Forgot to pay dart crossing

[anonymous-user]

Afternoon, fully aware this is my own fault but i forgot to go online and pay for a return trip over the Dartford crossing. Not somewhere i have been since it changed or something i use regularly so just plain forgot. The deadline was midnight Sunday, I went on amd paid today to at least show I intended to pay. Am i likely to receive a penalty for late payment or non payment? Anyone been in a similar situation?

[cuprabob]

Go straight to jail, do not collect £200

I'm sure it will be OK now you have paid. I expect there is a "grace period" before issuing a notice.

[MacW]

They are probably the most reasonable toll company I've ever come across.

You tend to get a letter from them telling you (very gently) that you've forgotten to pay and suggesting there might be a fine to pay but as it's you, if you pop on the site and pay for the crossing we'll forget all about it.

You've likely preempted all that by paying already.

[geeks]

cuprabob said:

Go straight to jail, do not collect £200

I'm sure it will be OK now you have paid. I expect there is a "grace period" before issuing a notice.

There isn't, expect a fine! (ask me how I know)

Anyway, initially they should offer you a fine equivalent to the crossing, however my letter for this was never received, first I heard was when the third reminder showed up asking for £170 or some such daft amount! I put a call into the payments team who advised me to appeal online (I had paid but some 12 hours late so my reg no showed a credit) they agreed to reinstate the original fine and removed the crossing I had in credit.

If its your first offence you should just get the letter, pay the £3 or whatever it is and suck it up

[Shaoxter]

I did the same (forgot to pay and then paid online a few days after), didn't hear anything from them so I think you'll be fine.

I've registered for automatic payment now though, which is also cheaper. I probably only use it a few times a year but much less hassle.

[Buzz84]

I did the same, forgot to pay for a return crossing. I paid a few days later when I did remember.

A couple of weeks later I got the letter saying that as this was my first offence I could simply pay the crossing charges due and consider it a polite reminder to pay in future. As already mentioned they are quite reasonable.

I phoned up and said that I already paid a few days afterwards and they said that unfortunately it didn't count and I still needed to pay the crossing charge fee related to the fine.
They said that the money I had already paid wouldn't be lost as it was credited (non refundable) against my car for a future trip.

[hungry horace]

just as a slight variation on the above, I too woke up one night and remembered a crossing from days previous. I logged on and paid ASAP and thought no more..... then the "fine" arrived, I rang to settle immediately and query this, apparently a late payment gets rejected and automatically becomes a non-payment.
for first time offences if it is settled promptly it simply gets waived.

the above was my experience about 6m ago, it may have since changed, but worth keeping on eye on any white envelopes addressed to you through the post in coming days....

[S11Steve]

They do seem to be a lot more gracious with first time crossings - If it was the first time the vehicle had been detected on th crossing, then a warning letter would be sent as a reminder to pay the toll only, no penalty charge. I've not seen one of these for a while though, but it may just be due us being a fleet user rather than a private individual.

I'd take a chance, go online and pay the toll now, and see what happens. The worst is that you will still get the £35 fine, but you won't have the toll crossing to pay ta the same time.

They are not the quickest with their admin though, so it may be some time before you are notified of a penalty.

[DaveH23]

Happened to me the other week. Got 2 fines for an eachway crossing, rang them and paid the eachway fee amd they cancelled the fines.

A colleague has had 4 fines. Each time he has rang up and paid the £2.50 and they have cancelled the fines.

[loafer123]

I forgot my to pay a couple of times.

First one I received a letter, second time I called them a couple of days later when I remembered.

On both occasions they could not have been more reasonable and nice to deal with.

Extraordinary, really!

[Jaguar steve]

MacW said:

They are probably the most reasonable toll company I've ever come across.

You tend to get a letter from them telling you (very gently) that you've forgotten to pay and suggesting there might be a fine to pay but as it's you, if you pop on the site and pay for the crossing we'll forget all about it.

You've likely preempted all that by paying already.

