Illinois Tollway

[Woosch]

A few days ago I received an invoice for missed tolls in Illinois. I did go through there in August and passed through three states that day using the toll roads in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Illinois is the only state that I got any kind of bill from. I am not opposed to paying the missed tolls but there is a fee of $9.00 per missed toll and I had three of them. (one toll was for $1.45)
My question for anyone who might know is if there any way to get these fees waved? Im sure I missed something but the booths were unmanned. Ive called and was on hold and left a number to get called back twice. Not a peep.

[GetawA-S]

Do you have IPass or EZPass? Is your plate information up to date? The toll booths use cameras to verify that the vehicle is not using a stolen transponder.
If you don’t, you may have seen a sign, “Missed toll? Cal XXX-XXXX” It’s up to you to call! No free-loaders in this digital age!
That said, the Illinois people will probably cut you a break if you have credit card in hand and are patient enough to keep calling.
If it’s any consolation, I made the effort to pay tolls around London, England and Dublin, Ireland, and still got smacked for major penalties. Their systems don’t work well, and there’s no person at the end of a phone line to make an adjustment.

[oldenavy]

I went through there last summer and my VA EZ pass worked, no problem.

It could be worse. A friend of mine had his EZ pass transponder die on him and didn’t know it. He took the Dulles Greenway in northern VA to work every day for two weeks. They charged him $100 fine each time he used it. They would not back down on the fines, but his company took care of him.

Good luck getting the penalties taken off.

[richard5933]

Illinois is actually one of the easier states with regard to missed tolls. Every toll you pass is numbered... Just keep track of which you go through and then you can pay online using their website. If you don't catch the numbers there is a way to figure it out there as well. You have seven days to pay before anything happens.

[drmox]

They are not currently manning the toll booths due to the pandemic. There are signs posted with the website for you to pay the toll if you don't have an iPass transponder. Not sure how you're supposed to see the sign, get the website, and pay the toll on your phone while driving at highway speeds, but that's the plan.

[drmox]

You can:
1. Just pay the invoice, and make your charitable contribution to the Illinois Tollway Workers Pension Fund.
2. Call, leave messages, and send emails, burning up more than a few of your precious man-hours. Ultimately give up out of frustration, and then pay the tolls and fees.
3. Blow it off until you get another invoice for the tolls, fees, and a violation notice, which will probably add up to something north of $100.

[DCPAS]

This won't help the OP, but we downloaded the Illinois tollway app when we realized that our route included its tollways and that our local tollway pass did not work there. You start the app, enable tracking, and pay from the app. Very easy.

[gypsydad]

I have done this and it can become very costly if you don't take care of it. In CA, I received a bill one time for $90 for a $2.00 toll, 4 months after I was there on business...they routed the bill to a collection agency in Montana. I ended up having to pay. Another time however, think it was Denver toll for around $10; It had only been a week or so when I received the bill, I called and they allowed me to pay the toll with a small service charge. I would try to call them and see what they will allow.

[Dennis C]

I drove through multiple Illinois Tollway locations in September, and as mentioned above, the booths were unmanned. I went online and set up an account with Illinois Tollway, and they charged my credit card about 45 days later for the tolls. It was pretty simple, and I didn't have any fees for missed tolls.

[jeffmc306]

John, I agree with the other suggestions to pay since the $9 fee is reasonable compared to the $100 from other states. They do make it easy to pay missed tolls online or with the app but you can’t blow it off anymore.

I got a speed camera ticket in the mail from the City of Chicago. Problem is I wasn’t in Chicago on that day. They included photos as proof. The car had a salt-covered license plate and the number was close to mine. I wrote to protest since I drove a red VW Alltrack and the car in the photo was a silver Dodge Dart.

They said it was a “first warning” and therefore no action would be taken. Next time my license plates came up for renewal I got new ones!

[Rich W]

I went through there a couple of times this year. I saw the signs and just went to the website. I waited a week, then searched for my plate. I think it was there in 5 days the first time and maybe 7 days the second time. Easy peasy.

https://www.illinoistollway.com/unpaid-tolls

[featherbedder]

Chgo is notorious for bogus tickets. A few yrs ago I rec. in mail many parking tickets numerous locations w/threats of losing dr.lic. because not paying, only prob. I or no else drove into Chgo. I had no reason to as I worked commuters into Chg. & wife worked in Aurora Il. I contacted ast. DA our county that is friend of wife & I, all tickets voided. Ast. Da said happens all the time in Chgo to scam for revenue . Tickets all had dates that we were both working not driving.



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[richard5933]

Originally Posted by drmox

They are not currently manning the toll booths due to the pandemic. There are signs posted with the website for you to pay the toll if you don't have an iPass transponder. Not sure how you're supposed to see the sign, get the website, and pay the toll on your phone while driving at highway speeds, but that's the plan.

They give you 7 days to do this. No one is expecting you to pay the tolls while underway. Like others have said, it's relatively easy, especially as compared to other states.

[Woosch]

Well, Ive been waiting on the phone this morning to no avail. Looks like I need to go with DRMOX option 1! This is too frustrating.
No toll roads were I live but they are coming soon. I will need to be smarter next time I go through.

[Hittenstiehl]

Woody

It is annoying when in parts of the country one is not familiar with but it's part of the adventure of traveling.

Surely you didn't think it was just a free pass for all.

This also happens to us in California on occasion. Like a previous poster said, when we get home we give it a few days and then go on the website and search for our plate and pay the fee.

[djb75]

If I read this correctly, you are on the hook for $27 in fees. How much is your time/sanity worth to you? If it's more than minimum wage, I'd just pay the fees and move on.

[Rich W]

Originally Posted by Woosch

Well, Ive been waiting on the phone this morning to no avail. Looks like I need to go with DRMOX option 1! This is too frustrating.
No toll roads were I live but they are coming soon. I will need to be smarter next time I go through.

I visited family and friends in Dallas/Plano the summer of 2016 ago. No toll booths, it's all cameras and they send you a bill in the mail. For running around town in the SUV it wasn't too bad, but the bill for taking my AS into and out of the area was pretty high. Total bill for 6 day visit was $72.87, most of which was for the AS. Next time we'll go in by US 82 instead of the George Bu$h Turnpike, I-635.

You can set your GPS to avoid toll roads but sometimes it's just not worth it. If going to a heavily populated area use Google Maps to scout for toll roads and alternates.

[featherbedder]

Il.tollway was paid off long time ago then was supposed to be free of tolls, dream on, never going to happen. Big plus Il. tollways are in excellent condition daily maint. also good so money generated by tolls doing good things, lots better than free roads in US even interstates very poor condition. That is better than lottery system in Il. was supposed to be for EDUCATION , wrong put in ed fund then transferred to general then moneys up for grabs w/education being on short end of stick.

[n2916s]

Latest scam in Florida is adding “Express Lanes” to the Interstates. The poor folks stuck in traffic, the moneyed cruising by at 70.

The justification is that it will reduce traffic for everyone. Yeah, right.

[Wayne&Sam]

For future travels get an easy pass or whatever your local version is.