It wasn’t until recently, when I was hosting out-of-town family, that I realized just how confusing San Francisco Bay Area toll crossings in a rental car could be. With that in mind, I’m offering this quick and hopefully easy-to-understand primer on how to avoid rental car surcharges for Bay Area bridge tolls like the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge.
What to know
- In the San Francisco Bay Area, you’ll only ever pay bridge tolls going one way. For the Bay Bridge and Golden Gate Bridge, you pay going into San Francisco. For the other area bridges, Richmond-San Rafael, San Mateo, and Dumbarton all have tolls going westbound; and the Benicia and Carquinez bridges have tolls going northbound.
- Locals use a system called FasTrak that utilizes a little in-car toll tag. Newer Flex toll tags can be set to the number of people in the car to allow for discounted pricing for carpools.
- Most companies’ rental cars have FasTrak, but companies generally levy a “convenience fee” for each toll, meaning you’re paying extra every time.
- By registering your rental car with a Short-Term License Plate Account on the BayAreaFasTrak.org website before (or within 24 hours after) crossing bridges, you can pay the toll directly and skip the rental car company surcharge.
- If you’re staying for longer or want to use the ever-expanding network of toll-based highway express lanes, you can set up an actual FastTrak account (if you already happen to have a Southern California toll roads FasTrak account, you can use it for the Bay Area, too).
How to do it
Visit the Bay Area FasTrak License Plate Accounts page and scroll down to the Short-Term License Plate Account section. Registering gets you a temporary account that will allow you to pay tolls you’ve incurred within 48 hours or cover you for tolls up to 30 days in advance. Note that this type of account is only for bridge tolls, not for express lanes or bridge toll plaza carpool lanes.
You’ll need to know your rental car’s license plate number, so wait until you have the car to set up the short-term account. As you’re setting up your account, you’ll specify your dates and add your payment information.
Once you’re all set up, you can cross bridges by paying directly and won’t need to cover the additional rental car convenience fees for tolls. Yay!
There’s a short video that explains the process and answers questions specific to toll crossings in rental cars.
