PA Turnpike takes credit cards, but prefers you don’t use the option

Have you ever been that person on the turnpike? You know the one. The person who is holding up the line because he or she forgot cash, ran out of money on a road trip or took a wrong turn that costs a toll.

Motorists can now breathe easy – the Pennsylvania Turnpike accepts credit cards at all toll booths, Carl DeFebo, director of public relations and marketing for the turnpike said, Philly.com reported.

The Turnpike Commission actually made credit an option last month, but it forewent the fanfare.

“We’ve been discussing this for some time now,” DeFebo told The Incline. “It’s not going to be the preferred method of payment.”

Credit cards are a backup method in case a driver doesn’t have cash, DeFebo stressed; cash or E-ZPass are still what PA wants.

Toll violations account for $12 million to $20 million per year, according to the auditor general, and “failing to meet the Commission’s unrealistic traffic and revenue projections could contribute to a financial and statewide transportation crisis in the next seven years.”

DeFebo said the audit had nothing to do with the new payment option. People who speed through E-Z Pass lanes on purpose are more of a problem than people who forget their wallet at home, Philly.com reported. Most people without cash, DeFebo said, pull into a cash only lane and wait for their Certificate of Passage – an IOU – but that isn’t a guarantee of payment.

“It’s making our customers’ lives easier,” he said, according The Incline.

But the take away point DeFebo would like travelers to remember, Philly.com reported: “The credit card really is not a preferred payment method.”