Illinois Tollway

[MorningGlory]

I want to share our experience with the Illinois Tollway, which we used while we were there for our daughter's PIR 8/16. I had read on here to be careful to pay your tolls within7 days or face a stiff fine, but we were not prepared for their very inefficient system, to say the least. We believe this is a big scam to extract money from unsuspecting travelers and I will be writing to both Illinois and Colorado Congressmen as well as the Illinois Attorney General to express our outrage.

Coming from Colorado, we are accustomed to the toll roads around Denver which are completely unmanned. Since we don't live in Denver nor use it regularly, we don't pay for passes. Instead, we use the license plate toll. Whenever we use the toll, we receive a statement in the mail a few days later with our toll charges and the dates we used it, then we pay the toll either online or through our bank's bill pay. No problem. If you don't pay by the due date, there's a $5 service charge added. Since we have family in Austin, TX, we travel there often as well and their tollway is run exactly the same way.

Not so with Illinois Tollway. Since there are signs that say you can bypass the toll booths and pay online, we were naive enough to think the system would work the same way as Colorado and Texas so we did this. We have never driven to Illinois before, so were completely unfamiliar with the area. We basically just followed directions from our GPS, and paid no attention to the toll both numbers as we went through them. Big mistake. When we got home, I got online to pay the toll within 7 days as instructed, but realized you can't just simply enter your license plate number and get your total! You have to enter the toll booth numbers you went through. They have a toll calculator you can use, but since we were unfamiliar with the area, it was very confusing to try to figure out. I did the best I could, and paid the toll, which was around $7. We remembered most of the toll charges at the booths seemed to be 80 cents, so we thought that was about right.

Now, almost 2 months later, we receive a statement from Illinois Tollway for $107! My husband called and spoke to 2 different people, but neither of them could tell him how much was toll charges and how much was a penalty. Nor could they explain why we were getting charged when we had submitted payment back in August. He got nowhere with them other than to be told they would send him a packet to dispute the charge and it would go to a judge to determine whether or not they would drop the penalty.

I got online to do so research, and searched for Illinois Tollway complaints and what I found was horror story after horror story about similar situations as ours! Some with charges from over $900 to $2,0000! One situation was with a 66 year old woman from out of state who had actually stopped to pay her toll at each booth, and she still received a bill stating she owed hundreds in tolls and penalties. I told my husband, let's just pay the $107 with a check and send it via return receipt and hope for the best.

I hope nothing like this ever happens to anyone coming in for PIR, but it would be very beneficial to keep track of each toll booth you go through, whether you pay the toll with cash, buy an ipass card, or use license plate tolling. We personally have vowed that if we ever to back, we will avoid the toll roads no matter what.

[NausetMom]

Thanks for the heads up.  Not familiar with this type of toll system,

[bizebt]

Thanks for that info. Here in Calif we only have a few around the Bay area and they just went to unmanned ones. Now I am wondering how that works when you rent a vehicle.??

[MorningGlory]

In Colorado you can either purchase a pass through the rental car company, or they will bill the credit card on file once they get the statement from the tollway, but I think they have a surcharge if they do that. So I'm sure the rental car companies in Illinois will be able to tell you.

[proudmom63]

with our rental we were able to figure out ( since it was right after leaving airport) what toll we missed and were able to pay easy enough online. However, we did eventually get a notice requesting payment. Luckily, i had kept the confirmation from my payment AND had taken a picture of the confirmation on my cell phone, too.   was very easy to prove payment was made and resolve the situation.

[lemonelephant]

For others, it is very important to watch the signs when approaching a toll area because the  I-PASS lane is not always in the same locaton for every toll booth so you may find yourself in the I-PASS lane and unable to pay. If that happens, note the location and amount as indicated above and pay as soon as possible.

You can avoid most tolls by using Route 41, it goes all the way to Chicago and will get you from Chicago to RTC and nearby lodging. If you are traveling through Chicago on the way to and from Great Lakes, follow 94 East which merges into Route 41 to avoid toll roads. Your hotel may be able to give you directions to the RTC that will avoid toll roads. See Saving Money PIR Weekend and PIR Day and Liberty During PIR Weekend for other tips to help with the weekend.

[AveryMom]

Yeah, we had heed your advice when we went to our son's PIR Sept. 27th.  Didn't have a issue at all regarding the tolls.  Thank you because we would of been sharing our horror stories about the tolls too.

 

 

[lemonelephant]

You are very welcome.

[Aznavymom]

Omigosh - I'm replying late but I just joined NavyMoms.  I'll be in Great Lakes in four day (11/15) and am from Arizona.  We don't have toll roads at all, so this is very helpful information.  Not to be naive - I don't even know what an I-Pass lane is.  So thanks for lemonelephant's advice.  

[lemonelephant]

:o)