500 signatures reached
To: The Illinois State House, The Illinois State Senate, and Governor J.B. Pritzker
Stop Illinois Tollway from charging outrageous fines for missed tolls
Many tollway users experience fines starting at $20.00 dollars per missed toll that add up quickly. Eventually those unpaid fines lead to law offices placing hundreds of dollars into collections, affecting your credit score with threats of suspending your driver's license amongst other things.
Why is this important?
I personally have had multiple fines during a time period that I did not realize my EZ Pass was not activitated. The only notification I received was the multiple fines adding up to over $300+ dollars at once. The only way to work out a payment plan, I was told, was to wait put in for a hardship payment plan. If you are not able to pay that right away, they send your balance over to a law offices. Eventually such fines, when coupled with additional fees from the law office of Arnold Scott Harris in Chicago, left me with a $7,000.00 bill. I am not the only one affected by these outrageous fines. I have heard multiple stories from friends who have had surprise charges sent to them by mail weeks after missing a toll when unaware that their I-Pass or EZ-Pass wasn't activated. I want the tollway to stop this insane practice and begin lowering fines first. There needs to be a payment plan option as well listed on the website so that users never have to face their credit rating being dropped because of unfair collections processes.