We will be in the San Francisco Bay Area and will rent a car. I have heard that you cannot stop at some bridges, they just take a photo of the license and send a bill. What do you do when you are in a rental car?
We keep getting emails from Avis to prepay for bridge tolls for like $125. But we will only cross 3 or 4 times.
Posted by
Oregon 🌲
466 posts
Yes, the bridges in the SF Bay Area take photos of your license plate and send the bill to the registration place of the vehicle. You can register the license plate of your rental car for payment to your account. This is for all the bridges, except the Golden Gate Bridge: https://www.bayareafastrak.org/en/ways-to-pay/license-plate-account.shtml. This is for the GGB: https://www.goldengate.org/bridge/tolls-payment/rental-vehicles/ They both allow temporary accounts for rental cars.
Posted by
Bend, OR
1714 posts
The Golden Gate is $10, the Bay Bridge and others in the area are $8 and it allows you to go over and back. $125 is quite a bit to prepay. As suggested, register the rental car license plate on line so the bill comes to you. Last time we were down there it took several weeks to receive the bill for the Bay Bridge followed by one for the Carquinez Bridge.
Posted by
OP
680 posts
Do I have to register the car as suggested? Won’t the rental company agree to just bill me for the bridge crossings?
Posted by
San Diego, California
6732 posts
The rental car companies usually charge an additional service fee. Of course, you can always pay for toll coverage, but it's a daily charge, for every day you have the car.
My experience is for the Golden Gate, and we usually pay online within 24 hours of crossing. Usually there are signs with the website, or you can just google the site. For the GG, you only pay for the south bound crossing. Enjoy the scenery!