Forgot to pay Dartford Crossing charge

Thurrafork

Hello folks

I've been silly and forgetful!

On Thursday last week I used the Dartford crossing twice (there and back again), and then completely forget to pay the charge!
I just remembered today and it is of course now long past the 24 hour payment window, so there's no avoiding the penalty (2 x £35 if I pay promptly, right?).
But I'm just wondering should I pay the crossing charge now - so at least that is done - or should I just wait until the penalty letters arrive in the next day or two and pay everything together?

Thanks

Browntoa

Just ring up , explain what happened and pay , if you are lucky it's waived

Keep_pedalling

I would pay now, you never know you might escape the penalty payment if you do, nothing to lose at least.

Which reminds me must remove my old car from my account.

ontheroad1970

If you haven't been across in that car before you will be able to just pay the charge.  I did this a few months ago in a hire car, and was able to just pay the charge and not the penalty.

jimjames

For future it's definitely worth setting up an account for free so that you don't have the same situation

VFR

As has been said give them a call as I found them quite helpful when I forgot so now have an account to avoid that in the future.

prowla

It's all too easy to get there and realise there's no way of paying on the spot.

I've only been across the once.

AdrianC

prowla said:

It's all too easy to get there and realise there's no way of paying on the spot.

Perhaps...

BUT - once you have got there and realised that you can't pay on the spot, you have until midnight the next day to pay without risking penalties.

Thurrafork

Thanks folks!
I phoned them and they said I could not really pay for those crossings now as they had moved across to a penalty type categorization. So I'll just wait for the penalty letter to arrive.
The guy on the phone said that I shouldn't worry too much though because, as it's my first offence, the penalty charge should be small.
I was a bit baffled by this as I did cross and forget to pay the charge a few years ago too - but then I realised I had a different car back then - so I might be ok!
We'll see.

Thanks

ontheroad1970

jamieboo said:

Thanks folks!
I phoned them and they said I could not really pay for those crossings now as they had moved across to a penalty type categorization. So I'll just wait for the penalty letter to arrive.
The guy on the phone said that I shouldn't worry too much though because, as it's my first offence, the penalty charge should be small.
I was a bit baffled by this as I did cross and forget to pay the charge a few years ago too - but then I realised I had a different car back then - so I might be ok!
We'll see.

Thanks

If your registration hasn't been across without paying before then you will be able to just pay the penalty.  I did this in July.  So one of them you should be able to pay only the crossing fee.

jsoetaert

had a PCN sent 2 days ago. It was for a late payment (2 weeks instead of 24Hours) over 3 months ago. I appealed saying that their term exceeded the acceptable 28days set out in the gov guidelines and therefore could hardly hold my late payment against me. they rejected my claim but reduced the amount to £2.50 (the price of the crossing, how petty!) and upon enquiring, I can use the late payment for a future crossing. all good. I do wonder however why it takes over 3 months to send a PCN but replying to appeals just a few hours. I reckon they haven't got a leg to stand on with their PCNs but are just trying. The replies to appeals are probably by default waivers.