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Hi!! I’m trying to look for information about paying tolls in Florida and don’t know if I’m getting it right.
I will be arriving at Miami Airport, we would be there for 2 days, and then head to Orlando with a stop at the Everglades. From Orlando (WDW resort) we will be traveling to Kennedy Space Center. I will ditch the rental before our lasts days at UOR.

So, I’ve read about buying a SunPass Mini and tell the rental company to not activate e-toll, is that correct? Can I buy a SunPass Mini at every Walgreens, Amscot, hopefully near Miami Airport?.. or I would be loosing a lot of time just looking for one that sells the SunPass Mini?

Any advice? I’m a bit lost here… I’m from Spain by the way, I don’t have any transponder from another US State…

On a different but related topic, I can see most rentals include CDW and LDW with no excess. Do you normally buy extra insurances for towing, break glasses, lost keys,…?

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Where do you live now? If you have an EZPass, you can bring it with you and use in Florida.

If not, you might want to do the math of using the tolls with your rental car vs. sunpass mini. It might not save any $$ to do the sunpass.

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I live in Spain, not US, sorry… I’m editing my post

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I don’t think this is true? They usually try to upsell you on all insurances, I think. I would expect to pay more for that.

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Honestly, if you have the funds, I would just consider using the rental car toll transponder and dealing with it through there. I’m sure you wouldn’t have any trouble finding one at the pharmacy. But you would need an account and have to add funds and you won’t get any $$ if you add too much.

If you don’t want the rental car tolls, you can usually just keep the transponder closed while you are driving.

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The other thing I’m unsure on is if you pay for every day you have the car if you use the rental car transponder or if you just pay for the days you use it. Hopefully someone else can weigh in - I usually just travel with mine from my home state.

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I think the insurance is a bit different here for rental cars. When I booked rental cars in Europe for my boss I see where they have all the different things you can add on- like the things you mentioned. Here, as far as every rental I’ve seen, you just add the insurance for a flat fee. They may offer 1 or 2 options but it’s usually not all these add-ons like I’ve seen for European rentals.

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@Melco the insurance is extra from the per night rental rate, just to clarify my statement above.

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It is probably different for each provider so I would read the fine print. But I looked into this for Avis and it is a nominal fee (less than $10 I think?) for each day that a toll is incurred (NOT every day of the rental) plus the cost of the tolls. Which is less stress and hassle and cheap enough for me to not bother with other methods. I will just stick with the rental car’s system.

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I don’t know how it would work for you to buy a SunPass Mini locally in FL. In 2019, I debated buying the SunPass Mini when I arrived in FL but instead purchased the SunPass Pro transponder from FL because it can be used in all of the Atlantic states plus some and because I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of finding a store to buy the Mini.

If you arrive at MCO, you can pick up the Visitor Toll Pass at its MCO kiosk on the rental car level. You hang it on your rental car, set up your online account, and it will automatically bill your account when you pass toll. There is no covering or turning off the rental car’s transponder. It was easy peasy to use. We used it in Orlando and from WDW to Kennedy Space. There is a toll discount using the SunPass.

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Yes, calculate the cost for your use.

I have a SunPass even though I don’t live in a state that uses it. I have used it with rentals from different car rental companies at MCO and MIA without any issues. There is no rental car transponder to cover or deactivate. I enter the rental car license plate into my account for the time period I have the rental car and off I go. The transponder is easy to use. Tolls are much cheaper with the SunPass. Round trip tolls from MCO - WDW costs about $4.22 right now.

Last month, I had to use Alamo’s toll transponder for 24 hours. It was $4.95 rental fee for every 24 hours I used it. Then, it added on the tolls. The 24 hours would have cost me $6.33, if I used my own transponder. I paid in excess of $16!

I just need to remember to take off the transponder when I return the car!

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That’s the hard part. DH (and the husband half of the couple we were with) forgot that last Dec when they dropped us wives at the cruise ship. I feel bad for not reminding him before I got out of the car! We, too, live in a state without toll roads.

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This is one factor in why I’m not going to bother. $16 isn’t that bad for one trip when I only rent a car every ten years and don’t drive in a state with tolls that I could use a long term pass in. (I would probably pay even more for the convenience, but don’t tell the rental car companies. :shushing_face: :rofl:)

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:astonished: So sorry to hear this!

My friend taught me to use lists and alarms on my phone. Those help me remember stuff better.

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It’s not too big of a loss. We originally got that portable transponder in 2019 when we declared “the year of Disney,” got APs for the first time, and drove to WDW three times - then Covid hit and things shut down. We quit driving to FL, and started driving to AZ for the winter. We got a Kansas K-Tag sticker. Now the K-Tag works in FL and all those other eastern states, so we don’t need to use the FL one if we drive - but that Dec trip we flew to FL and rented a car. We figured we’d bring our FL one to use, which worked great! But now it’s gone, oh well. We have just a few dollars balance still in that FL account.

I know how to do alarms, but not lists on my phone. Not yet, but it sounds like something I should learn.

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