Forums Forums Street News Mersey Tunnel Tag deposit

Hello folks,

When you applied for your Mersey Tunnel tags (especially the old bulky model), did you have to pay a deposit for it?

When I got mine in 2010 I seem to recall having to pay £10.

There was a minimum starting balance to get the tag but no deposit iirc. In fact it might have been a minimum monthly payment but you could put it on hold whenever you wanted, I think you had to phone up at first before they got online management working fully.

We have gone a backward step using registration numbers, I used to drive a lot of different vehicles through the tunnel on my tag, now if I had to do it I would have to faff around and enter registration numbers onto my account.

I pay £10 a month which I think is the minimum payment. I don't use anything like that, so it builds up in my account.

Every so often I send them an email requesting a refund which they pay back into my bank account.

I don't recall having to pay a deposit.

The physical tag has been superseded by ANPR now and is no longer necessary and they should be handed in at the tunnel. The ANPR system checks your number plate and if it recognises you it will open the gate and debit your account.

Big brother is alive and well and watching you from the Fast Tag offices!

You don’t need to pay anything into your account on a monthly basis for the account to stay active.

I also don’t like the fact that I have to give up my fastag and register a number plate as I also use different vehicles.

I think I'll keep my tag for now. ANPR wasn't working properly on Sunday, had to dig the tag out of the glovebox.

I think they are switching the tag system off this year. I also still keep my tag just in case, I've still got my previous tag but they have disabled that system even though it was much better at reading the tags

If you come in on an angle (eg after a lane swap) the ANPR doesn't always work but its always read ok when I've been fully lined up.

Generally it appears to work well and has certainly improved traffic flow which it needs to do for when they reduce the size of the Birkenhead approach area. I still don't understand the plethora of people that don't have an account despite being frequent users.

So far it has never failed for me, touch wood.


If you have more than one vehicle they will happily register, free, the number plates to the same account so you can drive any of them through.

When we had two cars they supplied two fast tags quite happily. I don't recall having to pay for either, but if I did, it wasn't enough to remember.

ANPR on the T flow failed again Tuesday morning. Didn't tailgate a car in front, number plate clear and visible.

Luckily I still had the tag otherwise I'd have had to pay full price and then mess about trying to get my money back.

Maybe that's their plan ?