Illinois Tollway Chicago - Secretary of States office Received a fine equal to 5,440% of original Toll amount. Moved addresses and did not receive any type of notification Chicago Illinois

 I stopped by my former landlords building to see if I had any old mail last Friday, 7/20/2013.  In the small stack, was one notification from the Illinois Tollway informing me that I would have owed $611 in fees if I had paid between 4/12/13 and 4/26/13, after that window, the fees I owe jumped to $2,011.60.  This all stemming from approximately 10 tollway violations (driving through the IPass lane without having an IPass) throughout the month of February.  The original toll amounts (with the immediate penalties applied) came out to about $50 I owed.  2 MONTHS LATER, that $50 had turned into $2,011. Not to mention, you don't actually receive a violation notice until 45 days after the violation occurred.

So, my violation occurred in late February, I WOULD HAVE received this notice April 12 (Having already accrued $611 in fees) and then 14 days later the amount I owed jumped to $2,011!!! That is a leap of 229% from the already outrageous jump of 1220% from the initial amount owed. THE CARTEL WOULD TREAT YOU MORE FAIRLY THAN THIS!!!  The frosting on the cake is that I knew I had gone through the tolls, so after my move (and million other things going on in my life right now) I went onto the Illinois tollway website to pay my missed tolls in early March.  This system requires you to essentially guess how much you owe (unless you have a photographic memory) I thought I paid enough, but apparently not because the Illinois Tollway takes 45 days to process any and all violations and they do not notify you of this on the site. 

Then, on that same day in early March, I opened an  IPASS account WITH MY CURRENT ADDRESS and EMAIL ACCOUNT to avoid further issues.  My IPass account has an automatic refill linked to my checking account.  The Illinois Tollway had my current address, had my email, had my phone number, but I received no notification.  The Illinois Tollway also has a "timeline" on their site that shows what the due process for violation notifications.  There were supposed to be 3 notifications sent before a credit agency was notified (I received 1), then there were supposed to be 4 phone calls (I received 0).

The debt I owe was already up to $2,777 by the time I received the old mail and it had been sold to a credit agency, who I now owe.  I am going to have to sell my car to pay for this (also have a wedding to pay for next month).  I guess I'll find time to do that in between working 75 hours a week, studying and taking the CPA exam and dealing with my father’s bi-weekly trips to the Emergency room. THANKS ILLINOIS!

The amount of money that the Illinois Tollway is losing by: A) Not utilizing email and/or telephone in the year 2013 B) Charging absolutely ridiculous penalty fees (interest) and C) Taking no steps whatsoever to actually try and collect/resolve the issue when they have conflicting information (addresses) in their own computer system; has to be at least $100 Million of the $300 Million they have outstanding in unpaid fees.  I would have gladly paid my violations, I'm not a crook (I even tell Chipotle when I have double meat and they didn't realize it).  I am an honest, hardworking individual trying to follow the rules.

Now, I am going to have to sell my car, so that is tax revenue out of Illinois' pocket if I sell out of state.  My credit rating has been hurt, which will prolong the period of time when I will be ablt to buy a house (more tax money out of pocket).  Frankly, I think this is the last straw of getting f**ked by the corrupt state of Illinois (Chicago) and I'm going to move out of this state (goodbye a lifetime of tax revenue).

My missteps in this case were as followed:

1) Drove through IPass lane because I didn't have proper change for automated lanes.

2) Paid the incorrect amount on the website because my complete list of violations had not been updated (45 day processing time by Illinois Tollway)

3) Not notifying the Secretary of States office of my new address, prior to these violations occuring.