Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Hi all.
A little help please.
:unsure:
Tomorrow my husband is going to pick up my son at Faro airport and we're totally confused about how to pay the Toll.

Before saying anything else we don't have a credit card (only Electron) and are not prepared to give the toll authorities our bank details for them to 'dip their hands' into our nearly empty wallet whenever they please 'by mistake'. However we are quite happy(ish) to pay the tolls!

1) Which is the best method to pay for a single go and return journey to Faro Airport
2) How much does it cost
3) Which lane does he choose

I only want answers from those who have successfully done it please as there are several discussions about it on other threads. Plus we've asked loads of friends both in Spain and portugal and no-one really seems to know.
There seems to be a top up card available but there's no time to get it through the post. If it's *really* available at outlets en route (& you know by experience) please let us know that too. My husbands journey will be fairly late in the day.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

What company are you using ? Travel rent now have transponders in their cars . It's 20 euros for the hire but they give you 20 euros credit & any adjustment is calculated on return of the vehicle. I don't imagine for one second that includes any refund I forgot to ask

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

If ur car is from a spanish provider don't bother Paying, portugeese can't trace the spanish reg hence that's why they now have signage to lure motorists coming from the Spanish side to register.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

We have a Spanish registered car. Our own.
Which line should we take at the toll booths for the least fuss.
As I say, Don't mind paying but dammit. If they can't make it possible for us by tomorrow ....Sod 'em!

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

During the summer they had people at service stations [like time share sellers] signing foreign reg vehicles up for 30 days stay.
We drove through Portugal June/July UK reg vehicle. We were camping and chose non toll on our sat nav. On one journey we were certainly on a newly tolled road. We couldn't find a place to pay and were in Spain again before we even saw a service station to try and pay. Fellow more experienced campers from Northern European countries say exactly as above post. They were also advising....If you are asked at a service station to enter your details. Tell them you only have cash and offer to pay!! they can't accept cash and have to let you go.
What a rubbish system! Keep your Sat Nav up to date and stay off Toll Roads in Portugal until they start to value their tourism again and make paying more user friendly.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

re tolls. all booths near the bridge use cards not cash.
you can pay cash at the services at Olhao but only once per week.
You can pay cash at the post office in Vila Real de Santo Antonio.
otherwise just come off motorway at Montegordo and stay on en 125 all way to faro no cost.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

For a single Faro return trip in a Spanish reg car then you can purchase a single return ticket in the machine at the VRSA border layby. Take the right hand lane and park up (the other lanes are for the Easy Toll registration which you have indicated you don't want). I believe the return fare is around 9,60 ish.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

The 125 is chock a block with slow moving traffic somedays so need to allow lots more time. The condition of road is getting worse with the volumne of traffic now using it.

I am told the Spanish will not help the Portuguese find and bill anyone not paying. Many Spanish reg cars simply don't/won't pay.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

The machine that issues the ticket is in what looks like a bus shelter and is quite sophisticated but from memory it may be card only. Then I did not try cash so it may be possible. Costs about E12 for one return trip to Faro from the border.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

I think it is very bad advice to encourage people to break the law on the basis of rumour. The system has not been working long enough to understand if people have got away with it.
I was fined (in Italy) nearly 14 months after my offence - and I was tracked down to the UK. I had followed advice on a web forum (not BE I hasten to add) to ignore it as the Italians would never catch up with me! It cost me nearly 800euros in the end. There are more and more EU intercooperation directives on fines and penalties. If someone chooses to break the law then let them do that in the full knowledge of what they are doing and the consequences, not on the basis of rumour.
Sorry to sound a bit pious but it happened to me and I was not a happy bunny.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Good advice Mike. A bit more piety wouldn't go amiss in this world. Religion you can keep but morality is a good currency!

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

I don't understand this once a week thing. When you're taking a trip from somewhere nowhere near the border what use is that!
Looks like just coming off the motorway might be the best plan. :-(

Do the tolls have to be paid upfront though. Or can we get a Portugese friend to go into the post office and pay afterwards using our number plate as reference?

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Exactly where did I advise anyone not to pay ? where did I encourage anyone not to pay ? All I did was state what I have been told re the Spanish government saying they would not help the Portuguese to find anyone who had not paid and that many Spanish people or people in spanish reg. cars don't/won't pay.

I have paid at the garage 10.62 for trip to airport and back the same day. He told me that you could not pay again for 8 days and after 10 days you could use a Portuguese post office or the other way round I did not quite catch in the mix of 3 three languages. He also mentioned something about the system remembering your car reg for the 8 days I think. So basically my info in pretty useless which is why I stuck to what I said in org post.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Don't worry. I don't think anyone is having a go at you. I agree that they make it so difficult that we prob won't be able to find a way to pay and my husband will have to try to find his way onto the other road.
It's not going to be on Tom Tom yet so he'll have to do the old fashioned 'looking for the turn off!!' :D
If he misses it and there's no understandable remedy, we may just be stuck with not paying and that's that!

