Florida Sunpass - Toll Roads - In Vehicle Device
 

Just wondering about the Florida Sunpass and toll roads.

Do most of you have one mounted on the windsheild of your vehicle?

Other than the purchase of the device (at Public's I understand.....) are there any other fee's (other than the tolls...) associated with it?

Can it be easily transferred to another vehicle? Or is the device assigned to just one vehicle?

Thanks,
Gordy

I have a Sunpass. You actually pay a little less per toll than if you pay cash.
There are no extra fees for Sunpass. I have set mine up to auto-fill whenever the balance gets below $10.00. There is an extra $2.50 charge per transaction for the Toll-By-Plate system.

I believe you cannot transfer the Sunpass Mini which sticks to your windshield unless you sell your car. They do offer a Sunpass portable. Since you can maintain whatever balance you want, there would be no expense or reason to not have one for each vehicle.

Here is a link to a video which does a good job of explaining the program.

All-Electronic Open Road Tolling

There are two types of Sunpass Transponders. The Portable transponder costs $25.00 plus tax and may be moved between different vehicles with the same number of axles as long as the vehicle license plates are registered with Sunpass. The MiniSticker transponder costs $4.99 plus tax and can only be used in one vehicle and will be destroyed if you try to remove it from your windshield. The minimum opening balance is $10.00.
These things are really cool! It evens automatically pays my parking fee when I go pick up people at the airport.

The one nice thing about the portable transponder is that it responds with various beeps, reassuring you that everything is working properly and tolls are being taken properly. The I-Pass system up North failed for several days for many Wisconsin holders and you didn't know it until you received a batch of tickets in the mail a few days later. A mess to straighten out! I-Pass transponders do not beep.
The downside of a portable is that you need to replace the battery every few years.

Here's their web site:

https://www.sunpass.com/index

Bill :)

Beeps and Batteries
 

I'm confused again - I've been thinking of getting one of these the next time we come down, and would get the portable one to get the beeps, but the florida sunpass site

https://www.sunpass.com/pdf/MiniWebPDF_E.pdf

Says neither the portable nor the Mini beeps and that neither needs batteries.

Maybe you have an older model or I'm missing something...

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EDIT - OK - I think i get it now. I've been cruising the site some more. Apparently they USED to sell transponders that did beep and flash, but the ones they sell now (the "portable" and the "mini") - don't have batteries and don't flash or beep.

I guess since they both appear to do the same thing (except for the portability and the mini not working on motorcycle windshields) and the fact that I will only need it for 1 car, I'll get the mini and save $20 unless somebody knows something I've missed.

thanks!

Bill, Are you sure your name isn't Mr Wikipedia? :1rotfl:

You can usually count on Bill for the correct answer or at least to know where to look for it! Comforting or scary? :laugh:

To the OP: there is another thread on here with deep discussions on the Sunpass. You'll have to search for it.

Bill knew what color shirt I had on.....you did mention scary! :22yikes:

I got the portable because I am not full-time yet. I fly into MCO, rent a car and am able to use my transponder in the rental, thereby saving the 6.99 per day fee from the rental car agency... Just a thought!

Y'all are killin' me!!!! :1rotfl: Thanks!

We bought the cheap/permanent transponder. We're generally only driving one of our cars down to FL and back. If we do happen to bring another car down sometime, we'll just buy and register another permanent transponder for it.

hotrodgirl's idea is perfect when using rental cars - that would be the only way to go!

Bill :)

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...ll-mail-57126/

https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...orlando-54664/

Once you establish an account with Sunpass, you can get one transponder and move it among all your vehicles as long as all your vehicles are listed on your account. We have one transponder and depending on which car we are driving in, we just swap it between vehicles. We have the one that sticks on the inside of your windshield with suction cups.

We got the transponder shortly after moving here. You can move it from car to car. Easy to load on the web site and you don't have to worry about having change with you. The Sun pass and Pass work together on the roads here in Florida.

In Jan. 2012 I got the credit card type that sold for $4.99 & they had a $4.99 rebate on it. Save about $1.25 each way over cash going to the Orlando airport.

bump

I bought a Sun Pass Mini, the little permanent one for 4.99. Silly question, but....I can't figure out if I am installing it correctly. Obviously, I looked at the instructions and even googled other sites hoping to find a picture of how it goes.

Once you peel off the back to install it, the plain, blank, side faces out and all the writing, numbers and bar code face the inside of the car? Is that right?? How does the blank side get read? If I am missing something, I would really appreciate any info, since I am driving the turnpike tomorrow!

It works similar to the gate passes... it is not "read" visually. It is a vehicle-mounted transponder that is activated by an antenna on a toll lane. Your account information is stored in the transponder. The antenna identifies your transponder and reads your account information. The mini passes are basically free after you use the 1st $5 worth of charges with no need to put batteries in them and takes up less room on the wind shield. We had numerous cars with the minis in all of them. It is no problem canceling or moving balances from one to another if you change cars. I like the stick 'em and forget 'em idea instead of having to worry about and replacing batteries.

I am disappointed that FL does not cooperate with the rest of the east coast states various versions of EZ-Pass. With my EZ-Pass I can run from DC all the way to Maine if I want to. With so many people coming from northern states into FL, it's s shame you have to get another unit just for FL.

They're working on it:

SunPass tolls: Florida, North Carolina E-Zpass tolls - Sun Sentinel

Bill :)