Not trying to be antagonizing but "new to p99" or returning to p99?
Guess it's irrelevant either way.
As far as a 50-60's carrying around the plat to pay for ports I don't find it to be a hassle at all. Certainly it's much less of a hassle to carry around 200 plat and a stack of peridots (what I carry) than it is to run to my destination, find a random druid/wiz that isn't actively porting, or the other options. That is 6 ports at 60 a pop with ~40 plat left over, I always make it back by the bank before I'm out of port funds.
I would say 99% of time it takes less than 3-5 min from my /who all dial to my arrival at my destination. I value my time so that's worth a premium to me. Thankful to have the service.