Toll Payment for regular visitors

[RichardHenshall]

I now have a personal solution to paying the tolls that I will incur when using the A22 back to the airport in a Portuguese (hire) car, following our regular visits to our property in Luz. Sadly this is not a particularly good solution for occasional visitors. This is not a solution for those in foreign registered cars, though I don't know how they would know as it's anonymous.

I have purchased a Pré-pago Anónimo transponder from the Post Office in the Santa Maria area of Lagos (Avenida Francisco Sá Carneiro) where the lady serving me was extremely helpful and spoke very good English. My earlier attempt at the Lagos São Sebastião Post Office was a failure as the man that I spoke to insisted (wrongly) that I would have to produce vehicle documents in order to obtain an anonymous transponder and furthermore it would only be valid in future for the same make and model of car.

The transponder cost 27,50€ and required a compulsory pre-load of 10€ credit for the classe 1 version. No personal ID or vehicle documents were required and no forms were completed by me. The lady did have to activate and link the transponder to a multibanco/PayShop/online banking reference for future re-charges - all details provided on the receipt I was given.

Following registration on the CTT website it is possible to link the transponder to your user ID to view balances, journeys etc. The transponder requires a re-charge of 10€ every 90 days to keep it fully active and this (accruing) balance will carry forward until it's used. I think that if it goes inactive any credit balance is lost but a re-charge will reactivate the device - time will tell. The re-charge can be done at PayShops, post offices, Multibanco or with internet banking on a Portuguese bank account. I haven't found a payment system that can be used when outside Portugal for those without a Portuguese bank but I think I recall reading that the transponder can be re-charged immediately after the journey in the event of accidental overspending without incurring penalty, perhaps allowing regular tourists to cope by paying immediately after arrival in Portugal.

I temporarily attached the transponder to the windscreen as directed and drove to Faro Airport on a Thursday morning on a surprisingly busy A22. It beeped under each toll gantry as expected. The following Sunday I downloaded a .pdf receipt for my toll charges of 6,60€ which have been deducted from the original balance. The receipt shows date and time of the first and last toll gantries passed. There do not appear to be any other charges levied, such as the 0,31€ per journey, that is normally charged when post-paying at a post office or PayShop.

I have also been able to verify here that there are no tolls showing as owing (for that journey) against the car I was driving.

I don't know how this will work in future when the hire companies start fitting their own transponders but in the meantime I can use the A22 without fear of fines for non-payment.

[Michael Crane]

.....I don't know how this will work in future when the hire companies start fitting their own transponders .....

Would it possible to re-register it for each new hirer?

[RichardHenshall]

This solution is personal to the "owner/user" of the transponder and is not designed to be used on an ongoing basis by a hire car company - that's what the normal Via Verde system is for.

[Thahen]

I now have a personal solution to paying the tolls that I will incur when using the A22 back to the airport in a Portuguese (hire) car, following our regular visits to our property in Luz. Sadly this is not a particularly good solution for occasional visitors. This is not a solution for those in foreign registered cars, though I don't know how they would know as it's anonymous.

I have purchased a Pré-pago Anónimo transponder from the Post Office in the Santa Maria area of Lagos (Avenida Francisco Sá Carneiro) where the lady serving me was extremely helpful and spoke very good English. My earlier attempt at the Lagos São Sebastião Post Office was a failure as the man that I spoke to insisted (wrongly) that I would have to produce vehicle documents in order to obtain an anonymous transponder and furthermore it would only be valid in future for the same make and model of car.

The transponder cost 27,50€ and required a compulsory pre-load of 10€ credit for the classe 1 version. No personal ID or vehicle documents were required and no forms were completed by me. The lady did have to activate and link the transponder to a multibanco/PayShop/online banking reference for future re-charges - all details provided on the receipt I was given.

Following registration on the CTT website it is possible to link the transponder to your user ID to view balances, journeys etc. The transponder requires a re-charge of 10€ every 90 days to keep it fully active and this (accruing) balance will carry forward until it's used. I think that if it goes inactive any credit balance is lost but a re-charge will reactivate the device - time will tell. The re-charge can be done at PayShops, post offices, Multibanco or with internet banking on a Portuguese bank account. I haven't found a payment system that can be used when outside Portugal for those without a Portuguese bank but I think I recall reading that the transponder can be re-charged immediately after the journey in the event of accidental overspending without incurring penalty, perhaps allowing regular tourists to cope by paying immediately after arrival in Portugal.

I temporarily attached the transponder to the windscreen as directed and drove to Faro Airport on a Thursday morning on a surprisingly busy A22. It beeped under each toll gantry as expected. The following Sunday I downloaded a .pdf receipt for my toll charges of 6,60€ which have been deducted from the original balance. The receipt shows date and time of the first and last toll gantries passed. There do not appear to be any other charges levied, such as the 0,31€ per journey, that is normally charged when post-paying at a post office or PayShop.

I have also been able to verify here that there are no tolls showing as owing (for that journey) against the car I was driving.

I don't know how this will work in future when the hire companies start fitting their own transponders but in the meantime I can use the A22 without fear of fines for non-payment.

[King]

Sorry to bring up the A22 Toll issue again as I know it has been done to the death. However I was hoping someone might be able to help me with a Transponder I bought from the Post Office. I bought the prepaid anonymous Transponder for Class 1 Car as described by RichardHenshall. The lady in the post office explained the functions as Richard described and I loaded €20 on the transponder. I then activated the transponder and the following day I travelled the A22 however the transponder didn’t make a beep sound as I passed through the tolls. I had the Transponder behind the mirror as instructed.

After 2 days I checked the CCT website I noticed that the car I was driving was charged for Tolls. I also notice that no money was taken from the Via Verde Transponder account.

