How to pay tolls with a rental car?

April 24, 2023 7:33 PM

I'm renting a car tomorrow and driving from Chicago to New Jersey. The Google Maps app says the fastest route has tolls totaling $33.33. I haven't dealt with tolls in ages. I'm assuming we no longer chuck coins into a basket?

I don't know if the rental car will have one of those "EZ-Pass" things installed, and even if it does, I have no idea if it will work in other states. Do toll plazas take cash anymore? Does it have to be exact change? Can I use a debit card?

If you want to check the route yourself to look at tolls, an approximation of my trip would be from:

The Chicago Diner (Halsted Street, Chicago, Illinois)
to
The Millburn Diner (Essex Street, Millburn, New Jersey)

Many thanks for any help!

posted by tzikeh to Travel & Transportation (20 answers total)

It depends on the route, but lots of toll plazas still take cash (or card, I believe), including around Chicago. There are toll plazas that don't, but you can go and pay afterwards on the relevant state DOT page. When I lived in Michigan up until a couple years ago, I could get all the way to downtown Chicago paying cash without using exact change, but the one toll plaza outside O'Hare airport did not have a cash booth. Toll plazas were generally a bunch of EZ-Pass lanes with 2 cash lanes way on the right side.

Some other routes may take pictures of the car's license plate and bill the registered owner, which in this case would be the rental car agency, who would then bill you. Verify with your rental agency what that means.

Cars I've rented in the Midwest have had an EX-pass thing included, but using it cost a flat fee and then you covered all the tolls you went through.
posted by LionIndex at 7:43 PM on April 24, 2023

Best answer: That’s the whole idea of the EZPass. It’s a multistate collaboration so you don’t need different transponders for every state. An EZPass transponder works at any EZPass tollbooth.

You should be able to request a transponder when you rent the car.

I don’t know about this specific route, but the general trend is toward pay-by-plate, where you’re billed retroactively.

Most tollbooths accept all forms of payment. I have an EZPass, so I never pay cash anymore, but my recollection is that exact change is preferred. Especially if you know the locations and amounts, having exact change would be the easiest option aside from an EZPass.
posted by kevinbelt at 7:52 PM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Most rental cars from the big companies like Hertz will come with an I-Pass/EZpass. This transponder will work from IL to NJ (I have driven it with an I-Pass). But, you should read the policies of the rental car company about using the toll transponder before you leave for your trip and decide whether you are going to use it or not. Some companies charge extra fees beyond the cost of the tolls for the use of the transponder. Do not rely on the fact that some toll agencies can snap a picture of the plate and send a bill to the owner -- some rental car companies will hit you with a substantial extra fee for "processing" this type of charge.

If you decide not to use the rental car company transponder, there is usually a way to slide it into a cover/box so that it is not registered/used by the toll booths you encounter. You will then need to manually pay the tolls. Most toll plazas have special "cash or credit" lanes, usually toward the right side lanes on the highway. There can be a traffic backup at these lanes because they move slower than the iPass/EZpass lanes, where people can just zoom through.

If you are going to the manual toll booths, I recommend that you try to have multiple types of payment handy - at least a couple of credit cards, hopefully one with the "Tap" functionality. Some of the booths allow you to simply "tap" the credit card, which can be fast. (I ran into this in Indiana last week.) But other times I have had trouble with one or another card working in the toll booth equipment - it's good to have a backup. Having some cash can't hurt either, but this would be the last resort because it is the slowest.
posted by Mid at 7:57 PM on April 24, 2023 [7 favorites]

I can't speak to Chicago/further east area tolls, but all the toll roads I've used on the west coast will take a pic of your license plate if you don't have a transponder, and will mail you a bill. Most of them give up to 30 days to pay, so it's not like if you drive today and don't pay by tomorrow you'll get a late fee or anything. And as LionIndex says, if you don't use a transponder, the rental car company will get the bill and either charge you directly using the card you paid the rental with, or will send you a bill.

Also: If your rental company offers you a transponder for a fee, be wary of that fee, and ready to turn that option down. A lot of companies will charge you the fee every day you have the car (not just when you use it). The charges for that could easily exceed the $33 you're estimating your tolls to cost, plus you'll still have to pay the tolls - the fee is just for the rental of the box, non-inclusive of actual tolls incurred.
posted by pdb at 7:59 PM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

If a kind friend is willing to lend you their EZ Pass, you could use it and then repay them. I've done this several times.
posted by Dr. Wu at 8:39 PM on April 24, 2023 [1 favorite]

If you have friends whose transponder you can borrow in Chicago, it's fairly trivial to add a temporary vehicle then venmo your friend the whole toll amount if they don't take toll roads often. Make sure you mark it as temporary and the date of the trip.

You could also get your own if you plan to have a car in the future, or if doing roadtrips will be something you do often.
posted by AlexiaSky at 8:41 PM on April 24, 2023

I just go through tolls with rental cars and then they bill you with a small up charge. The EZ pass rentals are usually way more than a toll or two with up charge because they put a lot of extra fees onto it. It’s worth it if you’re going through multiple tolls daily but not for one or two in a longer rental, from my experience.
posted by cakebatter at 9:35 PM on April 24, 2023 [2 favorites]

When I lived in Michigan up until a couple years ago, I could get all the way to downtown Chicago paying cash without using exact change

COVID was the straw that broke the camel's back in that regard. Illinois doesn't have any cash pay option any longer.

