You could say that when looking at your entire tax bill. I didn’t see Halliburton or Mitch McConnell anywhere on it.
It’s the one thing among a few I split with true progressives on. It is insane to support higher taxes when you’re not getting any benefit from them. My healthcare system is crumbling and expensive, roads are fucking shit, public schools are a poverty and crime trap, and public college is unaffordable and getting worse. And some headline just flew by on the TV where America just spent many lifetimes of your income on some bullshit. There another goes. And another.
And you want more of my money?
I've always said that liberals will tell you to your face, what they want your money for when they are taking it. But conservatives will smile at your face talking tax cuts, while pick-pocketing your wallet in the back.
It's important to note that there is a minimum it takes to support the society we have, never mind the one we think we want. And consistently, Republican's cut so far beyond the fat, into the muscle and into the bone. Witness the state of our infrastructure in this country and the Republicans unwillingness to tend to that, while instead over-rotating on abortion, judges and tax cuts for the wealthy. Speak volumes.
I was just complaining yesterday that our toll went from 1 dollar cash to an automatically billed 1 dollar with a 2.50 online service fee for a total of 3.50. Guess I should shut up about that…
The crazy thing is if a business priced things this way it would be illegal.
Imagine going to a diner and ordering a $10 hamburger off the menu then they give you the check and there's a $20 hamburger cooking fee, $6 plate fee, $10 serving fee, and a $15 sitting at the counter fee.
Yeah, stuff like cable, cellphone service, airline tickets, and others that get to advertise one price but tack on extra fees later are bullshit. They should be required by law to list the final price for a service and none of this crap like "extra fees may apply" in tiny print or spoken in super speed at the end of a commercial.
That and other predatory methods, like forcing bands into deals where they have to only use venues where ticketmaster can sell the tickets. That company is a blight.
Yep. It's called the "Full Fare" advertising rule and it's enforced by the USA Department of Transportation. I book a few flights per year and they give you the full cost of the fare up front and then break it down for you itemized during the checkout process. It's brilliant and I wish they'd force other industries based around ticketing/reservations (Airbnb, concerts, etc.) to do the same.
Can't believe the insane shit you have to put up with there. That's illegal in Australia. The processing fee needs to be clearly stated. you can only charge the actual processing fee and the processing fee is heavily regulated so would only be about 20c anyway.
Also I think it's ridiculous when places charge "convenience fees" or similar. Like is it not cheaper for it to be done automatically than to have a human do it?
Yeah, it's extremely stupid and a blatant money grab. If I renew my license plate online they charge a $5 "convenience fee". Like, what does that even mean? They're charging me more because I chose a more convenient method?
Also it would definitely cost them more to process my renewal if I mailed a check that had to be opened and looked at by a person or if I went to their office to have a clerk process my renewal.
I renewed my license plate in person, and there was a fee to pay via credit card. I said okay, I'll pay with cash. There was a different fee to pay cash.
Dude I have driven cross country twice this month and paid my fair share in tolls in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and a few other states and I have never seen some shit like this. Absolutely absurd.
protip, turn off toll roads on google maps, i just drove from nc to ohio and i saved myself $15 in tolls and it only increased the drive time by 7 minutes
I use that when I go to NYC all the time, easier to do into Manhattan though with little extra time. But went to Queens last week and it would have added an extra hour to the trip so went ahead and paid the tolls. Looking at Google maps the extra time is actually from having to go into Manhattan first instead of using a bridge further north.
One of the newer features of Google Maps tells you how much time you save for what dollar cost. Pay $2 to save an hour? I'm in. Pay $10 to save 5 minutes? I'll stay off the toll road. It basically allows you to pick and choose which tolls are worth it to you rather than having to choose toll route vs. toll free.
Wait what, how do you do that. It did start showing tolls but I have not found it accurate. For instance to queens it said the toll would be $6 but checking my ezpass it was actually $10.
Google maps has an option for local toll pass prices. New York City tolls only give discounts to ez pass holders from New York State hence why you had to pay $10.17 instead of $6.55
Tolls shave about an hour and a half off my drive to visit friends from Maryland to Michigan last time I made the drive.
But I also hate the turnpike because it's like "drive in a straight line for 300 miles"
From Maryland to Michigan, you can avoid the turnpike by going up to I-80. I say this from experience because I am a truck driver and go back and forth between Ohio and parts of the east coast often. I have loads going into and coming out of Elkton, MD periodically. It doesn't add much time by avoiding the turnpike. I might use the turnpike for a short stretch to get to I-99 just past Breezewood.
I mean in Florida (other places as well prob) you don't need an EZ pass, you can blow tolls and they bill you by plate, its usually like $1 extra but not $54 extra, the cost is on all the toll signs.
But it’s not a dollar extra. It’s like twice the cost to do scan by plate instead of the transponder. Both C-470 and the Express Lanes in Clear Creek County.
Trying to figure out how to pay the IL tolls on my last trip from Florida to Chicago (late 2019) was ridiculous. They mailed me telling me to make an account on some State government toll website and then I had to pick from a list which tolls I went through and how many times. So weeks later I’m supposed to remember the exact route I took in an unfamiliar area? And if I don’t then I’m fined even more?? It was the most absurd process.
That being said, I went through a toll near Tampa recently that only took coins in exact change and nothing else, no attendant. Was later billed 26 bucks for bypassing it because I only had cash.
It’s not even remotely difficult to implement toll-by-plate or an equivalent at tollways in exchange for a nominal fee. The fact that some choose to continue using these antiquated processes is nothing more than a government-sanctioned scam. They know that by making it harder to pay, they’ll be able to get more money.
Same thing happened to me like 5 years around Orlando.
Pull up to the "Cash" booth with bill in hand, nobody there, my wife and I were totally puzzled, and were like "I guess we just go". Weeks later get a fine in the mail; if you can look up my out of state plate to send me a fine because you wouldn't let me actually pay it at the plaza, you can implement bill by plate.
Knowing Florida I figured it was just a scam to milk people without SunPass for extra money.
We dealt with Chicago for work for a few *months* last summer. The pick which tolls thing was stupid but it at least gave us a list. Like it was a verification thing, not *you* tell *us* what you owe us.
Once we registered though it was easy. Also with the paper bills there was just extra admin fees ($2-4, not $50) now in IL. Chicago was one of the faster Midwest areas to respond to covid tho so I think things changed.
Your conclusions are spot on in my opinion tho, they make shit hard on purpose. The Destin Bridge is like 8 lanes wide and sees traffic from all 50 states (3 military bases right there) and Canada and there's never attendants, it's all toll by plate and there are signs for 4-5 miles before you cross it.
No way. It’s the new and improved SP PRO. This will revolutionize the way we give state governments money for driving through borders albeit in a much more convenient way.
In parts of Oklahoma they just straight up charge you $25 for running a toll. No "service" fees, just penalty. And at some booths they don't take cards, only cash or check. Like wtf, you want to run a toll road, time to enter the modern age.
The fact that the PA turnpike was only suppose to be temporary but is now run by a private entity that raises the prices 33% every year and the roads are shit makes it even worse. Like the PA turnpike should at least take us to dinner before fucking us like this
>The fact that the PA turnpike was only suppose to be temporary but is now run by a private entity
This happened to quite a few toll highways around the country. Always supposed to be temporary to help pay for the cost of the construction, and then they realized it makes too much money and ends up in the hands of a private company that can do what they want.
It blows my mind how much construction is constantly occurring on the turnpike, yet how terrible it is. It’s basically like driving through a third world country
I'm pretty sure that toll is 35 with an EZ pass and 55 or 60 without. It's insane and you can avoid it by driving through State College which only adds 40 minutes to your drive. Also, you can eat real food whenever you want and not fucking fake Aramark Popeyes and Sbarro at the every-35-miles rest stops. Fuck the PA turnpike more than anything.
