Dart Charge - taking your money after 1 year

steveclecy

Thank you for a very useful post. I rang their Customer Service this morning. I have a balance of £9.98. A very helpful French accented service adviser took my details, asked me if I wished to close the account (which I did) and took my card details. The £9.98 will be refunded in 7 - 10 days to my account.

paooa

Rang this morning as I had the account inactive notification. Closed the account and the balance on its way by cheque as card used had expired.

No need to reactivate.

TrevorJ

I am currently going through this nonsense. I was informed that my account had not been used for a year, so was now "inactive" and would be closed in 90 days unless I made a crossing or added some credit within the 90 days. I originally opened the account as I lived in Dartford, but moved away. But I still cross roughly once a year and assumed it would be a good idea to keep credit in the account so that I did not get caught out not being able to pay within the very short timespan they allow. When they close the account I will lose the £11 credit that I have, unless I add at least another £10.

I have been told that I can close the account before the 90 days are up and get a rebate, which I have asked for, but so far (two weeks) have heard nothing from them.

It must cost them more to go through the procedure of closing an account than simply leaving the account open, so I assume it is all about obtaining money from peoples accounts.

I will be using the crossing about two weeks after the account is to be closed!

peter_the_piper

I use their Auto pay as you go  system, providing you are happy with them having card details its a good system. Just go through and they debit your account and email you to confirm this. No missing payments etc and no nicking your money.

Rodders53

I've just checked my online Dart account again - used once (two ways same day) to attend a funeral in Gravesend in September 2017.
It has £6.66 remaining and "Inactive Your account has closed due to inactivity. You can re-open the account by making a payment or by making a crossing in a vehicle which is linked to the account."

I changed car in November last and amended the record on the Dart account back then (was inactive/closed then, too but allowed me to do that fine), so if/when I do go over again the account will re-open.

They obviously have not "nicked" my balance money.

aquasam

even though your account may be closed by them they still have your account no. on file.    what you need to do is manually close your account by downloading their form.   closing your account.   and email it back..   ONCE THEY CONFIRM  YOU WILL GET ANY CREDIT REFUNDED WITHIN 7 DAYS.  

aquasam

also if you rarely use the crossing you can set up a pay as you go account linked to a card which automatically pays the fee the day you cross..   you have to pay full price but you you will not get caught out and face a fine.   worth doing as the discount is not that great  and better to have peace of mind than a few pence adrift.

Joe9090

I have just had a similar email to the ones mentioned here but they have also asked for my tag back and if they don't get it they will charge me £15. Am I wrong in thinking they now use APNR?  

Taiga02

Received an email from Dart Charge over the weekend confirming that my account would be closed unless I either made a crossing or topped up the account. Phoned them this morning - account now closed and balance to be refunded. As an intermittent user of the crossing, I certainly won't bother with an account in future. Thanks for the advice y'all.

NonGeographicalMan

Taiga02 said:

Received an email from Dart Charge over the weekend confirming that my account would be closed unless I either made a crossing or topped up the account. Phoned them this morning - account now closed and balance to be refunded. As an intermittent user of the crossing, I certainly won't bother with an account in future. Thanks for the advice y'all.

With the unfortunate closure of DartSave (phone customer service staff seemed to indicate there were new owners of the freight company who thought it was losing rather than making money even though their closure email gave away nothing about the reasons) the best option seems to to register for a Pay As You Go Account with Dartcharge itself but not for one of their pre-pay discounted charge bundles (all of which are deactivated if you make no crossing for a year).  This assumes of course that you are an irregular user who only crosses once or twice a year at most like I am, even though I only live 15 miles south of J9 of the M25 and also have a sister living 15 miles east of the bridge in the Medway just north of the M2.

In any case I phoned Dart Charge and established that with a Pay As You Go account they can take payment as long as the vehicle doesn't change and the card is valid (the card I just set up has a 4 year validity from now) and even if they can' take payment on that card for a crossing by that vehicle (most likely reason is the card is replaced because you lose it or it is damaged) they will email you to tell you to set up a different method if you make a crossing.

Of course it does make you wonder why they won't allow payment by direct debit as that never expires and utility and pay tv companies normally seem to prefer it or insist on it because it is a cheaper payment mechanism for them than even a debit card.....