Generally speaking, you can just "pay by plate" online for Illinois: https://www.illinoistollway.com/paybyplate

Renting or Borrowing a Vehicle? If you’re in a rented, borrowed or temporary vehicle and you do not have an I-PASS or E-ZPass transponder, Pay By Plate is right for you. Simply enter the plate, payment and dates of travel within 14 days of your initial travel and you’re all set.

Register your account ahead of time, then enter the vehicle info once you get the rental.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 10:47 PM on April 24, 2023 [4 favorites]

Looks like you can get an I-Pass for $30 and it gives you a 50% discount on all tolls in IL, and maybe some discounts in other states, too. (You actually have to pay $50 up front, but $10 of that is a deposit and $20 is towards your first $20 in tolls.)

Just in case that is a cheaper/less complicated option than dealing with the rental company's eZPass.
posted by flug at 12:40 AM on April 25, 2023 [1 favorite]

Look over your car rental agencies website, they all should have a provision for ezpass, avis for example: avis e-toll

Some may not have a transponder and use the plate information instead, but you need to confirm this with the rental agency ahead of time.

Be warned it may take weeks for all the charges to roll in.

Ive never seen a toll plaza take cards, carry cash. But there are plenty of plazas moving to electronic pass only.

But some old school tolls still arent integrated into ezpass so carry some cash and coins.
posted by TheAdamist at 3:24 AM on April 25, 2023

I don’t know about this specific route, but the general trend is toward pay-by-plate, where you’re billed retroactively.

The Pennsylvania Turnpike (which you'll almost certainly be driving) implemented all-electronic tolling in 2020. That means there's no physical way to actually pay your tolls on the road. Instead, you'll drive through a gantry (or three) at highway speeds, and the PA Turnpike Authority will then either bill the EZ-Pass in your car or (if you don't have an active transponder) mail a bill to the registered owner of the car.

As noted above, driving a rental car without an active transponder means that the rental agency will get these bills, and eventually pass them on to you, possibly with a sizeable "processing fee" attached. If you can't borrow a transponder from a friend, then I would ask the rental agency how much they charge for the use of their transponder, and how much surcharge they impose if they get a pay-by-plate notice in the mail. Then compare the total costs and choose your course of action.
posted by Johnny Assay at 4:43 AM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: I think some of you didn't read that I'd be driving from Illinois to New Jersey (Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey), and the problem is tolls in several states, not tolls just in Illinois. But it seems like there are possibilities for a kind of pass that works in all states or some other kind of billing options. Thanks for those suggestions - I'm going to the rental place in a few minutes and I'll ask them there.
posted by tzikeh at 5:33 AM on April 25, 2023

The IL transponder works in all of those states (I have taken a road trip through those states in the last year and a half or so with my IL EZPass and it worked for all tolls).
posted by jeweled accumulation at 5:42 AM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

More specifically, an EZ-Pass from any of these states works in any of these states, even if they have a locally branded version of it.
posted by Kyol at 6:07 AM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

As Kyol's maps above show, you'll be fine and the vehicle will almost certainly come with an EZ Pass.

Echoing that the rental company will almost definitely charge you to use the transponder. But you should be aware these charges are often DAILY charges under a cap. Meaning, if you use it just one time, they will charge you a fee every day for the duration of your rental, up to a certain maximum amount (the last time I rented a car, I think the cap was $21).

Super annoying, and basically unavoidable. But you should verify the maximum charge to make sure its not something totally crazy.
posted by voiceofreason at 6:57 AM on April 25, 2023

I have personally driven from Chicago to New Jersey with an I-Pass (the IL transponder) and it works the whole way.

(It does not work in Texas, which suuuucks because everything is tolled there and a lot of it is electric tolling only.)
posted by misskaz at 7:52 AM on April 25, 2023 [2 favorites]

Just as an aside, the Millburn Deli is totally worth the trip.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 8:31 AM on April 25, 2023

Re: Pennsylvania and New Jersey - on this route I-80 across Pennsylvania is faster than the Turnpike. (The PA Turnpike would be faster if you were heading to South Jersey.). That matters because the Pennsylvania Turnpike is expensive, and I-80 is free. Similarly there are no tolls on your proposed route in New Jersey. Heading west on the same route you do have to pay the "get out of Jersey" tax on the bridge over the Delaware.

Heading east, all your tolls will be further west, in Illinois/Indiana/Ohio. I'll let the midwestern contingent weigh in on that as I haven't driven around there.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:51 AM on April 25, 2023

I drive this route routinely with an EZ pass, which works seamlessly the whole way. I have also done it in a rental car. The rental car will probably have a transponder. It is usually easiest to just pay for the tolls with the rental.
posted by shadygrove at 1:01 PM on April 25, 2023

Just remember that for some rental companies, even if you end up using EZPass just once on a multi day trip (let's say because there was no cash option) then you get charged for the whole trip. Car rental companies usually charge a fee per day + the toll amount. Also in NYC (not sure about NJ), there are many tollbooth-less tolls where if you don't have EZpass you get a bill in the mail... so as others have said, the rental company might charge extra for processing those bills.

In other words, it might be the easiest to just rent the EZpass and pay... or try to pay with cash everywhere and have the EZPass in its anti-scan case and hope you don't come across any cashless tolls.
posted by never.was.and.never.will.be. at 7:51 PM on April 25, 2023