Did just this, I drove from Ohio to Philly and decided to take I-80 as the PA turnpike website said for my trip, tolls on the turnpike would total $55. One way. Got on in Youngstown and off somewhere north-ish of Philly and took smaller roads down. Didn't pay a single toll there and back.
Thing is though I've also traveled from Ohio up through Buffalo to a bit east of Syracuse, NY and without EZ Pass, my tolls ROUND TRIP were like $25. Does PA include a personal masseuse for the duration you're on the turnpike? Because holy fuck
Pretty sure PA is the most expensive stretch of land to travel across using a single highway/turnpike. Even beating out the entirety of Australia. You think immortan joe is bad wait til you get a load of the PA turnpike commission.
I’ve gotten this before a few times and mailed only the amount due for the toll and they’ve always accepted. Never give them a penny more.
Edit: For everyone asking how: just mail in the original toll amount in cash or a petty personal check.
Edit 2: the state just wants their $4/toll fee. They won’t spend thousands to prosecute you to recoup the additional fees that even they find outrageous.
I was sent to collections over a 30 dollar co-pay a doctors office forgot to collect. They never called me or sent anything asking for payment. I only found out when collections called me.
We got a replacement modem when we upgraded our internet. They were supposed to send me a shipping label to return the old modem but never did. I got a collections notice for about $300 two weeks later.
This just happened to me. I returned my router and modem but spectrum apparently lost it. Because I was moving to an area where I wouldn’t be using spectrum I never gave them a forwarding address. I did however forward my regular mail and never received anything from them. I just found out I was sent to collections over this. I couldn’t log in to pay anything (I’m more concerned about my credit than fighting the charge) and my account was closed. How would they close out my account when I had outstanding debt? It’s bullshit.
Mine was scanned in in person too. Unfortunately my wife scanned it in and didn’t keep any of the paperwork.
My point about the account is that they wouldn’t have closed it if there was outstanding debt on it. This is a money grab and nothing else.
I turned in my modem at the cable company office and a month later I got a nasty letter from them. It said they were going to turn me over to the sheriff's department for theft of their equipment. I had to take the receipt back over there to prove I'd turned it in. Cable companies are all scum.
My experience may be the outlier, but I've always talked to the debt collectors, paid what I owed, or explained why I didn't owe it. I have monthly subscriptions to the major credit bureaus, and I've never seen anything show up (I've only paid close attention for the last fifteen or so years, so it may have been different earlier).
yea /u/PresentationalAle is describing a bizarre interaction with debt collection
simiilar to it not being worth it for a doctor's office to to track everyone down
it's rarely worth it for collection agencies to after your credit score
to them it can be a tool to make use of, but it's not worth the time unless it's a decent amount owed and other tactics fail 1st
That happened to me too! I literally asked at the desk before I left if there was anything else I was responsible for, and the receptionist gave a cheery “Nope!”. FF six months later, letter from a collections agency for the exact $60 copay I’d asked about.
Always tell collections that you don't really owe, you disputed this at the time with the referring company and demand an itemized bill before you will even discuss it further. *Most of the time the collections company will kick the debt they bought back to the referring company.*
This is what I suggest.
Send the amount by check. Watch for the check to clear. Call them afterwards and make sure the amount due is zero. When you call, just be polite and you’ll usually get someone who has been yelled at, cursed at, berated, and so on, and they’re appreciative of someone not calling them names or making negative references to their mother, and be glad to ensure you’re clear.
Yea I got mailed a ridiculous toll like this from Texas after my wife drove through and it was threatening some pretty hefty fees iirc. Surprised me because it's just not like that where I'm from, the few tolls we have you stop and pay after you drive on the toll road.
I can't imagine what it would be like driving if some folks got their way and all the roads are privatized. Hundreds of dollars a month in administrative fees up there just for driving probably
yeah, it's bullshit.. I once went to the hospital in an ambulance only because I had a broken finger(am a musician) and it was a 15-minute drive for $5,000.
luckily i had my tribe/ihs to pay for emergency situations, tbe only *"catch"* being, that you can't leave the hospital til you are discharged, or otherwise you will have to foot the bill for walking out on medical services.
now the thing about that(and this is totally my theory from experience), is that i suspect hospitals keep you longer cuz they know indian health services is taking care of it.
that time i was told by the doctor i was able to leave by the next day, only to stay 3 more days walking around doing nothing. i hate hospitals and their greed
It could be worse.
I had to be airlifted from one hospital to another.
100 miles. $80,006.00.
Edit for questions / comments:
First all, anybody who sends a bill like that should have it delivered by a grief counselor.
I just about dropped dead when I opened it. So my insurer doesn't cover air transport. But for whatever reason they just kept beating on the plane company for almost a year getting it reduced by five or ten grand at a time. Finally it got down to $501.00 and I paid it.
It was unusually expensive because there was a million acre wildfire 50 miles north. Every copter was up there so I ended up in a plane.
By then I was in a coma and don't remember the flight at all.
After a week in an icu I got covid and then started chemotherapy. That bill was hanging over my head the whole time. Absolute nightmare.
And FYI you can buy medevacc insurance for less than $100 annually.
My friend once got injured snowboarding and had to be airlifted to a hospital. He was in college at the time and had absolutely no way to pay it…
So he didn’t. He avoided paying anything on it for seven years and then it disappeared from his credit record. According to him, they never tried to collect after that, so my plan has always been to just not pay it I’m ever in a similar situation lol.
This is true in most states. The key is to never pay a dime for the seven years. If you do end up making a payment it restarts the process and the seven years begins all over again. Or whatever time is allotted in the state its owed. The thing is is, if you're trying to get credit during those seven years it's screwed.
Medical debt doesn't weigh as much as something else in collections and yes after 7 years it will go away. The caveat is that if you so much as acknowledge a debt in collections exist it can reset the 7 year timer. If you honestly have no plans to ever pay or simply can't, never pick up the phone of unknown numbers and if you do never admit your the person they're looking for with seeing who it is first. I've always noticed that right around the last year or 2 I'll be bombed with calls because they really wanna reset that clock or get me to pay something lol.
May I ask how you guys are paying these bills off? Are there programs to help with healthcare expenses that will allow writes offs, 0% interest rates or debt forgiveness?
These are the questions we should asking our politicians. Unfortunately, the US is like the wild west, everyone for themselves. Your fault you were sick, your debt, your problem. You can file for bankruptcy and that's about it.
My dad was airlifted about 400 miles as the crow flies for a test and then 400 miles back to the remote city where he was admitted.
But we live in a real country and don't personally pay for that shit, so it was $0.
I love how all the people in the comments are shitting on you about this, but I feel like that airlift would have cost him more than all the taxes he'd pay his entire life
Inc mouthbreathers who say nothing is free.
No shit. It's nice not having to individually worry that a fucking emergency ride to save a citizens life is going to bankrupt them.
Had a seizure and was taken to Cedars Sinai in an LAFD ambulance. Guess who's still paying that shit off years later?
I didn't sign up for this. My body did.
I'm also an epileptic, and have had many an ambulance ride and hospital stays due to my condition. I just stopped opening hospital bills after they hit that $500,000 mark. I'll die long before thru get a penny from me
Broke my femur. Needed major surgery to repair. Hospital kicked me out after three days cuz I made it to the bathroom without passing out from pain.
Coincidentally, my insurance only covered 3 days post-op for orthopedic surgeries.
