Easytoll in Portugal

[TeamRienza]

Evening all,

We are hoping to be in Portugal for an undecided period of time next month, driving in from Spain on the A28 and stopping to arrange toll payment at the Cepsa service area at Viana Do castelo.

I believe the option I wish to use is the easytoll which is anpr controlled and linked to a credit card. We will not be in Portugal for more than a week or two due to time constraints, However I would like to have the option of motorways easily available to me despite normally avoiding them.

My question is this, I have looked at the registration lanes in the service area on google maps and instant street view and cannot decide what the canopy height is. My van is 2.9m high. I assume I will fit as the payment posts seem to have 2 payment points at differing heights. No indications though of the height clearance. It would be good to know I could drive through without an embarrassingly long reverse if I didn’t!

Davy

 

[Moped]

You will be OK. Just filter into the registration area a few kilometres along the motorway after you enter it to record your details. One thing to watch out for is to make sure your number plate is read correctly by the camera. We checked online 24 hours after registration and ours was not. For some reason a V was registered as a Y. Other than this the electronic toll system worked fine.

Portuguese plates only have 6 characters and UK plates have 7. The misread was the end letter so we did wonder if this was the reason. No matter the charges for the first 24 hours were still accurate so it must be that they only require 6 characters of the plate to recognise the vehicle as you go under the charging cameras.

 

[REC]

The electronic tolls are above the road and just register your number and charge to allocated card.Height can't be an issue as lorries go under the gantries. Several of the roads are still pay as you go, so go through lorry lane and as you saw, there are higher machines to pay. The Via Verde lane (green v) on these roads are gonly for vehicles with a tag.
Doh...just read your post properly, you were asking about the registration lanes! Sorry!

 

[yeoblade]

Sorry, I can't help. I use the Blip and Go Tag system
We have one for France and another which does Spain and Portugal.Works well!
Travel without stopping on European Motorways | Telepeage | French Toll Road Tags | Spanish & Portuguese Tags | Saving You Time

Same as ***** for us. I believe there are three different toll systems in place throughout Portugal and not all allow a PAYG option. Of course with time and carefully planned routes it's possible. I preferred not to have this concern so bought the TAG before leaving home, everything is then covered.

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk

 

[witzend]

For a couple of weeks I,d not think it would be worth getting a tag. For the normal type tolls we just pay with our bank card and the npr system you can buy a card at many outlets PO,s Service stations etc for varying amounts which you register via mobile phone with vehicle number when it runs out you get a text to inform you you then top up on line don,t be in any rush we got text before leaving Portugal and topped it up 3 wks later at home. Any unused credit is good for 12 mths

 

[TeamRienza]

Thanks folks,

I use an ATMB tag in France, and am happy with the pay as you go in Spain, although to be fair we don’t use tolled or even non tolled motorways unless we need to for time/distance issues, which is rare.

Given the points made by yeoblade regarding the number of different systems, I wanted to be prepared for all eventualities but prepaid cards did not seem to fit the bill as I hope to avoid most motorways. The easytoll seems to be the best option.

Moped seems to indicate that a 3.0 m high Motorhome should fit under the canopy of the registration point so hopefully all will be fine.

Davy

 

[yeoblade]

FYI the Sanef Blip and go TAG covers Spain and Portugal on one TAG and one fee, and a different TAG for France is needed.

 

[RoaminRog]

Is there an economical version of these systems for Motorhomes over 3500kg? My van is 3850kg and taxed as a PHGV. Normally just carry plenty of cash around, bit worrying really.

 

[ScoTTyBEEE]

Is there an economical version of these systems for Motorhomes over 3500kg? My van is 3850kg and taxed as a PHGV. Normally just carry plenty of cash around, bit worrying really.

The economical solution for the electronic tolls is to not register your credit card. I bought a 10 euro payg card one year and it rarely charged me, so I believe the cameras aren't very good at reading UK plates and was only charged after a manual intervention which they don't seem to do very frequently.