Dart Charge PCN
Discussion
Was driving to Essex from West London. Passed through the tunnel and over the bridge. While in the car, my friend paid for these crossings on his phone, however somehow managed to mistype my numberplate. Instead of "AA10 AAA" he typed "AA01 AAA". Those familiar with the Dart Charge website will know that if you put in a valid registration it'll show you the make, model and colour, and ask you to confirm the information is correct. In this case, the website said "Vehicle not found" and gave the option of putting in the correct make, model and colour information.
I haven't had a chance to call them as I'm stuck at work all day with no phone signal, however what are the chances that the fine will be rescinded? Obviously I had the intent to pay for my crossings, and it was a slight slip of the finger which caused the PCN.
I haven't had a chance to call them as I'm stuck at work all day with no phone signal, however what are the chances that the fine will be rescinded? Obviously I had the intent to pay for my crossings, and it was a slight slip of the finger which caused the PCN.
If this is your 'first offence' even if they do fine you, the fine is typically only the cost of the crossing - I completely forgot to pay when I crossed, and only remembered days later, by which time I had no alternative but to wait for the fine - which was only a total of £5. So even in the worst case scenario you may lose five quid. I learnt my lesson and now have an account with them which just automatically bills me and tops itself up.
Monkeylegend said:
Why can't you pay on line? If it was today you have until midnight tomorrow to pay anyway.
Here you go OP.https://www.gov.uk/pay-dartford-crossing-charge
I'd screenshot the payment page and keep a copy as well
dukeboy749r said:
I've not looked, but was 'told' today that you have to keep a minimum balance of £10 in your account.
Bloody hell!
Imagine the interest on that little lot.
And to think the bridge was supposed to be made free once paid for....
Go figure.
Absolute rubbish. I've been running down an initial balance of £10 all the way down to zero since last December (added an extra £1.69 in August to top up to two trips).Bloody hell!
Imagine the interest on that little lot.
And to think the bridge was supposed to be made free once paid for....
Go figure.
Currently sitting at zero balance and has been since mid September.
eltawater said:
dukeboy749r said:
I've not looked, but was 'told' today that you have to keep a minimum balance of £10 in your account.
Bloody hell!
Imagine the interest on that little lot.
And to think the bridge was supposed to be made free once paid for....
Go figure.
Absolute rubbish. I've been running down an initial balance of £10 all the way down to zero since last December (added an extra £1.69 in August to top up to two trips).Bloody hell!
Imagine the interest on that little lot.
And to think the bridge was supposed to be made free once paid for....
Go figure.
Currently sitting at zero balance and has been since mid September.
Monkeylegend said:
If you top up your account by DD they will automatically do that when your balance drops below £10 on the latest transaction.
This : It is a right swizz. You load your account with £10 and set up the direct debit (which has a minimum £10 level).
You make 1 crossing,drop below the £10 level and they immediately take a second tenner.
To cross once, you actually end up needing to deposit £20.......
grrr...
Why can't I just link it to paypal or something and they could just take the 1.69 each trip. I can imagine a world in the future where there are several of these roads / bridges / tunnels all running the same scam and you are going to need to have deposited cash with all of them.
Bob
There is a curious anomaly in the charging system as well, that is causing a lot of hassle in the vehicle rental industry, and meaning lots of tickets are being cancelled - I've had 166 cancelled since SANEF took over the debacle.
When you pay online for a crossing, it doesn't ask for a date of passage. What we are finding in the fleet industry is that a driver will take a vehicle across on a Saturday, and not pay. Another driver will take the same vehicle across on the Wednesday for example, and pay online.
A few weeks later a PCN will arrive for the Wednesday crossing, as that payment was used to clear the Saturday crossing. Wednesday driver presents their receipt for the Wednesday, and that PCN is cancelled. However the PCN can not be reissued for the Saturday crossing, and the official line from Dart/Sanef is "charge the Saturday driver for the PCN", even if the Saturday driver has a rental agreement that shows he was not in control of the vehicle on the Wednesday...
Similarly, if a registration is added to a fleet account that has outstanding PCNs against it, they are all automatically collected from that Dart account, and invariably the fleet account holder has only just taken posession of the vehicle...
I bloody hate the Dart system - it has created vast amounts of work and hassle for me...
When you pay online for a crossing, it doesn't ask for a date of passage. What we are finding in the fleet industry is that a driver will take a vehicle across on a Saturday, and not pay. Another driver will take the same vehicle across on the Wednesday for example, and pay online.