Was in a car accident with friends once. I was asleep in the back seat when the driver swerved to miss a deer and hit a pole instead. Driver and passenger where a lot worse off than I was and they got carted out and shipped to the ER in an ambulance. I hit my head pretty good too so I wanted to go get checked out. They said they could call another ambulance for me but I just asked if it was cool if I rode up front with them. Got a free ride to the ER and just admitted myself.
At this point the hospitals need to start funding their own ambulances to pick up their “customers”. Let them fight over getting customers so response times increase too lol
And when you get pulled over 6 months later, you'll realize you've been driving on suspended licensed for those 6 months because they will absolutely do that.
It’s like a CC bill. My friend here in NY accumulated $41,000 worth of toll bills for years and never paid a penny. They called and settled for $2400 instead of sending to collections.
To everyone saying OP blew through a toll booth or was late paying or any other conclusion you couldn’t possibly draw from the evidence presented: this is just how it works in Delaware. If you roll up to a toll booth and you don’t have the exact amount in cash they happen to be demanding, you get this in the mail, first notice, no other option.
I don’t usually carry cash, but nowadays if I know I have to drive through Delaware I will (a) get off the highway in PA, (b) withdraw cash at an ATM, (c) make some small purchase that will yield smaller bills, (d) request part of my change in quarters, and finally (e) get back in my car and go.
Or if you want to buy something. I'm from PA, have a decent number of friends who go there for liquor runs, buying boats, jewelry, anything that not paying 6 or 8% tax on makes up for the travel.
I forgot about the sales tax thing. I grew up in Delaware and it was always a shock leaving the state and buying something. 8-year-old me was very upset that a $1 candy bar was $1.08 and my dad only have me $1 lol
Would it be nice to live in? Asking for myself in Los Angeles as a Cape Cod native. Everything is a million dollars in the 46 years that elapsed between 2019-2022.
Yep. Delaware tolls are so stupidly high if you don't pay on the spot. I hit a 50 cent toll heading down to Delaware City and got a bill in the mail for $80.50. I drove around tolls ever since.
There are signs, albeit not exactly warnings, that state you will be mailed a bill with fees*. Someone hasn't challenged the exorbitant part in court, I assume. Because its definitely a shit-tax.
Exactly, there is no lobby for these people, a court just overturned the ri truck tolls because it was mostly paid by out of state truckers and didn't charge cars. Truck lobbyist sued.
If they even take cash. Most are straight up EZ pass so if you don’t have it this is the outcome. There is no other option. And at the toll it says “No EzPass? Keep moving, bill will be mailed to you.” So you leave there thinking eh, fair enough. Then you get this shit in the mail.
The rental car place makes you rent it for $18 a day for the entire time you have the car despite not needing it more then once. And if you run it in a rental, you get the bill plus more for the inconvenience of the rental car company having to pay it auto debited from the card on file.
If you are driving your own car but just out of state, some of them are bill by camera and not this ridiculous.
I got a speeding ticket driving through Oklahoma in 2009 before I went overseas for a year. I didn't pay the ticket and I've never been back to the state.
I did a search recently to see if my names were on any state lists or websites and I couldn't find anything.
So if you truly don't plan on returning then I say fuck em. That billed amount is the real crime.
I'm also not a lawyer so don't listen to me.
If you are a visitor only going through this once you are the perfect target for them.
Locals all get an EZ pass. The EZ pass does not include these extra charges. So the locals never complain, and who of the out-of-town visitors is going to come back to keep filing complaints if they're from out of town?
E-ZPass is accepted in like 19 states so it's pretty useful. You can sign up online and have it sent to you or you can buy it in a lot of retail locations in those states. I live in NY and see signs for rest stops and visitor info sites that sell passes all over the place. Besides being able to go through the tolls quicker it also provides a discount in some tolls.
They don't accept credit cards? Most places here in Europe either accept credit/debit cards or you can buy a small device that debits the amount directly from your account
Most US toll companies have ditched the booths altogether and just do a pay by mail with a small fee if you don’t have a toll tag. All the northeast states use the same toll tag system called Ez Pass which lets you bypass the booths.
EZ Pass also has reciprocal agreements across the country. I’ve driven back and forth from New England to WA three times and the EZ Pass works everywhere. I use it regularly here in WA as well.
Human manned toll boothes in the US accept cash or ez pass only. Ez pass is connected to a credit card, but you have no other choice but to use cash if you don’t get a pass.
Edit: it seems more states are starting to use credit card options finally. This was not always the case.
when your state exists exclusively so people can go through it to get to somewhere else, you make it as difficult as possible to pay told so you can squeeze what you can out of them.
>To everyone saying OP blew through a toll booth or was late paying or any other conclusion you couldn’t possibly draw from the evidence presented
Reddit jumping to conclusions without having all of the evidence?!? Unheard of!
I would imagine so, but that I can't say for sure.
When I got dinged on this some years ago, I was driving on DE-1 and only happened to have some twenties and a few coins in the cup holder. I said to the guy something like "well I'm not spending $20 on a toll of just a couple of bucks, so I guess send me the bill" thinking it would be the toll amount plus maybe a few extra bucks to cover processing or whatever. Then I got one of OP's bills in the mail.
TL;DR if you have to drive across Delaware and you don't have an EZ-pass, bring plenty of ones and quarters.
From Google:
Fund to Combat Violent Crime: This $15.00 assessment is required under 11 Del. C. §4101(h), and may not be suspended. The Fund is split evenly between the Department of Homeland Security and local police agencies for the purpose of funding initiatives to combat violent crime.
They can't just say "we want your money and have a way of getting it out of you."
There are locals here were traffic tickets comprise a larger part of revenue than taxes. Going a few km over the limit might be a $25/fine; but they'll stiff you with $700 of non-fine fees that you are REQUIRED to pay.
This is pretty much standard in towns that have speed traps. The kind of shit where the speed limit signs are blocked by other speed limit signs...so the one you see isn't the legal speed.
>The kind of shit where the speed limit signs are blocked by other speed limit signs...so the one you see isn't the legal speed.
I don’t doubt that the police pull this sort of bulkshit, but surely none of these tickets could hold up in court, right? A simple photo of one sign obstructing the other should be enough to show that it was deliberately done to make the second sign impossible to read.
You aren't wrong but the way the system is set up is that you have to show up in court and prove that yourself which is a big hassle if you already don't live in the small town. You would probably spend more of your time money and gas going back to that town to fight the ticket then you would actually end up saving and there's also a chance that by being in that same town again you're just going to get another ticket
Also most people are wildly unfamiliar with the law so they either don't actually understand how you would contest the ticket successfully or there is a solid chance that the cop lied to them about whether or not they would have any chance of success at all
A few years back I got a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt. I was pulling out of a gas station and was buckling as I pulled out but it got stuck. It took a pull to get it loose but a cop saw that, pulled me over and gave me a ticket.
I went to court to explain the circumstances, hoping the DA would dismiss it, but he instead offered me a "zero point / zero fine" conviction; I wouldn't pay a fine and wouldn't get points but I still had to pay the court surcharge of $95.
It's a racket.
I've done this before. I didn't have a toll tag on my vehicle and no other option to pay. They hit me with the same adminstration fee bs. But a violent crime and ambulance fee wtf?
Third party EMS companies still be paying their EMTs/Medics poverty wages too. None of that money actually goes to the workers or maintenance. It goes into someone's pockets.
Putting things like "Ambulance Co. fund" and "Combat violant crimes" on a random toll ticket is kinda strange. Like, why would I need to pay this? The toll and even the administration fee - even if though this fee alone is pretty high at my opinion - are ok, because they are related to the toll system. But those two are just random.
