JOIN US for the "Ask The Expert" live event w/ the CC Dean, Sally Rubenstone, on Feb. 22 at 12:00 pm ET. Registered members can ask their questions NOW!
EZ-Pass question
ProfessorPlum168
4184 replies92 threads Senior Member
in Parent Cafe
I am going on a little road trip to catch a couple of basketball games next month from Newark thru different points to Boston and will be driving via rental car (got a super cheap rate via Priceline, $25 a day thru Hertz) as opposed to using Acela and the like. Staying at my older kid’s house in Connecticut. I bit the bullet and ordered an EZ Pass from Massachusetts.
A simple question - do I just mount it on the winshield and go? Or do I need to do something in each state? For example, with my silly Fastrak device in California, if I rented a rental car, I would need to log in and add the license plate and state info each time - a pain doing it from a phone since there is no mobile app to do this. I ask this because it seems as if each state that uses EZ-Pass has their own rules.
Also, are there different types of EZ-passes transponders? I ordered it online and didn’t get an email receipt via email, though I see the charge on my credit card.
30 replies A simple question - do I just mount it on the winshield and go? Or do I need to do something in each state? For example, with my silly Fastrak device in California, if I rented a rental car, I would need to log in and add the license plate and state info each time - a pain doing it from a phone since there is no mobile app to do this. I ask this because it seems as if each state that uses EZ-Pass has their own rules.
Also, are there different types of EZ-passes transponders? I ordered it online and didn’t get an email receipt via email, though I see the charge on my credit card.
Replies to: EZ-Pass question
The license plate thing is so that if you go through a toll detector that does not detect your toll transponder and photographs your license plate, they will bill a toll to your account instead of sending you a citation.
In a rental car, if your toll transponder is not detected and the license plate is not listed, the citation will be sent to the rental car company, which will bill you and add additional fees.
So it is in your interest to list the license plate even if not required. Of course, delist the license plate when returning the rental car.
That was after about 10 years of usage - the battery died. The odds of your transponder failing are very low. If you can, try it once and see that it’s working, then don’t worry about rental cars. (Or add it just to be safe - not that hard).
Side note - in PA it’s a flat rate toll if you’re registered but the transponder isn’t working. The one that failed for us was on my D’s car, who uses it when she’s home from school - no toll roads - and the one we pack up for trips to the in-laws, which is 3 hrs on the PA turnpike. So we saved $15 every time we used it. I took my time replacing it once I found the issue. Which was nearly 2 years later - they don’t tell you when you get a flat rate charge. I imagine that if you commuted one exit every day it could get quite expensive.
2. I would add the license plate number from the rental car to your easy pass account. This is easily done online. You can and should remove it when you return the rental car.
3. Once this rental car license plate is on your account, you should be able to use it everywhere you drive that accepts EZ Pass. Just be alert...some places don’t.
They do charge you a fee per month.
I don’t use mine but a couple of times a year but once the ticket didn’t come out and I nearly got very stuck on the PA turnpike. It’s a long story but I decided it was worth the monthly charge for me to not have that happen again.
They give you a metallic envelope to put it in if you don't want to use it, so you don't get charged (Like MaryBarbara's S above)
@deb922 who charges you a monthly fee? We have no monthly fee for our EZ Pass accounts. We had to frontload with a certain $$ amount when we got them. They automatically reload (charged to our credit card) when our balance is low.
But no monthly fee.
There is a maximum number of cars you can have on an account IIRC. One time, we had to take one car off when one of our kids used ours for a cross country trip in his car. We deleted one of our cars, and added his...just for the duration of the trip.
A: Transponder pricing varies by toll agency. While some charge an upfront fee, the Ohio Turnpike leases transponders to Ohio E-ZPass customers for $ .75 per month. NOTE: Starting with trips taken in January 2014, the $ .75 per month maintenance fee will be waived for all Ohio Turnpike E-ZPass transponders that are used for 30 single or 15 round trips in Ohio in the previous month.
A minimum balance of $25.00 per transponder is required to establish your account, and a credit card is required to maintain the account. Toll fares will be deducted from your account when the transponder is read at an interchange. When the balance on the E-ZPass account reaches or falls below $10.00 per transponder, the customer’s credit card on file will be charged to replenish the E-ZPass balance for future use. A one-time, $3.00 charge is applied when the customer's transponder is activated. *International shipping rate will apply
From the Ohio EZ Pass website. They charge me .75 per month