But don't you have to have a credit card when you get there to pick up the car? I ran into that when I tried to pick up a car on a debit card.
But don't you have to have a credit card when you get there to pick up the car? I ran into that when I tried to pick up a car on a debit card.
Working hard for that next WDW trip! December 2013
Sounds like you have a great deal there. However (sorry for the However)....I did read a little ways back on MP that someone rented a car thru Expedia and had some issues and problems. I just hope it all works out for you and there's no wrinkles or glitches, like hidden fees or anything like that. However (a good however)...I'm glad you found a deal you are happy with.
Have a Magical Day, Month, Year!!!
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable ~ Walt Disney
Stephanie
~A man's character can be judged by the way he treats his dog.~
I DO need a credit card when I pick up the car, but I like not having to pre-pay for the car online, just in case I find a better deal later. I am shocked that I found such a good deal on Expedia......so shocked that I'm going to find another deal & keep it booked just in case the Expedia car falls through for some reason. I can't believe they offer an SUV with Enterprise for $350 but all their other national car rental companies want around $1000+????
I guess any company can have problems at one time or another. For what it's worth, I've used Expedia almost exclusively for flights and car rental (and sometimes for hotel) for many years, and have found them to be terrific. On the rare time when there is a problem, their customer service has been outstanding. On one flight that got canceled due to mechanical failure, the Expedia customer service rep stayed on the phone with me for over half an hour, just to make sure I got on a new flight that worked for me. Very cool!Originally Posted by tappenfeat
Dan
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
I think you're wise to stick with nationally known car rental companies.
Don't forget to sign up for any of the "clubs" if you are even thinking of renting from any of the companies.
Recheck at least 2 - 3 times a week. Don't "pay" for the car until you are certain that you have a good deal.
How the toll situation is handled varies greatly with the car rental company. In my experience, Hertz's method of toll paying was complicated, National's was a piece of cake. (For National, you just drive - at the posted speed limits - through the E-Pass or SunPass booth - and it reads the licence plate. They charge something like the costs of tolls, plus a reasonable $2 (might have been $2.50) a day to a maximum of $10 per week (or something like that, anyway, quite reasonable). However, the last time I rented at MCO was March 2012, so the toll thing might have changed.
If you are renting from a national company that rents their cars out of the MCO Airport garage, remember that there is an A and B side to the airport. For some reason, there is usually a greater selection of cars on the A side garage.
Here is a link to the car rental forum at FlyerTalk. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/car-r...-partners-392/ I don't think FlyerTalk is an overly friendly board, so I wouldn't post there, but you might be able to glean something by reading there.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy Disney
Note on rental cars allowing you to go through ezpass (or whatever it's calle in Florida) - the per-day fee is per day of the rental, even if your car doesn't move or goes no where near any toll booth. Personally, I think it's just easier to have a small container of change with me and keep it handy for tolls.
When different makeup companies are doing 'gift with purchase' a small zippered container often seems to be included. They work great for this purpose.
Cathy
^ Although your suggestion about having exact cash is likely still good, be aware that manned toll booths are on the way out in Florida and not too far down the road this may present a problem. You may end up overpaying just to get through. http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/C...115629824.html
If anyone will be making frequent trips to Florida, friends advise me that you can pick up a SunPass at certain local stores. One is Publix - you can go into any Publix and buy one and then go online and add to it. You can also check the balance on-line. If you are going to be in Florida a lot over the years, just buy your own and keep it in your carry-on.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy Disney
I could be wrong (heck, I'm wrong quite frequently!), but I don't think that this is how it works. If it's like here in Texas, there's a small RFID about the size of a credit card stuck somewhere on the windshield - sometimes right behind the rear view mirror - that the system uses to debit the account. The booths do have the ability to read licence plates, but that's used only if someone drives through without any type of payment system being activated.
Dan
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
Dan, you may be wrong - or I may be wrong - but the Hertz SunPass is on the back of the rear view mirror and you have to pull it out of the shield to "activate" it.
However, when I rented from National at MCO (March 2012) I specifically asked the attendant if there was anything to 'activate' and the attendant said no, it reads the licence plate. So I just drove through the EPass or Sunpass lanes and everything worked just fine.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy Disney
I believe there are "SunPass" lanes AND lanes that read the license plates (for car rental companies).
From the SunPass website:
Information about the SunPass program
1. How does the SunPass Prepaid Toll Program work?
A: A small, pocket sized device called a "SunPass Portable transponder" or a "SunPass Mini Sticker transponder" is attached to the inside of your car windshield, just below the rearview mirror. The transponder communicates via radio frequency with toll plaza readers/equipment. As the car passes through SunPass equipped lanes, the toll charges are electronically deducted from your prepaid toll account.
Working hard for that next WDW trip! December 2013
You might have a piece of the puzzle. Perhaps rental cars are EPass - and just licence plates are read.
There is usually a combined "SunPass" and "EPass" Lane - almost always the lane(s) to the far left at the toll plaza. I was told to go through any lane that was marked either SunPass, EPass or labelled as both SunPass and EPass.
TinaMouse - that info for SunPass was (might still be) correct for SunPass because when I rented from Hertz, you pulled the SunPass out of the shield to activate it. (Some people might not want to use the rental car SunPass and bring their own SunPass from home - the same way that people will bring their own GPS for rental cars. In this case, you leave the rental car SunPass in its shield, so that it is not read and hang your personal SunPass on the rear view mirror.)
