Tolls in Portugal: New online facilities and green cards

Lately, taking the car and crossing the border into neighbouring Portugal, has not exactly been an easy task. First came the tolls introduced on the former public motorways and their complicated payment system for foreigners, and now the problems in the north of Portugal with insurance and green cards.

Let’s take things one at a time. The first thing to highlight is that, according to a statement from the Eixo Atlántico, it is now easier to pay the tolls on Portuguese motorways online which has been set up for this purpose, as well as having a complete user guide covering the different payment methods.

From this website (http://www.portugaltolls.com/es/web/portal-de-portagens/home), the various payment options available to those who wish to use Portuguese motorways in a fully legal way are explained in Spanish. It is also worth noting that several VISA payment points have been installed, where, before starting the journey, we pass through a kind of cash machine that reads the car’s registration plate and our card, and then charges us for the use of the Portuguese motorways made that day.

It is a small step towards solving the problem of tolls in Portugal, but the ideal would be to adapt our electronic toll system (the device is identical to the Portuguese one) so that we could pay as if we were on a Spanish motorway.

Be careful in the north with the insurance Green Card

According to several local media outlets, in January there were certain problems in the border towns of northern Portugal over the insurance Green Card. This document is a certificate that proves a vehicle’s insurance is valid internationally, but under the new European regulations it is no longer mandatory.

Either some officers are acting on their own initiative or the agents of the Republican National Guard have not been informed, and several Spanish vehicles have been fined for lacking a Green Card and not accepting the bank receipt as proof of insurance, a fine that entails immediate payment of a 200-euro penalty or the impounding of the car.

Some people, because the towns are nearby, even walked to the insurance office to request the certificate and returned to Portugal to recover their vehicles. Besides being illegal, these practices do not help improve relations between the two countries or encourage tourism in Portugal.

Via | Europa Press, Faro de Vigo