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

It would not worry me, it did annoy me.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

You cannot post-pay for foreign registered vehicles - only pre-pay is available. Either buy a ticket (which come in various prices) or register with EasyToll.
Going to the Post Office after 48hours but before 7 days is only available for Portuguese registered cars.
have a look at:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=766286

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

You can pay at the petrol station on the motorway (even with Spanish or UK registered plates), it is the easiest way. But if your car is not Portuguese, do not bother!

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Not to say that this statement is incorrect but nowhere is this option (for foriegn registered vehicles) given on any of the official Portuguese web sites that I have found.

Quite apart from the potential (costly) consequences of ignoring the tolls, do you think it is right to cheat the country in which you are a guest? If the answer is yes then you have a very different moral compass to the one I have.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

When can you pay at the petrol station on the motorway? Do you still have to wait 48 hours like at the post office? I always pay for the trip from the airport at the post office in VRSA but don't know any way to pay for the trip back to the airport (Portuguese reg car obviously).
Kath

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Since the 48hours is the time it takes to update the database I would think it highly unlikely that the charge would have appeared on the system. {Although I expect the time is actually much shorter, and 48 hours provides the computer system with plenty of contingency, it will be hours and not minutes}

I think you are correct about the impossibility of paying in person on the way to the airport. Alternatives previously suggested have been: a friend paying at the PO after you've gone; some of the car rental companies say that they will pay the tolls on your behalf - but you need to very very clear before giving your CC details that they are not just going to pay the penalty notice when the Portagem authorities ask them.
The only fully legal foolproof way is to use the N135 :frown:
I did spot another wheeze - bring some magnetic UK plates with you and register them with EasyToll - that way you will have a clear conscience that you have paid the tolls but no worries about late payments catching up with you :sneaky: (tongue firmly in cheek)

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Thanks. I didn't think anything had changed. I even registered on the CTT.pt website thinking I might be able to pay online but i couldn't (unless someone knows better). I don't like using N125 on way to airport; we usually catch a relatively early plane and i would be frightened of missing it.
Kath

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

The computers in the post office do not recognize foreign plates. When you stop at the petrol station (for both ways at the same time), you pay on the moment and they give you a receipt with your car registration. I have done it many times, either with UK or Spanish plates. Now if you do noth bother paying theywill not haveaccess to your datas, either in UK or Spain, but may be one day if you are driving in Portugal... I agree with MikeJ with not cheating a country which receive us, but the fact is that many Portuguese associations have claimed at the European Court because these tolls are apparently totally illegal.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

So, here's what happened for my OHs trip on wednesday. He paid by our electron card on a machine at the bus shelter (the far right lane in the layby) for the trip to the Airport. But chose to find out how it worked from the other end. At the other end he purchased a scratch card esp for foreign registered cards at the post office in the Airport but we believe it did not work because his phone was an English one and he didn't receive an SMS back on it.
Next time he'll buy both ways on the way into Portugal.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

Yes the bus shelters looks old fashioned against the No plate recognition cameras but it seems a doddle to me for the occasional pick up at the airport or a trip to the UK. You enter your own dates and I have tried a four week spread and that works, it may be possible to go for longer.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

The gantry cameras must recognise foriegn registration numbers - I have registered my UK plated car with Easy Toll and all the correct charges appeared on my CC statement. I suspect that the pre-pay EasyToll database is not connected to the post-pay system used for Portuguese registered cars and transponders - it doesn't need to be as post-pay is not available for foreign VRNs.

As to the exchange of information about vehicles and drivers between Member States - all the directives are in place and a good number of MS already participate (including the UK). There is also provision for information about civil offences - eg parking fines, congestion charging etc - to be exchanged (under different directives).

I wouldn't think that Spain would be obstructive in assisting a neighbouring MS in enforcing its toll charging. After all Spain has a lot of toll roads too and such an action might encourage Portuguese drivers to ignore their tolls in retaliation. Anarchy is not good for anyone.

As to whether the tolls are legal, I believe that the EU response (so far) to the various challenges have been critical about the implementation but not about the legality (mainly about the discrimination in allowing concessions to locals!). As a soveriegn nation Portugal was entitled to pass the enabling laws.

Re: Definitive toll charge answer please
 

We did the drop off on monday. Because my OH already knew how to find the 'bus shelter' thingy at the border it was easy. However, for some reason there were cones on the lane to the car park!!!!!! and so we had to back off and park just before it and walk to the shelter. According to OH the 'easy toll' booths weren't working properly either, though I'm not sure how he knew that!
BUT
My "definitive answer" would be. If you want to ensure that you've paid your toll and you're on your way in to, rather than out of Portugal. The bus shelter thingy is the best way to pay. It's really easy to use.