A few weeks later a PCN will arrive for the Wednesday crossing, as that payment was used to clear the Saturday crossing. Wednesday driver presents their receipt for the Wednesday, and that PCN is cancelled. However the PCN can not be reissued for the Saturday crossing, and the official line from Dart/Sanef is "charge the Saturday driver for the PCN", even if the Saturday driver has a rental agreement that shows he was not in control of the vehicle on the Wednesday...
Similarly, if a registration is added to a fleet account that has outstanding PCNs against it, they are all automatically collected from that Dart account, and invariably the fleet account holder has only just taken posession of the vehicle...
I bloody hate the Dart system - it has created vast amounts of work and hassle for me...
Mutley said:
What account settings do you have? as my dartcharge account has a minimum of £10 in it - their rules. to such an extent, if you dip below the minimum, they take an extra tenner!
Account typeStandard
Top up method
Manual
I just add funds into the account by credit card if I get the feeling that I'll be summoned by the family in the near future.
If they have say 1 million account holders, that's a nice little £10 million minimum thy are holding if you set your account for top up at £10. Of course most accounts will hold more than this, so they are probably sitting on at least £15 million for every 1 million accounts, probably more.
As an individual account holder the £10 for me is good insurance to avoid non payment on a pay as you use basis, but pretty good business for them.
As an individual account holder the £10 for me is good insurance to avoid non payment on a pay as you use basis, but pretty good business for them.
Has anyone tried Dartsave ? ( http://www.dartsave.co.uk ) - they seem to offer a service where you register with them but have 21 days to pay rather than 24 hours. It might be handy for someone who crosses very infrequently and doesn't want to put a tenner in an account up-front and leave most of it in there.
The downside appears to be that they charge the full £2.50 per crossing and there's no option to pay the discounted rate of £1.67 (which I guess is how they make their money). BTW I have no connection with them other than wondering whether to sign up or not
The downside appears to be that they charge the full £2.50 per crossing and there's no option to pay the discounted rate of £1.67 (which I guess is how they make their money). BTW I have no connection with them other than wondering whether to sign up or not
If you use the crossing infrequently why even bother with an account? Just go on the website and make a one-off payment as and when necessary. If you know you're going to using the crossing do it before you leave. If it's a spur of the moment decision to go that way you have until midnight the day after you cross to pay. The extra 83p is hardly going to do serious damage to your piggy bank and it stops SANEF having access to your funds.
As a local resident my annual fee allows me to cross as often as I want but you can only have one car registered to the scheme. On the rare occasions I need to use my other car I do the above. Never had a problem.
As Mr Clarkson would say "How hard can it be?".
As a local resident my annual fee allows me to cross as often as I want but you can only have one car registered to the scheme. On the rare occasions I need to use my other car I do the above. Never had a problem.
As Mr Clarkson would say "How hard can it be?".
Red Devil said:
If you use the crossing infrequently why even bother with an account? Just go on the website and make a one-off payment as and when necessary. If you know you're going to using the crossing do it before you leave. If it's a spur of the moment decision to go that way you have until midnight the day after you cross to pay. The extra 83p is hardly going to do serious damage to your piggy bank and it stops SANEF having access to your funds.
As a local resident my annual fee allows me to cross as often as I want but you can only have one car registered to the scheme. On the rare occasions I need to use my other car I do the above. Never had a problem.
As Mr Clarkson would say "How hard can it be?".
I would completely agree with you yet I have just woken up with a start realising that I should have paid last night. It was the first time I have used the crossing with the new system.As a local resident my annual fee allows me to cross as often as I want but you can only have one car registered to the scheme. On the rare occasions I need to use my other car I do the above. Never had a problem.
As Mr Clarkson would say "How hard can it be?".
I have gone on line to pay the charge, which it accepted, but apparently I'll get a £35 fine as well.
I'm normally really good with things like this but after a long drive home in the morning followed by a delay and cancelled strewn train journey to and from work, I got home about midnight and fell into bed.
Bugger it!!!
croyde said:
I would completely agree with you yet I have just woken up with a start realising that I should have paid last night. It was the first time I have used the crossing with the new system.
I have gone on line to pay the charge, which it accepted, but apparently I'll get a £35 fine as well.
I'm normally really good with things like this but after a long drive home in the morning followed by a delay and cancelled strewn train journey to and from work, I got home about midnight and fell into bed.
Bugger it!!!
Don't be so sure, I forgot to pay so paid the £2.50 a few days later (3?) and got no fines or even warningsI have gone on line to pay the charge, which it accepted, but apparently I'll get a £35 fine as well.
I'm normally really good with things like this but after a long drive home in the morning followed by a delay and cancelled strewn train journey to and from work, I got home about midnight and fell into bed.
Bugger it!!!
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