3. Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
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Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
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Not me. I have auto pay set up.

But an inexperienced driver from East London, drove to hyde park (west London). We all drive in a big group with our families there. And mmost of us knew how to avoid the czone. One party was not sure - new driver, not aware of geography, just follow the satnav type of person. So for the sake of avoiding a PCN they paid £15. There is no way of knowing if you entered the czone or not if you dont have an autopay account. We all suspected he probably didn't but put it to him that if he's not sure if he's gone in or not, he should probably pay. 

We suspect its more likely he didnt cross into the zone. Is this charge reclaimable?


Similarly when the silvertown toll first opened, the same driver  ::) drove through the tunnel to pick up his teenage daughter from a concert at the 02. It was all new so nobody really knew the precise timing of the tolls. This was in its infancy, after reviewing a day later, and checking the hours of enforcement, it turns out they went through after 10pm so it was toll free then. But they paid for 2 trips @£4, total of £8 when they owed nothing.

It seems absurd that with the data and systems they have they dont have any means to just check if you need to pay the toll and just pay what you owe. Instead of guessing and overpaying, because most reasonable people will pay the £10-£15 to avoid a £80 PCN.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2026, 02:27:16 pm by Plywood-Enthusiast »
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #1 on: »
In a word, no.

If you think about it, it would open the floodgates for everyone to put in a claim in the hope their vehicle wasn't detected.

Your comment about the tunnel toll time being unknown makes no sense as you then say it was looked up the next day.

You can reclaim prepaid batches of charges for future days.
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #2 on: »
Quote from: stamfordman on January 07, 2026, 06:19:34 pm
In a word, no.

If you think about it, it would open the floodgates for everyone to put in a claim in the hope their vehicle wasn't detected.

Your comment about the tunnel toll time being unknown makes no sense as you then say it was looked up the next day.

You can reclaim prepaid batches of charges for future days.

next day = next few days. Dont know the exact time. in any case we looked it up after it was paid and turned out that it was toll free. FOr some reason I also assumed it was 24 hours like ulez - because there were all sorts of talk going around whther to make it 24/7 peak time and everything inbetweem.

They paid over the phone for two crossings that evening. They are not tech savvy so they didnt have a tfl account. Just paid over the phone to the tfl rep.

autopay allows for free crossings with plate not being detected, you just wont be charged. it's not an advantage non-account holders have over account holders. In fact at the moment account holders have that advantage over non-account.

I think its really comes down to nobody is bothered to push for these individuals who possible have paid millions over the years to tfl on charges they werent suppose to pay. Most people who drive close the czone will just register for autopay to avoid being overcharged.

non londers when approaching london will see warnings everywhere, red C with signs "toll charges ahead, pay by x" A lot of people will just pay because they'll see all the warnings and think they may have gone into the zone. These red C warning signs are miles away from the c zone. For non-londoners they will get confused seeing the red C everywhere.
« Last Edit: January 07, 2026, 07:43:23 pm by Plywood-Enthusiast »
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #3 on: »
I'm a non-London dweller, but have an autpay account for TfL and Dartford Crossing just to be sure wherever I go in the area I'm less likely to get clobbered for a PCN.I wonder how many ££millions TfL have on their books in pre-paid deposits?
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #4 on: »
They give you 3 days to pay the charges/tolls so you don't have to pay on the day.

As I said if you've prepaid batches of charges you can get refunds but not for a single day booked in advance.

Every day, many pay for things they don't use. Sometimes you can resell things such as event tickets or get a credit but as I also said there is no way TFL can open the floodgates to claims for unused charges as people will just put in spurious claims hoping they were not detected.
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #5 on: »
Drove into congestion zone, didnt get charged. on autopay.

I dont know how pre-paid batches work. I only know of paying for a specific day or auto pay. My understanding is you have to pay for a specific day and car, there is no way of rolling it forward if that day is not chargable.

I know the dartforward crossing works in pre-paid batches, dont think congestion charge works like that. I could be wrong because I have been on autopay for donkeys years.

Anyway, car is on autopay. Drove in to park to pick up food. Completely lapsed my mind that c zone was chargable (5pm on Saturday).

I was driving around the boundry of czone. there is no parking or ability to stop on red route, so I drove into harper road. I normally have takeaways on evenings, it was dark. Didn't occur to me that czone is active.
google maps link

I just drove in probably 40 or so metres and park on the left. Then I got my takeaway, got in the car and drove forward further up harper road. I realised just before the next set of traffic lights that czone is chargable today. So I did a uturn and drove back out of harper road and onto new kent road again.

It's been a good 1-2 weeks now since the event and the autopay account is not showing any czone charges at all.

So I got away with it as an autopay account holder. If I was not on autopay I would have begrudgingly had to pay the £15/£18 to avoid a PCN.

So at the moment autopay gives you an advantage over non-autopay users. Not the other way round.

£18 is a substantial amount of money - for non-autopay accounts they should be able to tell you if you owe congestion charge or not and pay the fee if you owe it.
« Last Edit: Yesterday at 01:39:43 pm by Plywood-Enthusiast »
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Re: Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?
« Reply #6 on: »
I owe the congestion charge but I want TFL's system to let me get away with it isn't really the reasonable proposition you may feel.
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  3. Is there no way of recliaming overpaid congestion charge and silvertown/blackwall tolls?