Same here. Completely forgot, received letter, quick phone call, paid the standard charge, all sorted.

Quite refreshing given the readily willingness of most UK businesses to relentlessly shaft everybody for every penny they can whenever the opportunity arises.

[MrGTI6]

Since the new system has been in place, I have used it roughly five or six times. I "forgot" to pay on all but the last trip, when on that occasion I got sent a letter in the post a couple of weeks later with a photo of my car driving through on just the return journey. I paid the £2.50 online and that was that.

Probably not advisable, but I will now only bother paying if they send a letter, in which case you can still get away with the usual (but still extortionate) rate of £2.50.

[CanAm]

I did the same last year and remembered about 4 or 5 days after the crossing so just waited for the penalty to arrive. This came a week or so later (£70 or £35 for prompt payment ?) together with a letter saying that as this appeared to be my first crossing if I paid the standard fee online within 24 hours the penalty would be cancelled.
I did and it was all sorted

[Chrisgr31]

Phone them, it might not be too late, thats what I did. I was able to pay by phone when I couldnt online

[MorganP104]

Just to chime in, I once paid a week late (completely forgot to do it at the time). Heard no more about it.

That was about a year ago, so almost certainly no comeback in my case.

[Russian Troll Bot]

Jaguar steve said:

MacW said:

They are probably the most reasonable toll company I've ever come across.

You tend to get a letter from them telling you (very gently) that you've forgotten to pay and suggesting there might be a fine to pay but as it's you, if you pop on the site and pay for the crossing we'll forget all about it.

You've likely preempted all that by paying already.

Same here. Completely forgot, received letter, quick phone call, paid the standard charge, all sorted.

Quite refreshing given the readily willingness of most UK businesses to relentlessly shaft everybody for every penny they can whenever the opportunity arises.

Similar for me. I used it on a Saturday both ways, completely forgot until Thursday when I paid it online. Got 2 penalty charges through, appealed on one to say I'd paid the crossing fine, both were cancelled

[anonymous-user]

Jaguar steve said:

Quite refreshing given the readily willingness of most UK businesses to relentlessly shaft everybody for every penny they can whenever the opportunity arises.

That may not/should not continue due to spanners like those below, playing/abusing the system and increasing costs for all?

MrGTI6 said:

Probably not advisable, but I will now only bother paying if they send a letter, in which case you can still get away with the usual (but still extortionate) rate of £2.50.

For the record I think all toll crossings should be free for the general overall economic benefit they bring and the maintenance costs coming out of general taxation like in more civilised countries, (I never thought I'd call Scotland civilised )

[Jaguar steve]

speedyguy said:

Jaguar steve said:

Quite refreshing given the readily willingness of most UK businesses to relentlessly shaft everybody for every penny they can whenever the opportunity arises.

That may not/should not continue due to spanners like those below, playing/abusing the system and increasing costs for all?

MrGTI6 said:

Probably not advisable, but I will now only bother paying if they send a letter, in which case you can still get away with the usual (but still extortionate) rate of £2.50.

For the record I think all toll crossings should be free for the general overall economic benefit they bring and the maintenance costs coming out of general taxation like in more civilised countries, (I never thought I'd call Scotland civilised )

Cockend politicians are on record promising on more than one occasion to abandon tolls once the infrastructure had been paid for when the east tunnel was opened in the early 80's and again when the bridge was opened in 1991.

Yeah, right. Must have been a bloody expensive bridge then...

[Gargamel]

Jaguar steve said:

Cockend politicians are on record promising on more than one occasion to abandon tolls once the infrastructure had been paid for when the east tunnel was opened in the early 80's and again when the bridge was opened in 1991.

Yeah, right. Must have been a bloody expensive bridge then...

Raises close to £70m a year. So no, I can't see it becoming free anytime soon.

What would be nice is if they used the money to build another crossing and link Dover to Essex A12 without it hitting the M25.

[AJB88]

I paid 4 days after deadline as I forgot, never heard from them (at least a year later now)