Couple hit with $234 charge after paying for one toll in their rental car — here’s the mistake that cost them and how you can avoid it

Unfortunately, it wasn't a mistake. The couple owed Hertz the money for racking up several days worth of $26 toll passes to which they never intended to agree to — and had turned down at the desk.

"We rent cars all the time and are both ex-corporate and traveled a lot for work, so we've rented hundreds and maybe thousands of cars between the two of us," Wald, a Hertz President's Circle member (the highest elite status tier within the Hertz Gold+ Rewards program), told Moneywise. "The pickup process is usually extremely streamlined. Our account had always declined the expensive daily 'all-inclusive' toll package by default, and we had never encountered any issue like this before."

But there's a first time for everything and, now, Reidmiller and Wald — who have traveled to nearly 100 countries (2) and counting, renting cars all over the world — take extra precautions.

How a single toll led to a charge of over $230

Wald and Reidmiller picked up their rental car at a Hertz in Harrisburg. During the trip, Reidmiller needed to drive the car to Philadelphia to pick up her new passport before an upcoming international trip. To get there, she took the Pennsylvania Turnpike, where she encountered a single toll — but their car came with an EZ Pass transponder inside a small box, so she didn't think anything of it.

"What made this confusing is that the messaging on the box essentially instructs you to open it when going through a toll," Wald explains. "Lisa opened the box because she thought she was simply authorizing payment for that one toll electronically — especially since we had already declined the expensive all-inclusive toll option tied to the rental."

But when Reidmiller physically opened the transponder box, it triggered Hertz to activate the PlatePass All-Inclusive program (3) at $25.99 per day for the duration of their rental.

"We genuinely thought we were simply authorizing payment for one toll plus some administrative fee electronically, not unknowingly enrolling in an expensive daily toll package for the entirety of the rental," Wald added.

Hertz later explained to the couple that its PlatePass allows customers to "use cashless lanes or all-electronic tollways without using a personal transponder or paying the toll authority directly." The company's records indicate that the couple had declined the PlatePass at the start of their rental, but noted that during their rental, they "activated the transponder device affixed to the car windshield and incurred tolls."

As a result, Hertz charged the card on file.

"That distinction was absolutely not clear to us at the time," Wald said. "From a traveler's perspective, the natural assumption is that opening the transponder is the correct thing to do to pay a toll electronically… We travel full-time and rent cars all over the world, and even we didn't understand it. That alone tells me the system is not especially consumer-friendly… To us, the way this was structured was extremely confusing and not intuitive at all for the average renter."

Wald called Hertz to explain their situation.

"To their credit, once we escalated it and explained the situation… they eventually reversed the fee and only charged us for the actual toll plus an administrative fee (a total of $40.59)," Reidmiller said, adding that she believes that their 20-year Gold+ membership (4) and elite loyalty "probably helped."

How to avoid being hit with unexpected rental car charges

While this particular incident happened with Hertz, versions of these toll systems exist across most major rental car companies.

At Enterprise (5), for example, travelers have the option to choose the company's TollPass before hitting the road, but all cars keep transponder swing boxes and travelers who open it will "be billed a service fee for each day [they] toll, plus the cost of each toll incurred." At Avis (6), "unless you directly pay the toll yourself … you will automatically opt-in to e-Toll" and be charged later.

"In our opinion, Hertz is still one of the better major rental car companies, and we've continued renting from them since this happened," Reidmiller said. "Our bigger takeaway is that travelers really need to understand toll systems and rental policies, in general, because these kinds of surprise fees are becoming increasingly common across the industry."

Even when the policy is written in the fine print, it can be challenging for travelers to make sense of all the details.

"Most travelers are tired, distracted, in a hurry and not carefully reading pages of rental agreements at an airport counter," Reidmiller said.

When in doubt, Reidmiller and Wald recommend travelers ask questions.

"Different companies use different toll providers and fee structures, but the general concept of daily 'convenience fees' tied to toll usage is widespread," Reidmiller said, adding that the details, however, vary — and that's where travelers can get caught.

The nomadic duo's biggest warning: Never assume that you understand how the tolls work.