Purchasing Sun Pass before you go ?

[colin39]

Im looking at these on fleebay at the moment £39.99 and my concern is is it
1 worth the hassel
2 is it worth the saving
3 how long does the rego take to register
4 am i making a molehill into a mountain and should i just bite the bullit and buy it?

[PPM]

Originally Posted by colin39

Im looking at these on fleebay at the moment £39.99 and my concern is is it
1 worth the hassel
2 is it worth the saving
3 how long does the rego take to register
4 am i making a molehill into a mountain and should i just bite the bullit and buy it?

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Without knowing who you are renting with, what I would do as an Alamo renter is just drive thro the Sunpass/Express lane and auto enrol with their toll pass scheme. At $3.95 per day used to a max of $19.95 plus the cost of tolls, there’s no hassle of registration, getting a Transponder delivered, if it’s on fleebay, is it new, does it work? Etc
You just get in the car and drive...nothing else needed. If it’s a few dollars more in the end of the day is that extra cost worth it due to ease of use?

Avis is similar, but the $3.95 is per rental day, not per usage day, so you end up paying the max $19.95 admin plus tolls incurred at cost.

Here’s the details for most of the rental companies
sunpass/rentalcar
No right or wrong here , just presenting an alternative.

[colin39]

Originally Posted by PPM

Without knowing who you are renting with, what I would do as an Alamo renter is just drive thro the Sunpass/Express lane and auto enrol with their toll pass scheme. At $3.95 per day used to a max of $19.95 plus the cost of tolls, there’s no hassle of registration, getting a Transponder delivered, if it’s on fleebay, is it new, does it work? Etc
You just get in the car and drive...nothing else needed. If it’s a few dollars more in the end of the day is that extra cost worth it due to ease of use?

Avis is similar, but the $3.95 is per rental day, not per usage day, so you end up paying the max $19.95 admin plus tolls incurred at cost.

Here’s the details for most of the rental companies
sunpass/rentalcar
No right or wrong here , just presenting an alternative.

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We are doing a huge amont of driving this year 24days davenport to keywest,back to davenport then upto savanha, if i can convince wifey.
The ebay guy has 100% feedback and sold loads.

[PPM]

Originally Posted by colin39

We are doing a huge amont of driving this year 24days davenport to keywest,back to davenport then upto savanha, if i can convince wifey.
The ebay guy has 100% feedback and sold loads.

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Ok I understand that, but as the Sunpass comes with no funds loaded you will need to add a minimum of $10 at activation ( as noted on the eBay site photo of back of packaging.

So you will be paying £39.95 for the Transponder plus the tolls at cost
If you use Alamo or Avis you will pay the max per rental of $19.95 plus the tolls at cost so it looks cheaper.

For Dollar Thrifty and Hertz it works out cheaper using the Sunpass Transponder as their toll schemes are expensive.
It will also be cheaper using the Transponder if going multi trips over the years and using mostly toll roads
Rates taken from Sunpass rentalcar web page.

So I can see both pluses and minuses for both the Rental car schemes, and the Transponder, depending on who you rent with.

This thread has certainally made me aware of the alternatives for paying tolls,and the comparisons of the rental car schemes, which will be helpful for our road based holiday May 2019

[Alibayparc]

Originally Posted by colin39

Im looking at these on fleebay at the moment £39.99 and my concern is is it
1 worth the hassel
2 is it worth the saving
3 how long does the rego take to register
4 am i making a molehill into a mountain and should i just bite the bullit and buy it?

See more...

Hi in addition to my previous reply’s I’m pretty sure having gone through my account that if your SunPass account is already set up before you go then the vehicle registration is almost instantaneous. Having registered my rental at MCO garage then driven down to the 27 all my tolls are showing on my account, although it does take a few days for them all to appear.
Alex

[skegby]

Hi Steve, can I ask how it went with the Sunpass and Dollar car Hire? I'm going in April and flying into Miami and driving straight up to Orlando. I have a Mustang Convertible booked with Hertz but Dollar are much cheaper so might cancel. How are they for actually supplying the car you booked? Any issues with the Sunpass as I may well buy one in advance also... Mike

Originally Posted by foxhillsteve

Hi, I've doing a similar thing in that I today received my portable Sunpass that I bought via eBay for my holiday in August when I fly into Miami, where I pick up a rental car with Dollar.

I'm going to register it this weekend, I've read it needs a US address for registration, not sure what I will put in, unless someone has any guidance (? Address of rented villa?.

I also planned to add the rental car license plate to the Sunpass app whilst picking up the car from Miami airport. I have a UK three SIM card and planned to use the app on my phone using this three SIM. I've read somewhere some people have trouble with getting a mobile signal in the car parking garage, this would seriously cause me an issue as I would not be able to register the license plate on the Sunpass app.

Has anyone got any experience of doing this with a three SIM card and had any issues/had no problem. Is there free WiFi in the car rental centre at Miami airport?

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[PPM]

Originally Posted by skegby

Hi Steve, can I ask how it went with the Sunpass and Dollar car Hire? I'm going in April and flying into Miami and driving straight up to Orlando. I have a Mustang Convertible booked with Hertz but Dollar are much cheaper so might cancel. How are they for actually supplying the car you booked? Any issues with the Sunpass as I may well buy one in advance also... Mike

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If you use Alamo and just use toll roads from Miami to Orlando and back then you will get charged $3.95 x 2 days plus the tolls at cost. If you were to use toll roads most days then it would be $19.95 plus tolls at cost. Tolls via Dollar are very expensive $10.95 day all in or $52.49 inc tolls but you need to book for complete rental period so for. 3 weeks it will be $157.47.

Hertz are $4.95per day tolls are used plus tolls at cost
This link shows all the rental co toll charges
sunpass/en/tolls/rentalVehicles.shtml

[magickate]

We're renting with Avis, picking up at Tampa airport.

From there we're driving to Disney, port Canaveral, Clearwater then back to airport.

Am I right in thinking the easiest thing to do is just pay the avis charge?

[PPM]

Originally Posted by magickate

We're renting with Avis, picking up at Tampa airport.

From there we're driving to Disney, port Canaveral, Clearwater then back to airport.

Am I right in thinking the easiest thing to do is just pay the avis charge?

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You probably won’t be going thro many tolls, but there may be some in the Clearwater area.
Generally we don’t bother with the pay cash at the tolls, just drive thro and use the rental car company’s system. This is with Alamo.

With Avis assuming you go thro a toll in the first day or so, you pay an admin charge for all remaining rental days whether you go thro a toll or not. This is to a max of $19.95 plus any tolls at cost. You don’t need to register or anything, just drive thro the Express lanes at the tolls. A few weeks after you return your CC or DC will be charged.
Your choice of course, but for us a $19.95 charge instead of worrying about change, missing a toll or coming up to an unmanned toll, is well worth the money. I can then concentrate on driving, not looking for tolls.
There’s no right or wrong to this, just do what you feel comfortable with