How to avoid getting dinged with surprise car hire customs fees

If you are a fearless flyer but break into a cold sweat at the car station, you are not alone.

Prepaid gas plans, unnecessary or duplicate insurance coverage and post-expenditure for imaginary scratches are just some of the many ways car rental companies can travel up even the savvy traveler.

Now, as more bridges and highways are switching to cashless, electronic customs collections, customers are increasingly surprised, difficult to decipher and / or exorbitant "convenience" fees for driving a rental car on a toll road.

On cashless roads, drivers cannot stop paying with cash at a trade show. Instead, electronic sensors scan cars for passing or transponders, such as E-ZPass. Cameras snap photos of license plates onto cars without passing and sending customs bills to car owners in the mail.

If you regularly drive your car on a toll road, you probably have a transponder or pay the tolls by mail.

But car rental companies not only require customers for the duties they incur, the companies also add costs for using the transponders in the cars. Tenants who skip paying transponder fees up front and travel on a toll road can still be routed with even higher costs and additional administrative fees.

"Here's where the fun begins," said Chris White on RentalCarTransponders.com, a site selling activated Tolltraxx transponders to rental car customers for use in Florida, Georgia and North Carolina. "Depending on which rental company you got your car from, different costs will be spent."

In some cases, a car rental company will charge different fees in different states. And companies that own multiple car rental brands will have different programs and fees for each brand.

In addition to non-discounted tariffs, for example, Avis and Budget pay a $ 3.95 per day rental rate for the transponder, including days the transponder is not used. The fee is cut to $ 1[ads1]9.75 per month.

The Hertz PlatePass program charges tolls at the highest, non-discounted rate plus a $ 5.95 service charge per day's customs fee, with no convenience fee.

At Dollar and Thrifty, if you don't get the transponder at the time of rental and end up on a toll road, you not only pay the transponder and the customs, but are charged an administrative fee of $ 15 for each fee, with a dime of 90 dollars per rental. [19659002] Not all companies charge high fees. Silvercar charges a one-time administrative fee of $ 4.95 as well as tolls, while travelers who rent from Zipcar do not pay anything to use a customs card, even though they are still responsible for paying the customs fees.

Finding what a company charges for customs and transponders is rarely easy. Some clearly say the customs and transponder fees on the company's website, but others bury the information, making the very confusing or not revealing costs before the orders are made, if at all.

Many rental customers do not learn about the transponder charges until they are on the rental disk being asked (or pressed) to sign multiple "accept" or "recall lines" on a contract.

Even if you move on to a customer service line, there can be little help. After several minutes searching for fee and transponder fees, CNBC could not find the information on a company's website. Later, a customer service manager reported the costs, laughed and said, "My advice, if you think you're going through customs, don't hire this car."

There are other options. With some pre-planning and extra effort, you can avoid many of the "convenience" tolling fees when renting a car.

It may mean a slower ride and a few roundabouts, but if you plot your journey in advance, you may find that it is possible to reject transponder rental and get there without traveling completely. Google Maps, Waze and other mapping programs have an "avoid customs" option that can be turned on for search.

The transponder you have in your personal car can be used in many car rental situations.

E-ZPass transponders, for example, can be used on bridges and highways in more than 15 states, from Maine to Illinois and down south as far as North Carolina. Florida SunPass can also be used on toll roads in Georgia and North Carolina.

If you bring your own transponder, just make sure the transponder in the rental car is turned off. Take a picture in case the car rental company charges you anyway. You should also call or go online to add the rental car number to your account number for the rental dates.

Frequent travelers or not, you can save a lot of money and avoid surprising fees by purchasing an extra or new transponder or customs card to use in any state you are traveling to or through. In many cases, the fee you pay for your passport is credited to your account as a customs credit.

For the E-ZPass program, non-governmental drivers can purchase from any participating state's E-ZPass program, so choose a state, such as Massachusetts that will not add any additional fees. And be sure to add the vehicle's characteristics and travel dates to your account.