HELP!!! Being charged £230 for my husband using the Dartford Tunnel!!!

[Happyland8]

Please help.

I'm not a driver & have never driven on the dartford tunnel so none of this is making much sense to me.

DH is in the Army and is deployed just now. We moved house at the end of last year but today I accidentally had a parcel delivered to my old address, when I went to collect it, they had some mail for us.

Anyway, there were 2 letters saying that DH must pay £115 immediately as he has been charged for not paying to use the dartford tunnel. The incident happened back in April (just as our mail redirection stopped unfortunately) and now it's 2 fines of £115 which we really can't afford.

I can't believe a £2.50 toll road could escalate to this. It has also been reviewed in court without our knowledge so that's also a black mark against DH's name unless I can appeal this.

Has anyone been through this? I'm feeling so upset and stressed by this. We aren't home owners yet and I don't want this to affect us getting a mortgage and I just don't know what I'll do if they don't let us off with it

and one last link that sums up my thinking here: www.innotrends.nl/opinie/what-can-we-learn-from-signs/

Why would anyone want to set up an account and put money in it if they are probably not going to use it, we have probably only used that route twice in the last 5 years. Another way the Dartcharge probably gets extra money when people forget they have topped up the account.

You can register your car with debit card details and it auto charges to the card when you use the crossing - you don't have to prepay into an account.

It's a shit design for anyone who isn't a regular user, is the bottom line.

LaDaronnes links just about sum it up.

In my mind it is a big money spinning exercise to extract as much money as they can from people in the way of fines and forgotten topped up accounts.

That’s not the only sign, there many signs, some with prices, some like the one above. It is also usually written on the electronic boards all the way up the m25...

I don't recall seeing signs with prices, will look out. I know there used to be but AFAIL they've gone. But foreign drivers will already be grappling with driving on the left, unfamiliar road signs etc and honestly this big one is so unclear from an information point of view I think people can be forgiven for not getting it.

BTW sorry OP for hacking your thread...

“Why would anyone want to set up an account and put money in it if they are probably not going to use it, we have probably only used that route twice in the last 5 years”

I’ve no idea, you tell me. I was replying to the person who was bitching because it apparently takes her 10 minutes to pay each toll online and her time is extremely valuable. The rest of us are immortal, so we’re not as fussed nor value our time as much.

It’s really annoying - you only have 24h to pay and it’s really not very clear how to do this. ‘Search for a Dart Pay” isn’t sufficient instruction for eg visitors to the country IMO.

However you have been at fault for not updating the vehicular registration documents. For your first time dart tunnel offence you get let off if you just pay the original £2.50, but it will have looked like you ignored this and then we’re fined for it paying.

Did you not set up mail forwarding from your old address? We keep getting mail from the previous inhabitants of address, all of which I return to sender (they were a nightmare during the sale and despite three requests from me to set up mail forwarding have never done so) - and last week had bailiffs turn up at the door trying to claim a £500 congestion charge fine. Pay your fine ASAP and get the post office form to ensure all your mail goes to your new address.

her time is extremely valuable. The rest of us are immortal, so we’re not as fussed nor value our time as much

That's a ridiculous extrapolation.

This happened to us last year, 4 crossings and we had to pay £800 won't be making that mistake again!

LaDaronne it was the East Anglia factor which made us register for the Dartford crossing! Just checking there aren't any German internet tunnels are there? I do agree that if we saw those signs in another language we might struggle to realise what we needed to do. We do speak some other languages but not enough to navigate an internet charge in every country we have been through, would need to know 7 languages this year alone. Maybe handing out leaflets at channel ports and with hire cars would help.

I have long thought though that what the UK needs is a unified charging system so that you register for one account and that links your registration number to any number plate recognition system in the UK. Could be an optional thing so you could either register for systems individually or an overarching one. Wouldn't necessarily help if you have a hire car but for everyone else it would be easier.

It has made the crossing easier though.

Buggeroff not everyone will know that you can pay before you leave. I used to drive across the Dartford crossing when I went to visit family, who have since moved. If I hadn't seen this thread I wouldn't know about the changes. I wouldn't be checking my route for anything other than traffic jams as I know the route very well.

I think they should have kept one lane with a booth thst you can pay with money.

No German internet tunnels that I know of. Just an example of the sort of challenge foreign drivers face.

OP have you managed to ring them and sort it out?

This happened to my auntie. Moved house and got fined for the congestion charge and had to pay £1500 due to the lateness of it all.
She had to whack it on a credit card and tries not to think about it.

Suck it up and pay the fine I say and hopefully get all your addresses up to date.

LaDaronne it's a long-established principle that ignorance of the law is no excuse. This extends to things like the Dart Charge.

Its deliberately confusing to make sure they collect as many fines as possible, they have made the signage look like the congestion charge to confuse people and they have issued over 3.5 million penalty tickets to make sure they rake in as much as possible. Somebody is making a lot of money out of this.

“No German internet tunnels that I know of. Just an example of the sort of challenge foreign drivers face.”

Speaking of ridiculous extrapolations 🤣🤣🤣

They don’t pursue non UK residents for unpaid fees, so your rantings don’t make much sense. If they are UK residents and have a valid driving license, it’s their responsibility to learn what that symbol means. White C in red circle isn’t just used in a single UK crossing.

It's not a ridiculous extrapolation. It's the exact equivalent of what happens to my DH when he drives in the UK.

I'm happy to pay the goddamn fee if they didn't make it so much more damn complicated than it needs be. I'll pay online ahead of time in future if I remember

Fair enough having a fine for non-payment, but come on make it reasonable.. £50 max.

the queues south to north are still bad they keep closing one tunnel for no reason and its like the toll booths are back

the other side is great though

The charge is £70 reduced to £35 if you pay within 14 days.

It only goes crazy if you don’t pay because you don’t get the letter because you’ve not updated your address. Which I think you’d have to agree isn’t their fault.