If you have no toll pass and go through the toll plaza, the licence plate on the car is read - and billed - accordingly.
That is why I asked at National if I had to "activate" anything and the attendant said it would just read my license plate. That's when I was a bit worried, but I had no choice but to believe the attendant (and it all worked fine). I do note that this was in March 2012, which is approximately one month after Florida moved towards unmanned toll booths.
Last edited by Barberella; 06-11-2012 at 01:23 AM.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy Disney
I found this on the SunPass website:
Most major rental car companies now offer their customers the option of including tolls with the credit card used to rent the vehicle. These rental car customers can use Florida's toll roads and not worry about carrying cash or stopping to pay for tolls. They can breeze through the SunPass ONLY, EPASS ONLY and LeeWay ONLY toll lanes throughout the Sunshine State.
How does it work? Cameras take a photo of the rental car's license plate as it goes through the toll lane and sends a bill for the tolls to the rental company's tolling program vendor. The vendor collects the toll plus applicable service fees from the customer's credit card, and pays the toll to the road agency. The service fees are retained by the vendor, not the toll road.
^^^We did exactly that when we went to Miami and rented a car in December. It was a little box above the rear view mirror and we went thru the SunPass and it was fine. We did get billed later added on to our credit card. I thought it was a clever idea. You do have to flip the box handle up when you want to use it, though. The directions are right on it.
Have a Magical Day, Month, Year!!!
When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable ~ Walt Disney
Stephanie
~A man's character can be judged by the way he treats his dog.~
When we used National in 2011 they only charged their toll fee on days that you actually used a toll road. This was a lot cheaper than most of the other rental companies who charged daily, whether or not the toll lanes were used, up to whatever they set as a maximum. Since most of the days we had the rental car were spent in/around WDW, our premium to use the toll roads was pretty small and not worth the hassle of buying our own transponder or trying to bring enough change.
Or avoid all admin fees and just pay the tolls:
So you can call the 888 number (Mon-Fri, 7 a.m. - 7 p.m.) after you get the rental car and have the plate number, and you'll just have to pay the actual toll fees. There's also places you can do a cash replenishment of a toll-by-plate - but I don't know if you can 'sign up' there too or not.TOLL-BY-PLATE is a toll collection method that takes a photo of a vehicle’s license plate as it travels through a Turnpike tolling location. It then mails a monthly bill for the tolls, plus a $2.50 administrative charge, to the registered owner of the vehicle. So just drive!
To avoid the monthly administrative charge, sign up for a prepaid TOLL-BY-PLATE with a major credit card or debit card at www.tollbyplate.com or by calling 1-888-TAG-TOLL (888-824-8655). TOLL-BY-PLATE is an option, whether you are driving an out-of-state vehicle or a rental vehicle
I went and looked for that option because we have a 'new' bridge in South Louisiana (I think it opened over a year ago) that's a cashless toll system, and it's the only way into one of the areas that relies a lot on fishing charters, so they were making a big deal about how it would work. There you can just call the toll-free number while you're on the road and do the transaction that way.
ETA: That's cool that they only charged the admin fee on days you actually used the toll road!
Cathy
I think you have found the answer, menicksmom. I fully expected to "activate" a SunPass on the rear view mirror - as I had done before (and as tappenfeat says they did in December 2011). However in February 2012 - manned toll booths in Florida were discontinued. So when I rented from National in March 2012 - I was in disbelief when the car rental attendant said to me that I didn't have to "activate" anything - the toll booth would read the license plate. I actually made the attendant repeat what he said to me, and checked the back of the rear view mirror as I drove off (there was no SunPass there).
I think we can conclude that toll procedures for car rental companies - changed in Feb/March of 2012 (when toll booths went unmanned). Now IF you bring - or have - your own SunPass and hang it from the rear view mirror, that SunPass will be "read" and charged with the tolls. If you don't have a SunPass hanging from the rear view mirror of your rental car - the toll booth 'reads' the licence plate number and makes the appropriate charges to the car rental company.
Edited to Add:Yes, this was my experience with National in March of 2012 - I was only charged a maximum $10 per week (at (I think) $2.50 a day) for toll admin charges - but only for those days that I actually used a toll booth.
“When your values are clear to you, making decisions becomes easier.” - Roy Disney
Y'see what happens when you ask questions? You LEARN something!
Dan
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
I think only a portion of the toll roads went all Electronic (in Miami-Dade area).
I found this page to be helpful for the different rental car companies specifically identified:
https://www.sunpass.com/rentalcar
I think I'll stick with DME and not worry about it!
Cathy
For years I've just taken the Greenway from the airport to WDW, and had to stop twice to pay a $1.25 toll. I hope they don't make it more complicated than that!
Dan
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
Dan, when we went in 2011 it was WAY cheaper for us to fly into Ft. Lauderdale than Orlando, which meant a lot more than 2 tolls.
This thread reminded me of more to research when assisting in a summer vacation that I'm not even going on. We almost always book National, which conveniently is cheapest on this issue, but for people without a rental car preference, the tolls/surcharge could be a factor when comparing rental car companies.
I just checked National and they're in the $900 range for all their vehicles. Granted, it's still early (Oct 28-Nov 9) so I'll check again, but so far Enterprise on Expedia & Enterprise's direct website offer the best deal......$356 for an SUV (tax included in that total).
The one thing I noticed was that the rate using an electronic pass is lower than the cash or plate rate. In all that I saw the cash and plate rates were the same
Stan
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