– This is some trickery. Simply bullshit! Bjørn Heiberg is almost 90 years old and on his way to the cabin at Vikersetra in Buskerud to chop wood and experience the autumn mountain. To get there, he has to pass an automatic barrier. Inside the forest is the camera, which records everyone who drives past. It costs NOK 100 for each pass. But as a cabin owner, Bjørn only has to pay NOK 70. A camera records all cars entering and exiting the toll road. Finter operates 400 such facilities throughout the country. Photo: Snorre Tønset If he does not pay within 48 hours, he will be sent an invoice with up to NOK 79 in fees in addition to the price for passing the tollbooth. Until this summer, Bjørn had a good solution to this. He had registered his bank card with Finter, so that all passes were deducted automatically, without charge. – It was absolutely excellent, says the 88-year-old. – But then there was a new solution? – Yes, and it wasn’t excellent. Fee to avoid fees At the beginning of June, Bjørn Heiberg and the other registered users received a letter from Finter. In order to keep the automatic deduction on payment cards, users had to take out a subscription, called “Youpark Pluss”, within ten days. Finter would have to pay NOK 39 a month in fees for that, or NOK 468 a year. If not, the user’s card was deleted from the user profile. FEE: In June, Bjørn Heiberg received a letter stating that he now had to pay a monthly fee to have toll tax automatically deducted from his bank card. Photo: Snorre Tønset Bjørn is at the cabin a few times a year and did not accept this. – What I react to the most is that in order to be allowed to pay toll fees of NOK 70 free of charge, I have to pay NOK 468 a year. When Bjørn came home from holiday, there was an invoice in the post from Finter for NOK 179. NOK 100 for the toll passage and NOK 79 in invoice fee. – It’s greedy. Simply greedy, says Bjørn, who contacted the Consumer Council about the matter. He wasn’t the only one. The bill from the toll company was NOK 179. NOK 100 in road tax and NOK 79 in invoice fee. Photo: Snorre Tønset Technology company of the year Finter collects money with automatic sign recognition on over 400 private toll roads in this country. Last year, the company was named the country’s fastest growing technology company. The Consumer Council has produced a report on companies that have the collection of fees as an important part of their business model. Finter is one of the worst, according to the consumer watchdog. Director Inger Lise Blyverket in the Consumer Council believes that the conditions of the toll company Finter are both unreasonable and illegal. Photo: Snorre Tønset – There has been an explosive growth in inquiries about this particular company since last summer, says Inger Lise Blyverket, director of the Consumer Council. The inquiries about Finter have been about everything from the size of the fee, to constantly new solutions for collection, that payment cards have been deleted, the short payment deadline of 48 hours and that the company sends one invoice with one fee for each and every pass, instead of sending a consolidated invoice. – In sum, this means that consumers are tricked into paying far more than the toll crossing itself costs, says Blyverket. The Consumer Council believes that the requirement for a subscription and fee for registering a bank card is unreasonable and that the invoice fee you receive when paying after 48 hours is illegally high. – It is actually not allowed to get paid so well. The law specifies this emphatically. You cannot charge more than it costs to issue the bill, and then we know that it is somewhere between NOK 5 and 10, says Blyverket. NO: Finter CEO Magnus Pedersen says no to appearing for an interview, but disagrees with the criticism from the Consumer Council and dissatisfied users of the toll roads where the company has camera registration of passings. Photo: Deloitte This is Finter The Trondheim company Finter operates both parking and toll roads through Youpark and Norgesbom, built on a system with automatic sign recognition. The company operates over 400 barrier systems on private forest and saddle roads in Norway. They state that they have over 10 million passes each year at their facilities. Common to all is that you must pay the toll within 48 hours. In June 2023, the company began charging a monthly fee of NOK 39 to register a bank card. Instead, they offer to send a payment link via SMS or email, which must be used within 48 hours. – This is a market we didn’t know existed, founder and principal owner Ulf Reidar Pedersen told Dagens Næringsliv last year. Complaint to the Consumer Protection Authority When Finter changed the payment system this summer, users were offered a new, free payment method. Registered users could receive a payment link via SMS or email. Not everyone thinks it worked well. Sonja Sjølie is among those who have complained about the company Finter. Photo: Geir Ingar Egeland Dissatisfied reviews have flowed in on