Alamo - Do you now pay tolls paid by credit card?

I'm a recent convert to Alamo... after a long (30ish rentals) relationship with Dollar, I eventually gave up on them due to sub-standard vehicles and poor attitude from staff at the sharp end of things.

'Picked up an Alamo car at MCO yesterday (booked through OV of course!) and was delighted to be able to chose a brand new Lincoln Town Car with just 6 miles on the clock.....staff were very helpful - Dollar eat your heart out...!

Anyway, I was offered what I think must be a new service - for just $6 you can opt to have all tolls charged to your credit card via Alamo. I got to wondering, exactly how can this operate? Do Alamo actually register each vehicle with the various toll companies, or do they have an arrangement of some sort so that whilst initially processed as a violation, rentors on this scheme have the fees waived if the car is registered to Alamo?

Any info. on how this works would be of interest.

JT

Does the car not have an electronic Sun Pass on the windscreen?

I would check whether its $6 per day ( regardless of whether you use the tolls that day).

I rented an Alamo car from US Car Hire for three weeks in April this year and used the service where the tolls are charged to your credit card. It worked really well for me. The charge was $6 for the full three weeks and from then on I just used the Sunpass lanes. A few weeks after returning home I got a charge on my credit card for a couple of pounds, which seemed very low considering the number of tolls I went through.

I first heard about this last year when I hired two Alamo cars from US Car Hire, one for my son and then another for me which I collected a week later. On leaving the Airport my son got caught by the first toll which takes you off of the main carriageway, he went straight ahead. I saw the signs saying $100 fine, etc, so when I returned to the Alamo desk a week later to pick up my car I asked what would happen with regards to my son going through the toll without paying. The Alamo guy suggested adding the toll service retrospectively to my sons account which I did. It worked perfectly, he paid the $6 and just the actual toll charges which were added to his credit card on his return to the UK.

As I understand it there is no transponder used. All cars plates are recorded as they pass through the Sunpass lane and then this is reconciled with the rental company so that anyone who has taken the toll service just pays the actual tolls, the others get fined.

I will certainly use this service again when I pick up my Alamo car next April (already booked with US Car Hire) and would recommend it to anyone.

Also the car hire desk personnel often get very bad press, but the Alamo guy last year certainly saved my son a lot of money and aggravation.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by David W
I rented an Alamo car from US Car Hire for three weeks in April this year and used the service where the tolls are charged to your credit card. It worked really well for me. The charge was $6 for the full three weeks and from then on I just used the Sunpass lanes. A few weeks after returning home I got a charge on my credit card for a couple of pounds, which seemed very low considering the number of tolls I went through.

I first heard about this last year when I hired two Alamo cars from US Car Hire, one for my son and then another for me which I collected a week later. On leaving the Airport my son got caught by the first toll which takes you off of the main carriageway, he went straight ahead. I saw the signs saying $100 fine, etc, so when I returned to the Alamo desk a week later to pick up my car I asked what would happen with regards to my son going through the toll without paying. The Alamo guy suggested adding the toll service retrospectively to my sons account which I did. It worked perfectly, he paid the $6 and just the actual toll charges which were added to his credit card on his return to the UK.

As I understand it there is no transponder used. All cars plates are recorded as they pass through the Sunpass lane and then this is reconciled with the rental company so that anyone who has taken the toll service just pays the actual tolls, the others get fined.

I will certainly use this service again when I pick up my Alamo car next April (already booked with US Car Hire) and would recommend it to anyone.

Also the car hire desk personnel often get very bad press, but the Alamo guy last year certainly saved my son a lot of money and aggravation.
[/quote]When you say you paid the $6 and actual tolls rather than $100 fine, do you mean that you paid $6 for the sun pass and then all of the tolls were also charged to your credit card? Or do you mean you paid $6 for the sun pass and then nothing else whatsoever?

We never use the toll roads, we have an American Tom Tom that we set to 'no toll roads', as we figure we are on holiday and if it takes us 5 minutes more to get where we are going so what.... never had any problems.

Violet

You pay $6 for the service which is added to the other charges that are on the agreement you sign at the Alamo desk. The charges for the actual tolls you drive through are extra and are charged to your credit card some weeks after the car rental has finished. Alamo must pass your credit card details to the authority who manages the tolls as the charges are shown on my credit card as:
Merchant Information: Rental Car Tolls (with a telephone number in New York). The transaction is shown as: "Tolls, Road and Bridge Fees".