When I log on the Post Office website I can see that there is €20 credit on this transponder and it is activated. Perhaps I am meant to keep in a certain lane when passing the gantry? I contacted Via Verde who were unable to help me as they said I had no contract with them and to contact the post office. Unfortunately I am currently not in Portugal to sort this out. Perhaps Richard or someone has ideas of how I might resolve this issue.

[RichardHenshall]

My transponder doesn't always beep but, so far, it has always recorded my journeys successfully.

When you're logged into the Gestão de Pagamento de Portagens (Toll Payment Management) screen and you click on the red underlined number in the Nº do Dispositivo (Device Number) column or on the Portagens (Tolls) tab above, do you not see any details of your journey?

If your journey was during the recent holiday period there may be additional delays before the journey details are displayed due to bank holidays as the computers only seem to work on 'working days'.

Even with the automatic debit system there is a delay between the toll charge being registered and the money actually being applied against it. If your account has insufficient balance you have about three weeks in which to top it up without penalty.

[King]

Richard. Thank you for your reply. I just checked again and when I click under the red underlined number in the Nº do Dispositivo (Device Number) column it still says No Tolls Recorded / Não foram encontradas portagens. It’s the same with the Portagens / Tolls Tab. The last journey was made on the 21st of March so plenty of time for them to register. The balance is still showing as €20. Anyway I will go back to the Post Office next time as perhaps it is a faulty transponder. If it worked it would be the best system for me anyway rather than asking people to pay tolls 2-5 days after I have left Faro Airport. Thanks for your help.

[e-richard]

King, it may sound very silly, but I was warned not to put the transponder immediately behind the mirror as on some cars the windscreen has those anti glare dots whcih will block the transponder's line of site.

Or, are you sure you had it the right way round ?
They come with an adhesive pad to stick onto the windscreen. Obviously we do not use that when taking it from car to car, but it does help remind us which way to attach it to the passenger visor - I use spare elastic bands that the UK post office so generously supply with our daily post

Now a question from me:

I'm trying to "activate" my transponder at the CTT website, and its asking me for

Device Number
and
Access Code

HINT: I have a 9 digit number printed on the receipt from the Post Office, but that's as far as I have got. Help...

[RichardHenshall]

... when I click under the red underlined number in the Nº do Dispositivo (Device Number) column it still says No Tolls Recorded / Não foram encontradas portagens. It’s the same with the Portagens / Tolls Tab. The last journey was made on the 21st of March so plenty of time for them to register. The balance is still showing as €20. Anyway I will go back to the Post Office next time as perhaps it is a faulty transponder. ...

Are you sure that the 13-digit Device Number shown on the CTT.pt website (and your receipt from the Post Office) matches the number (& barcode) on the bottom of the transponder?

Remember that if you're not using up your credit you risk losing it if you fail to top-up by at least 10€ every 3 months/90 days.

... I'm trying to "activate" my transponder at the CTT website, and its asking me for

Device Number
and
Access Code

HINT: I have a 9 digit number printed on the receipt from the Post Office, but that's as far as I have got. Help...

Shame on you, e-richard.

If you use the Portuguese language version of the website it asks for Nº do Dispositivo and Chave de Ativação, both of which are on your receipt. The 9-digit number is for re-charging the account with credit.

[e-richard]

Thanks Richard.

Actually, I guessed that the answer was on my receipt just after I pressed Submit.
However, while I was indeed using the Portuguese website, I was using Chrome Browser, which automatically translates into English so it took a few iterations to work it all out, but I'm there now. Transponder activated and balance is about right. Presuming that I cannot see historical journeys since the device has only just been registered.

Now, I'm hunting how to link it to my Portuguese bank account. It really is a very poor website from a navigation POV

[RichardHenshall]

I'd assumed as much but I couldn't resist.. I'm sticking with Firefox and a translate button when needed.

AFAIK you have to make top-up payments manually using the entity 21154 and your 9-digit payment reference from Multibanco or online banking or the payment reference alone at the Post Office or a PayShop.

I had assumed that until the device was activated it wouldn't record (or pay for) your journeys but I've not tested that. Maybe it just activates the link to your CTT log-in?

[pedro_architect]

They have both English and Portuguese Versions:

http://www.viaverde.pt/Website/Home.jsf?Locale=en-GB

and

http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... gpage.html

so no translator needed

[RichardHenshall]

Unfortunately the ctt.pt website's English pages are often missing vital information so even non-Portuguese readers really need to look at the original to ensure they've got the whole story - the text can always be translated using Google Translate as required.

To illustrate:

Compare the PT version for the post-payment system using a multibanco code available by SMS: http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... gamento_mb with the EN version at http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... gamento_mb which manages to leave out the vital detail of the number to which you send your SMS request**.


** Para tal, basta enviar um SMS com o texto “CTTMB (espaço) matrícula”(ex:CTTMB AA-00-00) para o número 68989.

[pedro_architect]

Unfortunately the ctt.pt website's English pages are often missing vital information so even non-Portuguese readers really need to look at the original to ensure they've got the whole story - the text can always be translated using Google Translate as required.

To illustrate:

Compare the PT version for the post-payment system using a multibanco code available by SMS: http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... gamento_mb with the EN version at http://www.ctt.pt/fectt/wcmservlet/ctt/ ... gamento_mb which manages to leave out the vital detail of the number to which you send your SMS request**.


** Para tal, basta enviar um SMS com o texto “CTTMB (espaço) matrícula”(ex:CTTMB AA-00-00) para o número 68989.

You are absolutely right and I just sent my complaint on that matter to CTT so they can fix this and review the whole site.