The extended payment deadline for the Dartford Crossing charge, also known as the Dart Charge, is quickly approaching.

Customers who used the crossing between July 27 and August 14 now have until August 15 to pay the charge if they do not have a Dart Charge account.

However, those who already have an account have until August 31 to update their card details to revalidate their cards.

Typically, standard procedure is that the Dart Charge needs to be paid by midnight the day after crossing the bridge.

Failure to pay on time may result in a fine.

The payment deadline has been temporarily extended due to delays in the service following a period when the website was down.

Customers were unable to access the Dart Charge website from Friday, July 28 until Sunday, July 30 and faced further issues following this due to the amount of people trying to log in.

Long queues were reported both online and via phone causing further delays in paying the tolls.

Since then, people uncovered further issues following the maintenance including being unable to re-validate cards, account balances being wiped, journeys not being recorded, and local resident permits being removed.

A spokesperson for Dart Charge said: “The websites and customer contact centres are all operating. We apologise for the service issues users have faced over the last few days and have implemented service improvements.

“While customers may still experience short delays, the average online wait time is now less than 5 minutes.

“We have further extended payment deadlines to ensure everyone has sufficient time to pay the charge.

“@DartCharge account holders have until 31 August to update their card details on the website.

“Non-account holders who use the crossing between 27 July and 14 August have until 15 August to pay the charge.”

“We apologise again for the inconvenience, which was due to essential system updates.”