MikeJ

A = Yes
B = Not usually but depends on your card issuer
C= Easytoll will not accept debit cards (as you may not have enough funds for all of the next 30 days)
D= see answer C

I have attached a leaflet.

Note: The toll plaza is at the first service area across the border into PT. You do not actually have to go into the service area as the drive-through toll booths are in a separate lane just as you come off the motorway.

Note: There are no border controls there at the moment but it would be simple for the PT authorities to set one up as all foriegn registered vehicle should go through these toll.

Don't forget that in the event of a no-deal Brexit you will need 2 x IDPs! Spain only accepts the 1949 version and Portugal recognises the 1968 version. Very simple process to get them at the Post Office, cost £5.50 each. You will probably need a Green Card from your insurer - check with them.

UK2PTviaNZandChina

great. thanks.

1711JohnB

Hi

As someone has previously mentioned, when registering for the easy toll with your CC it only lasts for 28 days then you should I presume have to go back to the easy toll booth and register again after 28 days or not use the A22.

2 years ago, I drove down from the UK, registered my car in November (A22 booth) then flew back to the UK for Christmas and continued using my car when I returned in January.

It was only after driving back to the UK in April and cleaning out the car did I come across the receipt for the easy toll which informed me that it only lasted for 28 days (yes, I know we all read the T+C's of everything we buy).

Happy to say that to date, I have not been chased for any further tolls or even had a nasty letter with a fine.

JohnB

UK2PTviaNZandChina

I am informed (elsewhere) that the toll motorway cameras cannot sufficiently identify foreign number plates, and that there is therefore, presently, no method to 'fine' foreign registered cars; except by 'catching you' in the act of using the road 'illegally'.

Possibly unrelated, but one local camera issue: Porto airport always prints onto my parking ticket the same incorrect registration number for my car, yet always lets me out.

I am unclear how the authorities might send one a 'nasty letter', given that addresses are not part of the toll payment process.

I think we'll hold off on the splashing out £22 on 4x SP/PT International Drivers Permits just yet...

Red Eric

By using the EU agreement on information exchange with regard to foreign-plated vehicles committing offences in a member state's territory to request the details of the vehicle's registered owner from the UK DVLA.

UK2PTviaNZandChina

That's the theory, I guess. Useful and sounds about right.

Anyone know anyone that this has happened to?

Still seems impossible if the cameras can' read the plate....

MikeJ

Urban myth I'm afraid. I have used Easytoll a number of times and it has always worked including on the A21, A22, A25 etc. Gantrys have recognised my number and deducted the amount. I did query the first printout I got which had my first letter missing, and the operative phoned the datacentre and confirmed that the correct number was recorded despite the printing error.
As a matter of fact they don't need to use ANPR for unrecognised numbers as the gantrys photograph every car and any not recognised are visually inspected. So if you don't register you will eventually get a fine, it just takes a bit longer. The PT authorities can access the DVLA . Cant quess what will happen if a no-deal Brexit but the security ( ie exchange of information between security, eg police) is already in the "deal" if it gets passed.

Anyway, why would you want to bilk your host country in which you are a guest?

UK2PTviaNZandChina

Sorry Mike. No-one is suggesting cheating, defrauding, exploiting or avoiding payment. You got the wrong end of the stick there. Ouch.

Also, no-one is suggesting that easytoll doesn't work. Just that it doesn't take the vehicle details correctly, which you have confirmed. Thanks for that. And I am also not any clearer about multi-charging and unwanted international exchange fees.

The unmanned payments system is however in my personal experience, many types of awful. I have managed to make modest sense of it (which took three months). By asking around, I discovered who sold the pre-paid cards. However the post office workers both made errors selling me the cards; one took 25 minutes to work out they were trying to sell me a toll card that was expired. Once activated, the promised sms to tell me I had run out of credit never arrived: I've never received any such notifications to date. It is a long way from being a seamless service. And now that their website is working again, it may get easier to navigate, but I don't think so.

Still looking for the answers you previously gave some help on about CC cards being repeat charged with fixed fees. 'Depending on the card issuer 'hasn't quite cut it for me, so I'll just stick with pre-paid cards, unless again, anyone has pertinent experiences to share.

RichardHenshall

As a long-stay visitor, why not fit a Via Verde device to your car?

MikeJ

Actually I said exactly the opposite! I said that the details WERE recorded correctly but the local printout was faulty.
Also there was an undercurrent, maybe not from you, of "can I get away with it because the ANPR doesn't recognise GB plates. Human operatives can!
Easytoll, is as its name implies, actually very simple for foreign registered vehicles as the leaflet I attached explains.
As has been said before RTFM.

riv

Can you be more specific as to the sort of evidence they were looking for to prove that you had been in the country for only X weeks or whatever ?
Did they check on MOT and Road Tax ?

I have in mind that if I have my car transported from the UK to Portugal at the end of April, the car as such will not go through any obvious check as it will be on the back of a lorry. And then put back on the road in Tavira area.
So how would I 'prove' that it had arrived in Portugal on day X ?

Does anyone know if a petrol receipt from a garage in Spain would count as 'proof' of arrival in Portugal after the date of the receipt ?

UK2PTviaNZandChina

Since the answers to the original question and issues arising remain elusive, I will take the scenic route, avoiding the A25 motorway altogether. Be lovely to see out of the way villages.

liveaboard

You'll have the transport receipt from the shipping company as proof.