our FAQs
Link for toll post payment:
https://paytolls.vialivre.pt/PortalWeb/
Sanef email:
We have been informed that customers shouldn’t use their VIA-T tags in a Portuguese hire car. This is because Portuguese hire cars have their Licence Plates registered with the Toll Road Operators. This enables the Toll Road Operators to quickly identify the registered keeper of the vehicle and the hire car company to provide the details of the hirer. The hire car companies typically charge an administration fee of circa 35€ to provide the customer details to the Toll Road Operator.
This issue is exacerbated by the free flow technology used on the Portuguese motorways. It seems that some of the toll gantry equipment does not always work correctly. When a tag isn’t read the transaction is allocated by the Licence Plate – and the above scenario results. Therefore we very reluctantly need to inform you that you shouldn’t use a VIA-T tag in a Portuguese hire car.
----------------
However we have been informed that there is an alternative and that is to make use of the Portuguese Post Office App or Website. The App is easier to navigate than the website as it's multi-lingual. All you need to do is install the app or register your hire car on the website / app and then check 2 days after the transaction – if one appears in the list, the TAG wasn’t recorded by the gantry as you drove under it and needs to be paid for including a small transaction fee.
If you have any outstanding trips on the A22 motorway you can pay them by clicking here. For payment of other Tolls you will need to visit a Portuguese Post Office.
If you choose to use this solution you do so at your own risk.
NB. VIA-T had not been informed that their tags cannot be used in hire cars – we sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused.
We have also included this information in our FAQs
#32
Forum Regular
Joined: Feb 2018
Location: Portugal
Posts: 61
Re: Owning a toll card rather than hiring from car hire places
Just to reiterate, we did use the Sanef tag on the A22. My Sanef account showed that it was working, but didn't always beep.
Sanef sent out an unrelated email warning not to use their tags in hire cars because of the problem outlined in my earlier post, ie tag not always detected and reg number back up used. Hire cars registration numbers are logged with the toll companies, so a Sanef tag could confuse things.
In this warning they posted a link to check to see if you had any outstanding tolls based on your reg number, so I did, and I did.
I was charged €2.95 for a single €0.75 toll at Loulè, on that journey I passed other
Gantries that I was charged for on my Sanef account. The payment to ViaVerde was easy but came with a requirement to acknowledge that I had broken the law!
Sanef charge a €6 per month activation fee, but leave you with the responsibility to see if you have outstanding tolls that should have been covered by them but wasn't, for whatever reason. This is entirely unacceptable in my opinion.
Sanef sent out an unrelated email warning not to use their tags in hire cars because of the problem outlined in my earlier post, ie tag not always detected and reg number back up used. Hire cars registration numbers are logged with the toll companies, so a Sanef tag could confuse things.
In this warning they posted a link to check to see if you had any outstanding tolls based on your reg number, so I did, and I did.
I was charged €2.95 for a single €0.75 toll at Loulè, on that journey I passed other
Gantries that I was charged for on my Sanef account. The payment to ViaVerde was easy but came with a requirement to acknowledge that I had broken the law!
Sanef charge a €6 per month activation fee, but leave you with the responsibility to see if you have outstanding tolls that should have been covered by them but wasn't, for whatever reason. This is entirely unacceptable in my opinion.
#33
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 1,834
Re: Owning a toll card rather than hiring from car hire places
The 6€ activation fee seems like another reason, in addition to the unreliability, to use the device provided by the car hire companies, which was the original topic!
For drivers of foreign cars using tolls occasionally it may be better than nothing, bearing in mind that if it doesn't work there isn't a post-payment option that doesn't involve being treated as a wrong-doer.
For drivers of foreign cars using tolls occasionally it may be better than nothing, bearing in mind that if it doesn't work there isn't a post-payment option that doesn't involve being treated as a wrong-doer.
#34
Just Joined
Joined: Oct 2010
Posts: 5
Re: Owning a toll card rather than hiring from car hire places
have a look at saneftolling.co.uk, you set up an account via UK bank. recently used it for first time, works!