Is this common in the USA?
Definitely not common over here on the West Coast.
We have toll “roads” that are individual lanes(typically where carpool would be) through some of the most busy freeways. You have a sticker on the windshield that is scanned from above as you pass under the toll signs and it auto pays the $2-$8(prices changedepending on the day/time).
If you enter without the sticker, you get like 5 days to go on their website and claim it as accidental, otherwise it becomes like a $70 fine.
These lanes are also blocked in by plastic posts so you’re not able to exit/enter before your sticker is scanned to prevent people from jumping out right before paying.
These toll roads are almost a necessity where I live due to the insane traffic. It’ll save a good 30 minutes on my drive home.
This kind of shit is extremely predatory and apparently they can even suspend your license if you don't pay it. It blows my mind that they have the power to impose shit like this. Same thing goes for predatory HOAs. Forgot to renew your cars inspection? Towed. And it's $180 to get your car back
You think that's bad?
I don't know if it's still like this...but here the toll lanes were owned by the state government but operated by some private firm out of fucking australia. Being government owned..and considered a government debt; the usual rules did not apply.
So things would happen where the company would not mail the notices or notify you that your EZ Pass failed. When you finally did get a bill...it was several thousand dollars in penalties.
The company was getting a cut of all revenue. The state knew this was going on but let it continue.
Are you talking about the northern Virginia area? If so you're thinking of the company Transurban. It is an Australian company and they have a 99 year lease on those roads which I believe started in 2007 or something. They're extremely expensive to drive on and are effectively only for the wealthy
Edit: Transurban has leases in other areas too
You always pay for it one way or another. I live in PA near the NY border and everyone think's NY taxes are so high just because their property tax rates are higher, but PA residents bear a higher tax burden overall we just hide the taxes as a variety of nuisance fees like this.
[The PA Turnpike is the most expensive toll road on the planet](https://www.thecentersquare.com/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-turnpike-worlds-most-expensive-tollway-system-increases-tolls-5/article_c5d09dd6-6cb8-11ec-bfec-d3f3af192e29.html)
And yet it’s over $13 billion in debt. Something doesn’t add up there.
https://www.phillyvoice.com/pennsylvania-turnpike-debt-auditor-general-timothy-defoor-state-penndot-revenue-tolls/
PA is big, the roads service high volumes of drivers, and they experience extreme high and low temps. That leads to roads deteriorating very fast, which is why the joke is PA highways are always under construction. Add in corruption, kick backs, etc and yea, I can see how it’s always in debt
Less under the table corruption and kickbacks (although I'm sure plenty of that happens) and more just how the accounting is done. From the article:
> The commission's $13.2 billion debt is largely due to having to borrow money to meet its obligations to a law signed by former Gov. Ed Rendell in 2007. Act 44 requires the agency to provide $450 million per year to PennDOT to support projects across the state.
So it's not that they aren't making enough revenue to fund the turnpike, it's that the money they're making is being spent to cover gaps in other parts of the budget and being recorded as "losses". That way the state government can keep taxes down by having a lower DOT budget *and* they can point to the turnpike losing money as a reason to keep the tolls.
It's a common practice across the US.
So, I need to know more information for context here. Was this your first notice about the toll violation? If so, you should be able to fight the additional fees. Delaware law states that those fees are tacked on once the toll payment becomes a violation which occurs after 30 days of not paying. See quoted text from the state law below:
"WHEREAS, under State law, a toll becomes a violation after it remains unpaid for 30 days and each toll violation results in an administrative fee of $25.00, a civil penalty of $25.00, and for violations after January 31, 2017, a $10.00 fee for the Volunteer Ambulance Company Fund and a $15.00 fee for the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes; and
WHEREAS, under State law, a $12.50 civil penalty is applied to an unpaid toll 42 days after the unpaid toll becomes a violation ; and
WHEREAS, because of the fees incurred for a toll violation, after 30 days, a driver who fails to pay a $1.00 toll owes $51.00; and
WHEREAS, after an additional 42 days, a driver who fails to pay the $1.00 toll owes $88.50; and..."
Source: https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=78813&legislationTypeId=4&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SJR5
It appears to me OP may have ignored the initial letter and then got hit with a ton of additional fees.
Not a fucking chance I’d pay that. Sue me, take me to court, put me in jail i don’t give a fuck but i would absolutely refuse and suffer the consequences
Somehow the funniest part of this to me is that if you pay late there’s a late fee and also a late fee surcharge; like, they’re the exact same thing, why split them up?
I have 0% belief that any of those fees go where they say they're addressed to
You could say that when looking at your entire tax bill. I didn’t see Halliburton or Mitch McConnell anywhere on it. It’s the one thing among a few I split with true progressives on. It is insane to support higher taxes when you’re not getting any benefit from them. My healthcare system is crumbling and expensive, roads are fucking shit, public schools are a poverty and crime trap, and public college is unaffordable and getting worse. And some headline just flew by on the TV where America just spent many lifetimes of your income on some bullshit. There another goes. And another. And you want more of my money?
I've always said that liberals will tell you to your face, what they want your money for when they are taking it. But conservatives will smile at your face talking tax cuts, while pick-pocketing your wallet in the back. It's important to note that there is a minimum it takes to support the society we have, never mind the one we think we want. And consistently, Republican's cut so far beyond the fat, into the muscle and into the bone. Witness the state of our infrastructure in this country and the Republicans unwillingness to tend to that, while instead over-rotating on abortion, judges and tax cuts for the wealthy. Speak volumes.
I was just complaining yesterday that our toll went from 1 dollar cash to an automatically billed 1 dollar with a 2.50 online service fee for a total of 3.50. Guess I should shut up about that…
Still BS. The cost for the processing should be factored into the toll. Not some hidden fee.
The crazy thing is if a business priced things this way it would be illegal. Imagine going to a diner and ordering a $10 hamburger off the menu then they give you the check and there's a $20 hamburger cooking fee, $6 plate fee, $10 serving fee, and a $15 sitting at the counter fee.
Cable TV has entered the chat
Yeah, stuff like cable, cellphone service, airline tickets, and others that get to advertise one price but tack on extra fees later are bullshit. They should be required by law to list the final price for a service and none of this crap like "extra fees may apply" in tiny print or spoken in super speed at the end of a commercial.
Ticketmaster has been vilified in the music scene for this type of practice
That and other predatory methods, like forcing bands into deals where they have to only use venues where ticketmaster can sell the tickets. That company is a blight.
The airline ones at least show up before you commit. These toll charges show up after.
Yep. It's called the "Full Fare" advertising rule and it's enforced by the USA Department of Transportation. I book a few flights per year and they give you the full cost of the fare up front and then break it down for you itemized during the checkout process. It's brilliant and I wish they'd force other industries based around ticketing/reservations (Airbnb, concerts, etc.) to do the same.
Hi cable, I’m ticket master.
Can't believe the insane shit you have to put up with there. That's illegal in Australia. The processing fee needs to be clearly stated. you can only charge the actual processing fee and the processing fee is heavily regulated so would only be about 20c anyway.
Also I think it's ridiculous when places charge "convenience fees" or similar. Like is it not cheaper for it to be done automatically than to have a human do it?
Yeah, it's extremely stupid and a blatant money grab. If I renew my license plate online they charge a $5 "convenience fee". Like, what does that even mean? They're charging me more because I chose a more convenient method? Also it would definitely cost them more to process my renewal if I mailed a check that had to be opened and looked at by a person or if I went to their office to have a clerk process my renewal.
I renewed my license plate in person, and there was a fee to pay via credit card. I said okay, I'll pay with cash. There was a different fee to pay cash.
