French Toll Roads

The Expected Costs When Driving From Nothern to Southern France

The following information has kindly been provided by a visitor to discover-alicante.com. Many thanks to Steve, from Oxford for this detailed information.

This continues on from his highly informative article regarding the Drive to Spain

Over to Steve....................

I was looking into getting one of the Liber-T French tolls tags.

I found that no company would provide a unit without having a Direct Debit facility set up from a French bank account now, which we and I guess most families don't have. However, Sanef now have a UK operation that just provide these units for UK customers and they take payment in Sterling by Direct Debit from your UK bank account.

If you are driving just once a year, apart from the convenience factor it may not be cost effective, but if you are driving a few times or maybe work with close friends it's a great piece of kit.

We normally drive through France to Spain over night, so not having to wake the passenger up to get a toll ticket or pay a toll is absolutely brilliant and what's more you can see exactly what your toll costs were, no lost tickets, etc.

Toll charges are exactly the same as they would be if you paid by cash or credit card, but are converted to Sterling using Sanef's monthly conversion rate, which is about as good as you would get from one of the best foreign exchange outlets.

The costs for this unit are;
-a non-refundable application fee of 10 euros + TVA
-an annual management fee of 6 euros + TVA payable in advance
-a refundable security deposit of 20 euros (no TVA payable) for each Tag issued by Sanef ("Tag Deposit")
Total up front cost, euros 39.14 inc tax but euros 20 is refunded upon the tags return

On-going costs;

In addition to the annual management fee of 10 euros there is a monthly fee of 5 euros for each month you use the unit, but only up to a maximum of 10 euros a year, the fee starts the month you purchase the tag so if you drive two or more times a year it's great for missing the queues and stops the driver having to wake a passenger to pay a toll, all in all a worthwhile investment.

This is a copy of my invoiced toll charges for the trip we made in August;

31/08/2011 23:59 Invoicing Toll Invoice Number SI1108-1515 151.38 (sterling)
31/08/2011 23:59 Fees Monthly Fees -5.98
29/08/2011 Toll A16 23 ABBEVILLE NORD A16 HERQUELINGUE -7.50
29/08/2011 Toll A28 LIMITE ALIS - A28 A28 ROUMOIS -15.90
29/08/2011 Toll A28 ST CHRISTOPHE A28 LIMITE A28-ALIS -11.70
29/08/2011 Toll A10 LIMITE POITIERS A10 TOURS-C/SORIGNY -11.60
29/08/2011 Toll A10 VIRSAC A10 LIMITE POITIERS A10 -19.00
29/08/2011 Toll A63 BENESSE A63 9 ST GEOURS DE MAREMNE -3.20
29/08/2011 Toll A63 LA NEGRESSE A63 BAYONNE -2.20
29/08/2011 Toll A63 1 BIRIATOU A63 3 ST JEAN DE LUZ -1.60
11/08/2011 Toll A63 3 ST JEAN DE LUZ A63 1 BIRIATOU -1.60
11/08/2011 Toll A63 BAYONNE A63 LA NEGRESSE -2.20
11/08/2011 Toll A63 9 ST GEOURS DE MAREMNE A63 BENESSE -3.20
11/08/2011 Toll A10 LIMITE POITIERS A10 A10 VIRSAC -19.00
11/08/2011 Toll A10 TOURS-C/SORIGNY A10 LIMITE POITIERS -11.60
11/08/2011 Toll A28 ROUMOIS A28 LIMITE ALIS - A28 -15.90
11/08/2011 Toll A28 LIMITE A28-ALIS A28 ST CHRISTOPHE -11.70
10/08/2011 Toll A16 HERQUELINGUE A16 23 ABBEVILLE NORD -7.50

You can see the total toll charges for the Rouen - Bordeaux route is 72.70 euros while the Spanish tolls are about 12-15 euros where as I'm sure we paid well over 100-110 euros when we drove via Paris and down to Barcelona.

The web address for Sanef UK is; https://www.saneftolling.co.uk

Many thanks to Steve for taking the time to write this detailed information.

Further information

Spain by Car
Driving To Spain
Spanish Toll Roads
Spanish Motorway Service Stations

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