Luzcar hire car, Lagos, Portugal. Prepaid tolls?
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codger
Posts: 2,079 Forumite
We've never visited Portugal before. We have never encountered Portugal's highway system before. We're shortly due to spend a few days in Lagos, on The Algarve. We have booked, though not yet paid for, a rental car from LuzCar, Lagos.
LuzCar informs us of the following:
"The A-22 is a motorway that has an automatic tolls system that charges when you drive under the portics along its length. Luzcar provides a prepaid E-Tolls service that allows you to drive the A-22 without any hassle. You only pay to recharge the device. There is no rental fee involved. Minimum recharge is 10 euros. You can recharge 5 Euros after as many times as you want. Recharges cannot be paid on Visa or debit cards. Should you choose not to use the E-Tolls service and drive on the A-22, any tolls that are not paid will be sent to your home address and you will be charged an administration fee by the motorway company. The same will happen if you do not have enough funds on your device. To avoid traffic on the N-125 and waiting times in the Post office to pay the tolls, just use Luzcar prepaid E-Tolls."
Yet we're now being told that no such pre-payment -- in cash -- is necessary. That rental cars in Portugal come equipped with a transponder, which records the toll mileage used, and the bill for which can then be settled by credit or debit card.
So what's going on here? Thanks.
LuzCar informs us of the following:
"The A-22 is a motorway that has an automatic tolls system that charges when you drive under the portics along its length. Luzcar provides a prepaid E-Tolls service that allows you to drive the A-22 without any hassle. You only pay to recharge the device. There is no rental fee involved. Minimum recharge is 10 euros. You can recharge 5 Euros after as many times as you want. Recharges cannot be paid on Visa or debit cards. Should you choose not to use the E-Tolls service and drive on the A-22, any tolls that are not paid will be sent to your home address and you will be charged an administration fee by the motorway company. The same will happen if you do not have enough funds on your device. To avoid traffic on the N-125 and waiting times in the Post office to pay the tolls, just use Luzcar prepaid E-Tolls."
Yet we're now being told that no such pre-payment -- in cash -- is necessary. That rental cars in Portugal come equipped with a transponder, which records the toll mileage used, and the bill for which can then be settled by credit or debit card.
So what's going on here? Thanks.
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Comments
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Who is telling you that the pre-payment is not required? LuzCar's website has the same text that you quoted: http://www.lagoscarhire.com/luzcar-prepaid-e-tolls.php
It sounds like Luzcar is offering you a transponder but one where you have to pre-pay rather than pay at the end of the hire. Prepayment sounds like a pain because you have to predict how much you will need in advance, and if you don't get it right you'll lose money or have to figure out how to top it up.
Personally, I'd find a car hire firm that lets you pay for the tolls you used at the end of the hire. I hired a car from Sixt last year at Faro airport and this was the option they offered - a small rental charge for the transponder, and the tolls we used automatically charged to my credit card a few days after we returned the car.Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning0 -
Who is telling you that the pre-payment is not required? LuzCar's website has the same text that you quoted: http://www.lagoscarhire.com/luzcar-prepaid-e-tolls.php
It sounds like Luzcar is offering you a transponder but one where you have to pre-pay rather than pay at the end of the hire. Prepayment sounds like a pain because you have to predict how much you will need in advance, and if you don't get it right you'll lose money or have to figure out how to top it up.
Personally, I'd find a car hire firm that lets you pay for the tolls you used at the end of the hire. I hired a car from Sixt last year at Faro airport and this was the option they offered - a small rental charge for the transponder, and the tolls we used automatically charged to my credit card a few days after we returned the car.
We're told by friends of ours who regularly travel to Portugal and regularly hire cars from a variety of different rental companies. They say that every (emphasise: 'every') hire car in Portugal has to be equipped with a transponder. It's a legal requirement imposed on the car hire company.
Their experience has been that cash isn't involved in any way; instead, the toll is billed to the credit card of the car's hirer (that card information must also, by Law, be provided by the rental firm) and the bill can take 2 to 3 weeks before it appears. They also say what you say: that it's pretty much impossible, to accurately predict in advance exactly how much mileage one might make on the motorway. Having to pre-pay 10 Euros cash in blind hope it'll be enough, but which then turns out to be far too much (or too little) is no way to carry on.
They say the car hire company has nothing to do with the toll charging. Their advice is to tell LuzCars that no, the prepaid device isn't wanted. Just provide the hire car with the usual transponder.0 -
We're told by friends of ours who regularly travel to Portugal and regularly hire cars from a variety of different rental companies. They say that every (emphasise: 'every') hire car in Portugal has to be equipped with a transponder. It's a legal requirement imposed on the car hire company.
Their experience has been that cash isn't involved in any way; instead, the toll is billed to the credit card of the car's hirer (that card information must also, by Law, be provided by the rental firm) and the bill can take 2 to 3 weeks before it appears. They also say what you say: that it's pretty much impossible, to accurately predict in advance exactly how much mileage one might make on the motorway. Having to pre-pay 10 Euros cash in blind hope it'll be enough, but which then turns out to be far too much (or too little) is no way to carry on.
They say the car hire company has nothing to do with the toll charging. Their advice is to tell LuzCars that no, the prepaid device isn't wanted. Just provide the hire car with the usual transponder.
It sounds to me that the prepaid device IS just a usual transponder, but the payment is handled differently to most hire companies.
And it's not correct to say that the car hire company has no involvement in the tolls - with Sixt I was charged for the tolls I used a week or two after returning home, and the transaction was listed as from Sixt, not the toll company directly.Let's settle this like gentlemen: armed with heavy sticks
On a rotating plate, with spikes like Flash Gordon
And you're Peter Duncan; I gave you fair warning0
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