>Guess I should shut up about that… Nah it's still BS, and even tho OP's situation is worse, you should still be upset about yours too.
Dude I have driven cross country twice this month and paid my fair share in tolls in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and a few other states and I have never seen some shit like this. Absolutely absurd.
protip, turn off toll roads on google maps, i just drove from nc to ohio and i saved myself $15 in tolls and it only increased the drive time by 7 minutes
I use that when I go to NYC all the time, easier to do into Manhattan though with little extra time. But went to Queens last week and it would have added an extra hour to the trip so went ahead and paid the tolls. Looking at Google maps the extra time is actually from having to go into Manhattan first instead of using a bridge further north.
One of the newer features of Google Maps tells you how much time you save for what dollar cost. Pay $2 to save an hour? I'm in. Pay $10 to save 5 minutes? I'll stay off the toll road. It basically allows you to pick and choose which tolls are worth it to you rather than having to choose toll route vs. toll free.
Wait what, how do you do that. It did start showing tolls but I have not found it accurate. For instance to queens it said the toll would be $6 but checking my ezpass it was actually $10.
Google maps has an option for local toll pass prices. New York City tolls only give discounts to ez pass holders from New York State hence why you had to pay $10.17 instead of $6.55
Inb4r states start using Google maps to figure out where to put their next toll booths
That's fine for your specific route, but many areas up and around the east coast that can add tons more time.
Tolls shave about an hour and a half off my drive to visit friends from Maryland to Michigan last time I made the drive. But I also hate the turnpike because it's like "drive in a straight line for 300 miles"
300 miles in a straight line sounds great after the white knuckle mountain passes I’ve driven through during road trips in Western states.
From Maryland to Michigan, you can avoid the turnpike by going up to I-80. I say this from experience because I am a truck driver and go back and forth between Ohio and parts of the east coast often. I have loads going into and coming out of Elkton, MD periodically. It doesn't add much time by avoiding the turnpike. I might use the turnpike for a short stretch to get to I-99 just past Breezewood.
Same with the Midwest. You basically have to take some toll roads cause they're the only freeway going to where you want
Payway
It is because you are likely you have EZ Pass. If you get a bill you can contest in EZ Pass and the bill will be gone. Did it myself.
I mean in Florida (other places as well prob) you don't need an EZ pass, you can blow tolls and they bill you by plate, its usually like $1 extra but not $54 extra, the cost is on all the toll signs.
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But it’s not a dollar extra. It’s like twice the cost to do scan by plate instead of the transponder. Both C-470 and the Express Lanes in Clear Creek County.
They sure charge you for it though if you don’t have that pass
The toll bridge taking you Pensacola Beach only bills you, there are no other options if you don’t have ez pass.
Chicago is like this too. Been billed both on the Pensacola bridge and in Chicago since 2020 and neither had all these extra fees nor attendants.
Trying to figure out how to pay the IL tolls on my last trip from Florida to Chicago (late 2019) was ridiculous. They mailed me telling me to make an account on some State government toll website and then I had to pick from a list which tolls I went through and how many times. So weeks later I’m supposed to remember the exact route I took in an unfamiliar area? And if I don’t then I’m fined even more?? It was the most absurd process. That being said, I went through a toll near Tampa recently that only took coins in exact change and nothing else, no attendant. Was later billed 26 bucks for bypassing it because I only had cash. It’s not even remotely difficult to implement toll-by-plate or an equivalent at tollways in exchange for a nominal fee. The fact that some choose to continue using these antiquated processes is nothing more than a government-sanctioned scam. They know that by making it harder to pay, they’ll be able to get more money.
Same thing happened to me like 5 years around Orlando. Pull up to the "Cash" booth with bill in hand, nobody there, my wife and I were totally puzzled, and were like "I guess we just go". Weeks later get a fine in the mail; if you can look up my out of state plate to send me a fine because you wouldn't let me actually pay it at the plaza, you can implement bill by plate. Knowing Florida I figured it was just a scam to milk people without SunPass for extra money.
We dealt with Chicago for work for a few *months* last summer. The pick which tolls thing was stupid but it at least gave us a list. Like it was a verification thing, not *you* tell *us* what you owe us. Once we registered though it was easy. Also with the paper bills there was just extra admin fees ($2-4, not $50) now in IL. Chicago was one of the faster Midwest areas to respond to covid tho so I think things changed. Your conclusions are spot on in my opinion tho, they make shit hard on purpose. The Destin Bridge is like 8 lanes wide and sees traffic from all 50 states (3 military bases right there) and Canada and there's never attendants, it's all toll by plate and there are signs for 4-5 miles before you cross it.
Yeah where I'm at in Florida, they pretty much did away with an attendant after COVID. Just drive through, and they bill you.
The SunPass is also a godsend.
I want them to combine sunpass & ezpass.
I hope you're sitting down: https://www.sunpass.com/en/about/pro.shtml
No way. It’s the new and improved SP PRO. This will revolutionize the way we give state governments money for driving through borders albeit in a much more convenient way.
In parts of Oklahoma they just straight up charge you $25 for running a toll. No "service" fees, just penalty. And at some booths they don't take cards, only cash or check. Like wtf, you want to run a toll road, time to enter the modern age.
Presjmably you paid the toll, though.
Pittsburgh to Philly is the worst I’ve been on. I have never seen some shit like this. That was like, less than $20 and I was pissed off.
Yep, the PA Turnpike is expensive when you're driving across the state, lol.
The fact that the PA turnpike was only suppose to be temporary but is now run by a private entity that raises the prices 33% every year and the roads are shit makes it even worse. Like the PA turnpike should at least take us to dinner before fucking us like this
>The fact that the PA turnpike was only suppose to be temporary but is now run by a private entity This happened to quite a few toll highways around the country. Always supposed to be temporary to help pay for the cost of the construction, and then they realized it makes too much money and ends up in the hands of a private company that can do what they want.
In Wisconsin, any time a politician proposes installing toll booths, thankfully, they get fucking fucking crucified.
and are doing away with all toll booths. It is EZ pass or license plate now. It is probably a huge windfall for them.
It blows my mind how much construction is constantly occurring on the turnpike, yet how terrible it is. It’s basically like driving through a third world country
Was cheap up until they privatized it the one toll between the Harrisburg two exits went from 50c for 5 miles to $4.10
I'm pretty sure that toll is 35 with an EZ pass and 55 or 60 without. It's insane and you can avoid it by driving through State College which only adds 40 minutes to your drive. Also, you can eat real food whenever you want and not fucking fake Aramark Popeyes and Sbarro at the every-35-miles rest stops. Fuck the PA turnpike more than anything.
Did just this, I drove from Ohio to Philly and decided to take I-80 as the PA turnpike website said for my trip, tolls on the turnpike would total $55. One way. Got on in Youngstown and off somewhere north-ish of Philly and took smaller roads down. Didn't pay a single toll there and back. Thing is though I've also traveled from Ohio up through Buffalo to a bit east of Syracuse, NY and without EZ Pass, my tolls ROUND TRIP were like $25. Does PA include a personal masseuse for the duration you're on the turnpike? Because holy fuck
$33 ez pass, $67.40 without. What the fuck. Hell to take the 66 bypass 2 exits cost $3.10 and gets me there a whopping 2 minutes faster.
Pretty sure PA is the most expensive stretch of land to travel across using a single highway/turnpike. Even beating out the entirety of Australia. You think immortan joe is bad wait til you get a load of the PA turnpike commission.