I emailed Alamo, enquiring as to the vehicles they currently stock, and also about this scheme - here's a quote of their response:

"We offer Toll Pass Service at USD $2.50 per day, max $6.00 per week."

So is it $6.00 total, or $6.00 per week?

That is a great idea , as we once had to make a 5 mile detour to get change for the tolls when we realised all we had was a $50 dollar bill with us .

I have another question about Alamo.

this is is the first time we will be using them and in the past we have subscribed to Dollars fast checkin service and register online , I think budget have a similar scheme where you can either jump the Q or go straight the the car park and pick up your keys from the booth.
Does anyone know if Alamo offer a similar service ar do you still have to go to the hire desk.


Cheers

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I emailed Alamo, enquiring as to the vehicles they currently stock, and also about this scheme - here's a quote of their response:

"We offer Toll Pass Service at USD $2.50 per day, max $6.00 per week."

So is it $6.00 total, or $6.00 per week?
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If Alamo say it is $6.00 per week I would guess this is correct, but I can asure you all I paid was $6.00 for the three weeks. Maybe the Alamo clerk made a mistake!

If it is $6.00 per week I would still pay it as it made using the tolls so fast and easy.

We picked up a car at Miami airport (Alamo) and payed an additional $10 (including tax)for the toll system. This was a one off payment for the three weeks we hired the car. Our credit card details were passed onto the toll collection agency who billed us in dribs and drabs on our return. There was no problem at all and best of all, by using the Sunpass lanes you pay the cheaper charge of 75c. We didn't get any electrical devices and therefore your usage must be recorded either by the registration plate, hidden microprocessor or barcode on the windows.
Very good system.

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We picked up a car at Miami airport (Alamo) and payed an additional $10 (including tax)for the toll system. This was a one off payment for the three weeks we hired the car.

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What year did you hire the car when you paid $10?

My son paid $10 to Alamo for the Toll Service in 2009 and I paid $6 for the same service in April this year. It looks like the Toll Service charge has gone down.

April 2010

does anyone know what cars Alamo have in the intermediet class, my son has booked one with Alamo and his vouchers says a Ford Focus, but I thought that was a bit small for intermediet

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by dsv77
does anyone know what cars Alamo have in the intermediet class, my son has booked one with Alamo and his vouchers says a Ford Focus, but I thought that was a bit small for intermediet
[/quote]That's what my SIL got last year.

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by David W
I rented an Alamo car from US Car Hire for three weeks in April this year and used the service where the tolls are charged to your credit card. It worked really well for me. The charge was $6 for the full three weeks and from then on I just used the Sunpass lanes. A few weeks after returning home I got a charge on my credit card for a couple of pounds, which seemed very low considering the number of tolls I went through. [/quote]

David,

Thanks for the info. I now await my credit card bill to see just how accurate the charges are. I carefully noted all tolls I used - watch this space!

Regards, JT

Thanks JT, I will be intersted to hear your results!

I used the Sunpass lanes many times during the whole three weeks I was there, but I only had the one charge of £2.31 to my credit card two weeks after I arrived home. This did seem rather low and I kept waiting for another charge to my card, but there were no more. I didn't keep any record of the tolls i went through and I have to say many of the tolls were for just 50 cents.

I was also charged $10 for a two week hire in April of this year. I walked several times around the car looking for a sun pass or transponder of some type, then asked how it was going to work, I envisaged a long stream of fines turning up for toll-avoidance! I was assured that it was all done through licence plate recognition,and as far as I can tell it worked fine. I don't have any idea how much I should have been charged but I sure went through a lot of fast lanes. My credit card seemed to be charged small amounts for the 3 months after we got home, which had me slightly nervous as I was beginning to wonder if I was paying all the tolls on that car forever, but the last couple of statements have been devoid of toll charges, thankfully.

Its strange how the actual charge seems to vary between $6 to $10. I also hired my car in April, but was only charged $6 for three weeks!!

There have been a lot of complaints about these systems because it seems that some companies have it fitted to their rental cars whether you want it or not. The problem arises when somebody is either unaware of it or chooses to pay the toll in the usual way and the sensors detect their number plates going through the toll gate and automatically apply a charge.

Where you can stick to a "Pass Only" lane it's usually OK but some toll gates don't differentiate and renters get a nasty shock a couple of weeks later when they see a charge on their cards.

This service definitely sounds like it's got more appealing than it was - when I was in Orlando last year it was $10/week plus toll charges so decided to get myself a sunpass instead.

If it's $6 for 3 weeks though it's now far more appealing - obviously doesn't bother me but makes sense for most visitors, especially if you're not in Orlando very often.