A few weeks ago, I borrowed Dan’s truck for a trip to Whitby to pick up my dad’s power tools that he doesn’t have room for in his new house. On the way out, I saw a HUGE traffic jam on the 401 in the return direction, so I took the 407 Express Toll Road on the way home. I figured I’d just get the bill from Dan when it came, and pay it. Big mistake.
It turns out that there is absolutely no way to pay this bill without creating some sort of account profile for Dan. I’m not Dan, and I don’t want to create a profile for him. I don’t know him well enough to answer the security questions, for one thing. Plus while it’s unlikely that he is going to be a regular traveller on the 407, I don’t want to be the guardian of his account (ie. I know the PIN) if he does. There is also no way to enter the name on the credit card – if it’s not the same as the person named on the account, it isn’t going to work. There is no way to just send in a check or, if you don’t call from 9-5 on a weekday, to talk to a customer service rep. It seems to me that driving a borrowed car on the 407 should be something that the systems designers might have anticipated happening once in a while and designed in a method to resolve this short of making the owner of the car pay.
I guess in future I should either remember my 407 transponder, or just risk the traffic jams on the 401.
If you’re trying to pay with a credit card, your right. However you can pay this as a “bill” from a Canadian chequing account with nothing but the account number on the mailed out statement.
If you know someone with online banking on this side of the border (or still have such yourself on a remnant account somewhere) you can easily pay any ETR account with little more then the account number from the statement.
I’ve paid exactly one 407 bill since they built that stupid highway. After they tacked on all their extra “You don’t have a transponder so bend over and take it” fees it cost me over $30 for a 40 kilometer round trip. I’ve never been on the 407 since, nor will I ever again.
I just came to the realization that short of my rant, I just said essentially the same thing as Norm.
That’s ok, Mark. I’m all about the rants.
You say rant like it’s a bad thing
How do you they it with a rental car?
Same problem and probably a very common one.
Paul, the car rental counter at Buttonville Airport had a sign up saying that if you used the 407, they would bill your credit card for the cost of the toll plus a $100!!! administration fee. Believe me, it was hard to convince my GPS a few times that I didn’t want to take the 407.