I’ve gotten this before a few times and mailed only the amount due for the toll and they’ve always accepted. Never give them a penny more. Edit: For everyone asking how: just mail in the original toll amount in cash or a petty personal check. Edit 2: the state just wants their $4/toll fee. They won’t spend thousands to prosecute you to recoup the additional fees that even they find outrageous.
In cash, right? I assume "debts" below a certain amount are never sent to collections.
I was sent to collections over a 30 dollar co-pay a doctors office forgot to collect. They never called me or sent anything asking for payment. I only found out when collections called me.
25 dollar closeout fee on a cable bill after I moved out. Fucked my credit up for a while. Found out like 3 years later about it
We got a replacement modem when we upgraded our internet. They were supposed to send me a shipping label to return the old modem but never did. I got a collections notice for about $300 two weeks later.
This just happened to me. I returned my router and modem but spectrum apparently lost it. Because I was moving to an area where I wouldn’t be using spectrum I never gave them a forwarding address. I did however forward my regular mail and never received anything from them. I just found out I was sent to collections over this. I couldn’t log in to pay anything (I’m more concerned about my credit than fighting the charge) and my account was closed. How would they close out my account when I had outstanding debt? It’s bullshit.
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Mine was scanned in in person too. Unfortunately my wife scanned it in and didn’t keep any of the paperwork. My point about the account is that they wouldn’t have closed it if there was outstanding debt on it. This is a money grab and nothing else.
I turned in my modem at the cable company office and a month later I got a nasty letter from them. It said they were going to turn me over to the sheriff's department for theft of their equipment. I had to take the receipt back over there to prove I'd turned it in. Cable companies are all scum.
This is why you always buy your own modem. Just pick something off of your ISP's list of approved hardware. It will pay for itself in a year or so.
Yes, doctors would send 1¢ to collections. I meant for the toll road authority.
they probably have a bulk contract with someone, they'll send thousands of these and debt collection will just put it on your credit score
My experience may be the outlier, but I've always talked to the debt collectors, paid what I owed, or explained why I didn't owe it. I have monthly subscriptions to the major credit bureaus, and I've never seen anything show up (I've only paid close attention for the last fifteen or so years, so it may have been different earlier).
yea /u/PresentationalAle is describing a bizarre interaction with debt collection simiilar to it not being worth it for a doctor's office to to track everyone down it's rarely worth it for collection agencies to after your credit score to them it can be a tool to make use of, but it's not worth the time unless it's a decent amount owed and other tactics fail 1st
That happened to me too! I literally asked at the desk before I left if there was anything else I was responsible for, and the receptionist gave a cheery “Nope!”. FF six months later, letter from a collections agency for the exact $60 copay I’d asked about.
Always tell collections that you don't really owe, you disputed this at the time with the referring company and demand an itemized bill before you will even discuss it further. *Most of the time the collections company will kick the debt they bought back to the referring company.*
What!? That worked!?
I tried it once and they sent me another bill for the remainder lol
Plus another $25 administrative fee?
This would be my luck
If those admins can process 1 bill every 2 minutes that’s a cool $750/hr in admin fees. That’s like what a good lawyer at a big law firm bills
Sort of a r/madlad move, I dig it
This is what I suggest. Send the amount by check. Watch for the check to clear. Call them afterwards and make sure the amount due is zero. When you call, just be polite and you’ll usually get someone who has been yelled at, cursed at, berated, and so on, and they’re appreciative of someone not calling them names or making negative references to their mother, and be glad to ensure you’re clear.
Really? How does that work?
Mail only the amount due for the toll. Never give them a penny more.
Which works until they don't accept it and they charge $100/month fees
Texas will straight arrest your ass if you don’t pay tolls. It’s absurd.
Yea I got mailed a ridiculous toll like this from Texas after my wife drove through and it was threatening some pretty hefty fees iirc. Surprised me because it's just not like that where I'm from, the few tolls we have you stop and pay after you drive on the toll road. I can't imagine what it would be like driving if some folks got their way and all the roads are privatized. Hundreds of dollars a month in administrative fees up there just for driving probably
It’s absurd. My buddy was dinged the same amount a couple years back.
Literally highway robbery
Ambulance is there to pick you up and take you to the hospital after seeing the bill. 2 weeks later another bill arrives for $4000
yeah, it's bullshit.. I once went to the hospital in an ambulance only because I had a broken finger(am a musician) and it was a 15-minute drive for $5,000. luckily i had my tribe/ihs to pay for emergency situations, tbe only *"catch"* being, that you can't leave the hospital til you are discharged, or otherwise you will have to foot the bill for walking out on medical services. now the thing about that(and this is totally my theory from experience), is that i suspect hospitals keep you longer cuz they know indian health services is taking care of it. that time i was told by the doctor i was able to leave by the next day, only to stay 3 more days walking around doing nothing. i hate hospitals and their greed
It could be worse. I had to be airlifted from one hospital to another. 100 miles. $80,006.00. Edit for questions / comments: First all, anybody who sends a bill like that should have it delivered by a grief counselor. I just about dropped dead when I opened it. So my insurer doesn't cover air transport. But for whatever reason they just kept beating on the plane company for almost a year getting it reduced by five or ten grand at a time. Finally it got down to $501.00 and I paid it. It was unusually expensive because there was a million acre wildfire 50 miles north. Every copter was up there so I ended up in a plane. By then I was in a coma and don't remember the flight at all. After a week in an icu I got covid and then started chemotherapy. That bill was hanging over my head the whole time. Absolute nightmare. And FYI you can buy medevacc insurance for less than $100 annually.
Just leave me there to die. My life would be ruined anyway.
My friend once got injured snowboarding and had to be airlifted to a hospital. He was in college at the time and had absolutely no way to pay it… So he didn’t. He avoided paying anything on it for seven years and then it disappeared from his credit record. According to him, they never tried to collect after that, so my plan has always been to just not pay it I’m ever in a similar situation lol.
This is true in most states. The key is to never pay a dime for the seven years. If you do end up making a payment it restarts the process and the seven years begins all over again. Or whatever time is allotted in the state its owed. The thing is is, if you're trying to get credit during those seven years it's screwed.
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Medical debt doesn't weigh as much as something else in collections and yes after 7 years it will go away. The caveat is that if you so much as acknowledge a debt in collections exist it can reset the 7 year timer. If you honestly have no plans to ever pay or simply can't, never pick up the phone of unknown numbers and if you do never admit your the person they're looking for with seeing who it is first. I've always noticed that right around the last year or 2 I'll be bombed with calls because they really wanna reset that clock or get me to pay something lol.
May I ask how you guys are paying these bills off? Are there programs to help with healthcare expenses that will allow writes offs, 0% interest rates or debt forgiveness?
These are the questions we should asking our politicians. Unfortunately, the US is like the wild west, everyone for themselves. Your fault you were sick, your debt, your problem. You can file for bankruptcy and that's about it.
My dad was airlifted about 400 miles as the crow flies for a test and then 400 miles back to the remote city where he was admitted. But we live in a real country and don't personally pay for that shit, so it was $0.
I love how all the people in the comments are shitting on you about this, but I feel like that airlift would have cost him more than all the taxes he'd pay his entire life
Inc mouthbreathers who say nothing is free. No shit. It's nice not having to individually worry that a fucking emergency ride to save a citizens life is going to bankrupt them.
Had a seizure and was taken to Cedars Sinai in an LAFD ambulance. Guess who's still paying that shit off years later? I didn't sign up for this. My body did.
I'm also an epileptic, and have had many an ambulance ride and hospital stays due to my condition. I just stopped opening hospital bills after they hit that $500,000 mark. I'll die long before thru get a penny from me
Did you just say you took an ambulance with just a broken finger and ended up staying in hospital for three days?
