Motorway tolls into Portugal

[AlisonMary]

Does anyone have the latest information on how to pay the toll charge when visiting Portugal from Spain? I am driving next Sunday in a Spanish registered car. Thanks.

[WomBatt]

http://www.thebarefootnomad.com/travel- ... -portugal/

[Nimrod]

Jeez and i thought the Spanish were World champions at complicating things.

[pilgrim2]

As a frequent user of this toll I road, I now drive through on to the first petrol station and pay in cash. On more than one occasion it has refused my Spanish card on the first attempt, accepting it on the second attempt, only to take the toll fee twice from my bank account, this results in taking my toll receipt to my local bank and waiting nearly an hour whilst they reclaim my money. The lady in the bank says it quite common for this to happen.

[AlisonMary]

Many thanks for your answer. I have decided to use an EASYtoll machine - if I can find one! I will let you know.

[rafiki]

A word of caution to those who have larger 4x4 cars. My Land Rover Defender has a height greater than 1.10 metres measured at the front axle and therefore must pay class 2 rates.

[flan_taster]

This link is actually quite useful
http://www.portugaltolls.com/en/web/por ... agens/home

[irismary]

I live close to the border, and Faro is my nearest airport, so I am a regular, if not frequent visitor to Portugal, as are all my neighbours. When the toll fiasco started it was hard to pay, even if you wanted to, so at one time or another we all became liable to a fine. Nothing happened!
It became apparent that the Portuguese commercial company which operates the system cannot get registered addresses from any other country, UK, Spain, or whatever, and thus cannot issue fines by post. The only thing that can happen is that if you are in Portugal, and the police put your reg. number into their computer, they will see that you owe a fine, and on that information, they may stop you and demand all the unpaid fines. They cannot do it on the day you use the motorway, because the Portuguese have ( I believe) two days to pay the toll, so it can only happen on a subsequent visit.
The upshot is, if you are making a single visit, payment is entirely optional. The fine is only twice the toll you should have paid, so unless you have been evading it for years, it shouldn´t break the bank anyway.
There were a couple of anecdotes on the web about this happening, but it doesn´t seem to be common. It may be because the system is operated by a commercial company, and the police do not feel responsible for it.

[AlisonMary]

Thank you for this information. I am leaving today from nearby Almeria, staying overnight in Osuna, and braving the rigours of the toll system tomorrow. I now know I need not worry too much!

[AlisonMary]

Thank you to everyone who sent a reply to my question, which I much appreciated. In particular, irismary's advice that there was no need to worry about paying the tolls, was most helpful. There were no clear instructions at the border and I was through before I realised I had passed a bank of machines! I therefore travelled to Exit 7 and back a week later without paying. It will be interesting to see if a fine follows.

[kerbut]

Well ,thats amazing , when we came back in March from Malaga via Seville and into Portugal there was a machine where you put 5 euros and got a ticket, we continued on through Portugal with two hotel nights and passed under loads of gantry ,s with cameras on them ,when we got to Villa Formosa I was expecting a toll to pay on the km we had covered ,but nothing there so we carried on to our next hotel in Salamanca . I said to my wife maybe foreign vehicles only pay 5 Euros ,we certainly did not know what I have just read above. Luckily if we venture into Portugal again I have put a personalized number on my car since our last visit !.

[Campo Steve]

Two weeks ago I rode from Spain to Faro for a bike rally. There were hundreds of bikes. At the first toll all bikes were directed by the police to a machine where you register your credit card and a camera with ANPR registers the card with the bike. The machine doesn't recognise Visa Electron cards, only credit cards. From there to Faro there were three or four cameras so I am expecting a charge for each one, there and back.

How long does it take for the charges to appear on the credit card? So far nothing has appeared. They are either slow or my tent was hanging far enough over to shield the number plate from the camera.

[Campo Steve]

Ooops, double post.