the Trustpilot website. Almost all give Youpark and Finter a low rating – one out of five possible stars. Sonja Sjølie (48) is one of those who have complained, after she had been to the cabin in Rendalen. – I received two invoices in the post – each with NOK 79 in invoice fees. The toll crossings themselves cost NOK 62, she says. EXPENSIVE: It can be expensive not to pay the toll fee to Finter within 48 hours. They charge NOK 79 to send you an invoice, Photo: Geir Ingar Egeland She says that the company never sent her a payment link. According to Finter, it was because she had not linked the payment card to the car number on her account. Sjølie herself has complained about Finter to the Norwegian Consumer Protection Authority. She hopes the legislator can clarify the law and put a cap on how much can be charged in invoice fees. – It must be made absolutely clear to everyone in society that it is not possible to demand invoice fees according to the whims of the imagination, says Sjølie. An old Nokia On Vikerfjellet, Bjørn Heiberg has arrived at the cabin – without electricity or running water. He knows about the solution with a payment link via SMS, but he cannot use it. He must then have a smartphone or internet in the cabin. He doesn’t have that. NO LINK: Bjørn Heiberg’s old Nokia phone works for making calls, but not for receiving and using the payment link on the toll road. Photo: Snorre Tønset – It might work perfectly for those who are younger, says the 88-year-old. He pulls out a very well-used Nokia phone of unknown vintage from his pocket. – You can’t receive a payment link on it? – No I do not think so. I do not know. I’m not that digital, says the 88-year-old. He still gets to the cabin free of charge this day. But only if the daughter remembers to pay within 48 hours. It is she who gets the payment link on her smartphone when he uses the road. – Trist Finter does not want to be interviewed by news. Managing director Magnus Pedersen writes in an e-mail that their toll solutions play an important role in the road authorities’ financing of road maintenance. There is a lot of text on the information signs at Finter’s toll station on Vikerfjellet. But it does not say that you have to pay a fee to register a bank card – to avoid fees. Photo: Snorre Tønset He further writes that nine out of ten users pass their barriers without incurring an extra fee, and that this shows that there are fee-free alternatives that users understand how to use. Pedersen thinks it is sad that some people are reacting negatively to the changes this summer. He writes that the restructuring has led to lower fees, fewer invoices and a 90 per cent reduction in rejected card transactions. He disagrees that the invoice fee is illegal. – The administration fee covers costs for issuing and recovering unpaid claims, storing documentation on passing and identification of the vehicle’s owner and invoice address, writes Pedersen in an email. Read the full response from Finter General manager Magnus Pedersen writes this in response to the criticism of the company: “Finter currently handles the collection of tolls at over 400 locations in Norway based on video technology and license plate recognition. Our toll solutions play an important role in the road authorities’ financing of road maintenance and help to keep roads up throughout the country. Nine out of ten who pass at our 400 or so toll roads in Norway pass without incurring an extra fee. This shows that free payment options are available and that users understand how to use them. This year, over 50,000 users buy clip cards, single clips or subscriptions in advance, and it has also not been among the feedback that internet access is an obstacle to obtaining an appropriate payment solution. The updated payment solution provides more payment options, increases user control and significantly reduces sources of error, such as rejection of expired payment cards. We register that the Consumer Council has a different view of fee levels than we do. Our fees cannot be compared with an ordinary invoice to a known debtor because invoice payment involves expensive processes with video documentation and obtaining owner information. In addition, we launched the industry’s lowest invoice fee for known debtors of NOK 35 this summer. The result of the change is a lower proportion of invoices, lower fees, a 90% reduction in rejected card transactions and the near elimination of disputed charges. It is a clear improvement that users can now get in touch before the payment card is charged, and before the video documentation has to be deleted in accordance with GDPR. We think it is sad that some react negatively to the change, but we believe that consumer demands for increased control will mean that more players will embrace this type of solution in the future.”
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Toll company charges NOK 468 in fees so that users don’t have to forget tolls – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