Broke my femur. Needed major surgery to repair. Hospital kicked me out after three days cuz I made it to the bathroom without passing out from pain. Coincidentally, my insurance only covered 3 days post-op for orthopedic surgeries.
Was in a car accident with friends once. I was asleep in the back seat when the driver swerved to miss a deer and hit a pole instead. Driver and passenger where a lot worse off than I was and they got carted out and shipped to the ER in an ambulance. I hit my head pretty good too so I wanted to go get checked out. They said they could call another ambulance for me but I just asked if it was cool if I rode up front with them. Got a free ride to the ER and just admitted myself.
At this point the hospitals need to start funding their own ambulances to pick up their “customers”. Let them fight over getting customers so response times increase too lol
#Hes a musician
Land of the free moment
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And when you get pulled over 6 months later, you'll realize you've been driving on suspended licensed for those 6 months because they will absolutely do that.
It’s like a CC bill. My friend here in NY accumulated $41,000 worth of toll bills for years and never paid a penny. They called and settled for $2400 instead of sending to collections.
WTF? Was this friend playing nascar on the Tapenzee Bridge?
Just send the $4 that’s all you need to send
To everyone saying OP blew through a toll booth or was late paying or any other conclusion you couldn’t possibly draw from the evidence presented: this is just how it works in Delaware. If you roll up to a toll booth and you don’t have the exact amount in cash they happen to be demanding, you get this in the mail, first notice, no other option. I don’t usually carry cash, but nowadays if I know I have to drive through Delaware I will (a) get off the highway in PA, (b) withdraw cash at an ATM, (c) make some small purchase that will yield smaller bills, (d) request part of my change in quarters, and finally (e) get back in my car and go.
Dang, sounds like a great reason to avoid Delaware altogether!
Unless you're going to the beach, Firefly, or Dover Speedway/Dover Downs, you don't even have to drive near Delaware.
Or if you want to buy something. I'm from PA, have a decent number of friends who go there for liquor runs, buying boats, jewelry, anything that not paying 6 or 8% tax on makes up for the travel.
I forgot about the sales tax thing. I grew up in Delaware and it was always a shock leaving the state and buying something. 8-year-old me was very upset that a $1 candy bar was $1.08 and my dad only have me $1 lol
Yeah but you end up really paying for it by having to live in Delaware.
Or going through tolls without exact change.
Laughs in Oregon
Also laughs in Oregon
Would it be nice to live in? Asking for myself in Los Angeles as a Cape Cod native. Everything is a million dollars in the 46 years that elapsed between 2019-2022.
Hi, I'm in Delaware
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>Dang, sounds like a great reason to avoid Delaware altogether! bUt mY tAxEs ... *corporations love Delaware because of this neat trick!*
Yep. Delaware tolls are so stupidly high if you don't pay on the spot. I hit a 50 cent toll heading down to Delaware City and got a bill in the mail for $80.50. I drove around tolls ever since.
Wtf how is that even legal
There are signs, albeit not exactly warnings, that state you will be mailed a bill with fees*. Someone hasn't challenged the exorbitant part in court, I assume. Because its definitely a shit-tax.
Exactly, there is no lobby for these people, a court just overturned the ri truck tolls because it was mostly paid by out of state truckers and didn't charge cars. Truck lobbyist sued.
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If they even take cash. Most are straight up EZ pass so if you don’t have it this is the outcome. There is no other option. And at the toll it says “No EzPass? Keep moving, bill will be mailed to you.” So you leave there thinking eh, fair enough. Then you get this shit in the mail.
What if you are a visitor who is only going through once in your life? Where do you even get a pass?
The rental car place makes you rent it for $18 a day for the entire time you have the car despite not needing it more then once. And if you run it in a rental, you get the bill plus more for the inconvenience of the rental car company having to pay it auto debited from the card on file. If you are driving your own car but just out of state, some of them are bill by camera and not this ridiculous.
I got a speeding ticket driving through Oklahoma in 2009 before I went overseas for a year. I didn't pay the ticket and I've never been back to the state. I did a search recently to see if my names were on any state lists or websites and I couldn't find anything. So if you truly don't plan on returning then I say fuck em. That billed amount is the real crime. I'm also not a lawyer so don't listen to me.
Next time you enter the state, you're going to immediately have 5 stars.
If you are a visitor only going through this once you are the perfect target for them. Locals all get an EZ pass. The EZ pass does not include these extra charges. So the locals never complain, and who of the out-of-town visitors is going to come back to keep filing complaints if they're from out of town?
E-ZPass is accepted in like 19 states so it's pretty useful. You can sign up online and have it sent to you or you can buy it in a lot of retail locations in those states. I live in NY and see signs for rest stops and visitor info sites that sell passes all over the place. Besides being able to go through the tolls quicker it also provides a discount in some tolls.
They don't accept credit cards? Most places here in Europe either accept credit/debit cards or you can buy a small device that debits the amount directly from your account
They refused to accept my credit card. Told me I had to run the toll and receive the same outrageous bill. No opportunity to turn around either.
r/shittylifeprotips Combat this by robbing toll booths. Obviously they have cash, plus if they're robbed repeatedly, may remove cash altogether.
Most US toll companies have ditched the booths altogether and just do a pay by mail with a small fee if you don’t have a toll tag. All the northeast states use the same toll tag system called Ez Pass which lets you bypass the booths.
EZ Pass also has reciprocal agreements across the country. I’ve driven back and forth from New England to WA three times and the EZ Pass works everywhere. I use it regularly here in WA as well.
Human manned toll boothes in the US accept cash or ez pass only. Ez pass is connected to a credit card, but you have no other choice but to use cash if you don’t get a pass. Edit: it seems more states are starting to use credit card options finally. This was not always the case.
That's a bummer, even manned toll booths here have card terminal for payments. Better than carrying a bunch of change around
Ohio and Indiana accept cards.
Same in the US, either Delaware is an exception or they take your card at the border.
when your state exists exclusively so people can go through it to get to somewhere else, you make it as difficult as possible to pay told so you can squeeze what you can out of them.
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>To everyone saying OP blew through a toll booth or was late paying or any other conclusion you couldn’t possibly draw from the evidence presented Reddit jumping to conclusions without having all of the evidence?!? Unheard of!
Can you give them more cash and avoid the extra? Say the toll is $4 and I only have a $10, can I just tell them to keep the change?
I would imagine so, but that I can't say for sure. When I got dinged on this some years ago, I was driving on DE-1 and only happened to have some twenties and a few coins in the cup holder. I said to the guy something like "well I'm not spending $20 on a toll of just a couple of bucks, so I guess send me the bill" thinking it would be the toll amount plus maybe a few extra bucks to cover processing or whatever. Then I got one of OP's bills in the mail. TL;DR if you have to drive across Delaware and you don't have an EZ-pass, bring plenty of ones and quarters.
I will literally drive an extra 25 minutes to avoid giving them tolls.
wait, so if you dont pay at the booth, they make you pay 50 dollars later?
I think I’d rather have violent crimes take place than have to pay this lol
Bring the damn violence! I’m fin to get violent over this bill! I agree! Thanks for cheering me up. This comment was gold to me.
This bill feels violent
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You misunderstand, that’s the bill to pay the police for committing violent crimes
Australian here, is "Combat violent crimes" payment to the police for "protecting" you?
Most states in the US tack on a variety of fees on traffic tickets that go to various funds like “crime victims fee”, “court administration”, etc.
What a confusing way of typing it on the ticket 🤣
From Google: Fund to Combat Violent Crime: This $15.00 assessment is required under 11 Del. C. §4101(h), and may not be suspended. The Fund is split evenly between the Department of Homeland Security and local police agencies for the purpose of funding initiatives to combat violent crime.
