Illinois Tollway Illinois toll authority Gouging, grossly punitive, questionable unverifiable facts, confusing to deal with, inflexible Naperville Illinois

Where on earth is it allowed and legal to effectively charge interest rates of 1000% on a missed bill after 7 days!  It gets better, If the customer does not pay within 30 days after the first 7, the fine grows by another 10 times the already engrossed fine.  and and it goes on and on.

A little over two years ago I had a teenage child battling a life threatening illness.  The child was angry and depressed.  My other young adult was angry and depressed.  And I was battling it too.  We were all trying to stay afloat and in some ways we all came out better than expected.  In others, our life was chaos and we are still picking up the pieces.  

In the middle of this crisis my sister was battling a harrowing fight for her life, a blood disease that required a bone marrow transplant.  

There was a lot of chaos.

My kids were driving cars registered to me, and I thank the Lord in their suffering and anger that the worst thing they did with those cars was rack up toll bills. 

I was beside myself, supporting them both With no financial help from their father --- with one starting college, another costing hundreds  a month in medical bills and a job I desperately needed to be successful at to get us through it all that takes 50-60 hours a week. When toll bills started arriving, I at first looked at them, never thinking they would get so out of hand so fast----when things got completely out of control and I had have a child in a hospital setting long term there were certain things I just couldn't deal with.  

As things began to improve and I began to dig myself out of the large pile of bills accumulated I asked for a payment plan from the toll authority.  They said no, that the plan is always to pay In full.   I had to set it down a little longer before coming back to this because I couldn't afford the $5000 plus they told me I owed. 

In January of this year I decided to spend my bonus on getting out from under this. I went by the offices in hopes of talking to a human and working the 5,000 down And getting a payment plan.  She told me there were no negotiations, and no payment plans but I could fill out paper work and to appeal.  The paper work I was given was several pages asking for every detail of my finances.  The writing was on the wall as I know a young single  man who makes half of what I do who did get some relief but only by threatening to file bankruptcy and not pay them at all. 

I called a couple weeks later to try to pay that bill only to be told it was in collections.  I called collections and was told I had a $15000 balance.  I had asked at the tollway authority if the amount she had shown me was everything and she had said yes.  So here I am freaking out at a now tripled prospect.

With much negotiation I was able to get that bill down to $8000.  I paid it dividing it between credit cards and depleting my Emergency fund. 

I thought I was free and clear.  I was told some notices may still come in the next couple of weeks until the toll authority understood all was paid via collections.  I asked for something in writing and was told my credit card bills would serve as receipt.  I asked for specifics for what tolls on what days I was paying.  This couldn't be provided. 

A month or so later when notices kept coming I found out that wasn't all (supposedly) .  I had more that hadn't as yet been sent to collections to the tune of another $1500.  I asked if I could have a payment plan and was told no.  I made a $300 payment hoping it would buy me some grace.  It did not. 

Shortly after I started receiving some collection notices from a different collector.  the notices indicated I owed another 600 or so.  I called to find out there were two accounts each around $2000!  I asked the dates of the offenses.  They can't produce a list of course but could give me a range.  Some of these went back 2 years.  I asked how this wasn't included in my last negotiation and was told this is a different collection agency. We don't know.

Now I don't know either, right. There is no way to verify which things I paid already to match up and ensure these are not duplicates.  But if they are not paid, the fines keep a growing and they can petition to take my license away.  

This credit agency claims the tollway will only allow a 20% discount so I take it.  

Incidentally inrecently took a loan on my 401k to start a bathroom project.  I live in a 50 year old home and my main bathroom is 30 years old with tiles buckling like crazy.  There goes my bathroom. 

It now gets better and more interesting.

I drive a company car.  In the midst do talking to this lady at the collections agency, she mentions a license plate that I actually drive.  My company car.  Through all this tollway stuff I have grown untrusting of the IPass.  I drive a lot.  I religiously go through the toll booths and pay away.  the toll workers in a couple of spots "know" me.  I don't miss a toll.

i go on liine to see what is up there and it shows several violations on my car.  They won't take payment from me because the car is registered to the leasing company.  I obtained an affidavit from the leasing company today stating that I can pay for this.  I will be dealing with another $1800 bill tomorrow for what looks like 4 or so tolls.  I don't believe I did it.  

If you live in. Illinois, watch your back in all things. If you don't, I wouldn't recommend living here.