ESGN

Just had a nice £60/£120 congestion charge fine land on my doorstep from a recent trip down to London.

If I'd known I was in a congestion charge area then I'd have obviously paid but didnt even realise that I'd gone into a CC area and dont know how you are supposed to pay it in the first place...are there signs with phone numbers to ring or something when you enter these areas as I was simply following Tomtom and trying not to get lost?!

They must be making an absolute fortune off drivers like me who live outside of London and dont know anything about CC charges. Read the documents and doesnt seem to be anyway out of this and pleading ignorance wouldnt really stand up in court.

Any advise on this or general information on how to pay CC charges for next time please?

Dedrater

Didn't you notice the massive C printed in white on the roads you were traveling? You need to pay £8 for each day between 7am and 6pmnot including weekends.

Edit:

Mog

A bit harsh that, its all to easy to miss the signs when concentrating on the road/sat nav/A-Z....been there and done it, especially after a hard day you forget about the charge and the 12pm dead line for paying.

Mog

Ant

your sat nav should tell you that your in a toll section, well mine does in london anyway

dpb

I reckon its got to be fine too - how else is Boris going to pay for upkeeping his country estates

greatgonzo

iTrader: (1)

I travel to London a lot and still forget to pay sometimes its a right pain in the ****
The best way to pay is by text but you have to set it up with some dick on the phone. once done it only takes a couple of seconds.
Sometimes im not sure if iv gone through the charge area or not but can not take the risk so I end up paying any way.

bugeyeandy

Universally hated by locals and visitors alike, this charge is purely a tax on the motorist. Anyway, next time go here to pay up

Pay online | Transport for London

It's a rip off and the large "C" painted in the road means nothing to people who don't know London. I feel for you mate, I too have had to pay it before just in case as you can't find out if you've strayed into the zone during the day.

I wouldn't try and dodge the fare either, they're like rabid dogs when they chase people for their payments

ESGN

Nope. Unfortunately I was too busy keeping a close eye on Tomtom and the crazy London taxi drivers cutting everyone up to notice. After 3 hours on the motorway and being stuck in traffic jams my brain was a bit numb tbh.

When I set off it did tell me my location was on a toll road but thought it was must be tripping...if it had said "CONGESTION CHARGE AREA" then it may have rang some alarm bells in my head! lol

Obviously I've got no choice but to pay this fine, but it would be nice for them to display more info about the CC including how to pay if you are in an area. I'm still none the wiser over what number I should have called other than its £8.

Real pisstake is that I didnt enter the zone until 4:51pm, had a quick meeting and was out of there by 7pm. I thought the £5 parking was bad enough! lol

Leslie

What is the point of painting a large C everywhere if those who dont live or work in London don't know what it means? It should be made clear everywhere on the boundaries of the area.

Les

ESGN

I honestly think they dont want ppl outside of London to know how to pay the charges...at the end of the day, stitchin ppl up for £60 is a lot more profitable than £8!

I know I'm not the only who thinks the signage and info for non-Londoners is **** poor to non-existent. Even if I did spot the big "C" on the floor, I still wouldnt know how to pay without asking a local.

Off to make a pointless complaint before paying this stupid fine now

edit:
They only have a number for automated fine payments on the 6 page document they sent me. Typical!

Mitchy260

To be fair buddy, it would appear that even if they had barriers where you were required to press a button you probably still would not have realised

And in all honesty, this has been heavily publicised so as soon as you knew you were going into London by car, alarm bells should have been ringing about congestion charges.

There were probably hundreds of signs, big C's in the road and your tom tom going nuts.

Slap yourself on the back of the head and pay the fine for being silly

ESGN

Cheers Mitch!

Paid the fine. Robbing cockney *******s (company is actually from Coventry to be fair...fcukin ****hole).