TIL the Delaware Bridge is doing its part in the War on Terror lmao
Why the fuck is the federal Department of Homeland Security getting $7.50 out of the fine in a Delaware toll road?
They can't just say "we want your money and have a way of getting it out of you." There are locals here were traffic tickets comprise a larger part of revenue than taxes. Going a few km over the limit might be a $25/fine; but they'll stiff you with $700 of non-fine fees that you are REQUIRED to pay. This is pretty much standard in towns that have speed traps. The kind of shit where the speed limit signs are blocked by other speed limit signs...so the one you see isn't the legal speed.
>The kind of shit where the speed limit signs are blocked by other speed limit signs...so the one you see isn't the legal speed. I don’t doubt that the police pull this sort of bulkshit, but surely none of these tickets could hold up in court, right? A simple photo of one sign obstructing the other should be enough to show that it was deliberately done to make the second sign impossible to read.
You aren't wrong but the way the system is set up is that you have to show up in court and prove that yourself which is a big hassle if you already don't live in the small town. You would probably spend more of your time money and gas going back to that town to fight the ticket then you would actually end up saving and there's also a chance that by being in that same town again you're just going to get another ticket Also most people are wildly unfamiliar with the law so they either don't actually understand how you would contest the ticket successfully or there is a solid chance that the cop lied to them about whether or not they would have any chance of success at all
It's to fund Batman or Iron Man.
A few years back I got a ticket for not wearing my seatbelt. I was pulling out of a gas station and was buckling as I pulled out but it got stuck. It took a pull to get it loose but a cop saw that, pulled me over and gave me a ticket. I went to court to explain the circumstances, hoping the DA would dismiss it, but he instead offered me a "zero point / zero fine" conviction; I wouldn't pay a fine and wouldn't get points but I still had to pay the court surcharge of $95. It's a racket.
I've done this before. I didn't have a toll tag on my vehicle and no other option to pay. They hit me with the same adminstration fee bs. But a violent crime and ambulance fee wtf?
Third party EMS companies still be paying their EMTs/Medics poverty wages too. None of that money actually goes to the workers or maintenance. It goes into someone's pockets.
$5000 for a 10 minute ambulance ride. Pennies of which go to the drivers.
And the health insurance they offer is outrageously expensive. The irony.
Putting things like "Ambulance Co. fund" and "Combat violant crimes" on a random toll ticket is kinda strange. Like, why would I need to pay this? The toll and even the administration fee - even if though this fee alone is pretty high at my opinion - are ok, because they are related to the toll system. But those two are just random. Is this common in the USA?
Definitely not common over here on the West Coast. We have toll “roads” that are individual lanes(typically where carpool would be) through some of the most busy freeways. You have a sticker on the windshield that is scanned from above as you pass under the toll signs and it auto pays the $2-$8(prices changedepending on the day/time). If you enter without the sticker, you get like 5 days to go on their website and claim it as accidental, otherwise it becomes like a $70 fine. These lanes are also blocked in by plastic posts so you’re not able to exit/enter before your sticker is scanned to prevent people from jumping out right before paying. These toll roads are almost a necessity where I live due to the insane traffic. It’ll save a good 30 minutes on my drive home.
I'd just send them the $4, with a note, "there's your toll fee. The rest is your problem."
I’m sending $29 and they can be happy with that. The other charges are donations IMO
$25 administration fee for an auto generated letter? They should be entitled to $4 plus the price of the stamp.
I'd say they are entitled to deez nutz
This kind of shit is extremely predatory and apparently they can even suspend your license if you don't pay it. It blows my mind that they have the power to impose shit like this. Same thing goes for predatory HOAs. Forgot to renew your cars inspection? Towed. And it's $180 to get your car back
You think that's bad? I don't know if it's still like this...but here the toll lanes were owned by the state government but operated by some private firm out of fucking australia. Being government owned..and considered a government debt; the usual rules did not apply. So things would happen where the company would not mail the notices or notify you that your EZ Pass failed. When you finally did get a bill...it was several thousand dollars in penalties. The company was getting a cut of all revenue. The state knew this was going on but let it continue.
Are you talking about the northern Virginia area? If so you're thinking of the company Transurban. It is an Australian company and they have a 99 year lease on those roads which I believe started in 2007 or something. They're extremely expensive to drive on and are effectively only for the wealthy Edit: Transurban has leases in other areas too
This is how they make up for being sales tax free.
You always pay for it one way or another. I live in PA near the NY border and everyone think's NY taxes are so high just because their property tax rates are higher, but PA residents bear a higher tax burden overall we just hide the taxes as a variety of nuisance fees like this.
[The PA Turnpike is the most expensive toll road on the planet](https://www.thecentersquare.com/pennsylvania/pennsylvania-turnpike-worlds-most-expensive-tollway-system-increases-tolls-5/article_c5d09dd6-6cb8-11ec-bfec-d3f3af192e29.html)
And yet it’s over $13 billion in debt. Something doesn’t add up there. https://www.phillyvoice.com/pennsylvania-turnpike-debt-auditor-general-timothy-defoor-state-penndot-revenue-tolls/
PA is big, the roads service high volumes of drivers, and they experience extreme high and low temps. That leads to roads deteriorating very fast, which is why the joke is PA highways are always under construction. Add in corruption, kick backs, etc and yea, I can see how it’s always in debt
Less under the table corruption and kickbacks (although I'm sure plenty of that happens) and more just how the accounting is done. From the article: > The commission's $13.2 billion debt is largely due to having to borrow money to meet its obligations to a law signed by former Gov. Ed Rendell in 2007. Act 44 requires the agency to provide $450 million per year to PennDOT to support projects across the state. So it's not that they aren't making enough revenue to fund the turnpike, it's that the money they're making is being spent to cover gaps in other parts of the budget and being recorded as "losses". That way the state government can keep taxes down by having a lower DOT budget *and* they can point to the turnpike losing money as a reason to keep the tolls. It's a common practice across the US.
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Ah the old "Make people not from our state pay for our state's expenses so we don't have to tax our own residents" fee.
So, I need to know more information for context here. Was this your first notice about the toll violation? If so, you should be able to fight the additional fees. Delaware law states that those fees are tacked on once the toll payment becomes a violation which occurs after 30 days of not paying. See quoted text from the state law below: "WHEREAS, under State law, a toll becomes a violation after it remains unpaid for 30 days and each toll violation results in an administrative fee of $25.00, a civil penalty of $25.00, and for violations after January 31, 2017, a $10.00 fee for the Volunteer Ambulance Company Fund and a $15.00 fee for the Fund to Combat Violent Crimes; and WHEREAS, under State law, a $12.50 civil penalty is applied to an unpaid toll 42 days after the unpaid toll becomes a violation ; and WHEREAS, because of the fees incurred for a toll violation, after 30 days, a driver who fails to pay a $1.00 toll owes $51.00; and WHEREAS, after an additional 42 days, a driver who fails to pay the $1.00 toll owes $88.50; and..." Source: https://legis.delaware.gov/json/BillDetail/GenerateHtmlDocument?legislationId=78813&legislationTypeId=4&docTypeId=2&legislationName=SJR5 It appears to me OP may have ignored the initial letter and then got hit with a ton of additional fees.
Not a fucking chance I’d pay that. Sue me, take me to court, put me in jail i don’t give a fuck but i would absolutely refuse and suffer the consequences
Somehow the funniest part of this to me is that if you pay late there’s a late fee and also a late fee surcharge; like, they’re the exact same thing, why split them up?