Total scam! Literally, Highway Robbery! I have an iPass account connected to a card for automatic replenishment. I have 2 vehicles registered to my account. Apparently, the system messed up taking tolls for the entire month of December. I found out about it after a letter arrived in Marc 2024 telling me I owed over $330, mostly in, "Invoice Fees". The actual tolls were about $100 or less. I called to chat with someone (I neglected to get the person's name) and was told that there was nothing to be done other than appeal. I wrote the letter, filled out the form, provided all the information, and, BIG SURPRISE, my appeal to remove the invoice fees was declined. I ended up paying almost $370 in 2 payments. April 11, I received another letter telling me I owed over $300 again! I called and spoke with Michael M who was able to determine that these funds were due on my other vehicle. Thankfully, Michael is a decent human and hit a few keys, removing the fees so I only need to pay the actual tolls of $73. To the Illinois Toll Authority bosses. You deserve to go to jail for theft on a grand scale. This is another example of bloated, ridiculous, Government waste and greed. It's shameful to demand money from drivers and then leave people with absolutely no recourse when the system messes up. We, drivers, are stuck with massively overinflated bills for YOUR screw-ups! Just shameful! read more

I got an I-passbill in the mail for over $1,000. I was confused because I have a transponder in my windshield. Turns out of my plate is not linked to that transponder, the money was never taken out. I received my bill in November, the tolls went all the way back to June! So obviously an ungodly amount of late fees and fines accumulated. I called to see what I could do, I was advised to pay the actual tolls which was $130.00, and to go in person to contest the fees. So I showed up in person the next day, I explained my situation and I was told that they don't allow anyone to contest tolls or fines. In my head this is theft, I paid my tolls why am I going to have to pay over $900 in fees?!?! read more

So, I had traveled from Ohio to Wisconsin unfortunately taking the Illinois toll route near Christmas and I only now (Feb) received an invoice with a $21 invoice late fee on top of the tolls themselves and for what? I made a pay by plate account to pay (since apparently you can't just type in the license plate anymore and pay that way), had a valid card attached, and I kept checking everyday and my tolls never showed. The site said it could take up to 30 days, okay so I wait and still see nothing. Then I get this invoice with a fee because I didn't pay on time but there was no way I could! If this happens to you, the people who run the pay by plate accounts cannot help. They had me call the Illinois tollway headquarters since only they can deal with invoice fees since those are state mandated. The people running pay by plate can only help with account issues. All they could tell is that all my info was correct and I had entered the correct time I traveled the toll route. Luckily (the reason I'm not giving 1 star), the tollway headquarters in Downers Grove was very helpful. The guy I spoke with was very nice, and he looked over everything thoroughly and couldn't see why I wasn't seeing the tolls on my account. Therefore, he only charged me for just the tolls. Overall, I'm glad I was able to speak with someone here that was able to help resolve this. I hate the new pay by plate system though, and I hope I don't have any more issues if I need to travel on Illinois tollway. read more

I drove from Minnesota through Illinois to get down to Florida for a family vacation. When I came back from vacation I tried to look up my license plate to pay for my Illinois toll bill. Nothing showed up and I looked everyday. A month later I get a "LATE UNPAID TOLL BILL" for 3x the amount I needed to pay ($11 became $33). I call them up but they told me I had to CREATE AN ACCOUNT AHEAD OF MY TRIP to avoid paying the late fee. Once you go through the toll you have 14 days to pay the bill but you can't even create a account till after 15 days. WTF!!! This is a SCAM by the State of Illinois and they know it! read more

Tollway Authority - TOLL SCAM by the Sh!tty State of Illinois. - Travel Services Near Me - Downers Grove, Illinois

I'm writing this review about Illinois Tollway Authority and specifically the adminstraton .I got 15 unpaid tolls last month even i was going through Illinois tolls for that last 5 years by using my NY E-Zpass with no problems till I got those unpaid tolls with violations , I thought will be easy fix (unread tag) ,so i sent Illinois Tollway Authority adminstration my statement account from my E-Zpass showing I have good standing and enough money in my account. but the denied my dispute for nonsense reason (my account was not open when i went through those tolls ) What a THIEVE & LIARS. Shame on you trying to steal my hard earning money !!!!!!! read more

I was a recent tourist in the state of Illinois looking at architecturally significant buildings (Farnsworth House) in Plano, IL. It was great and beautiful throughout the countryside until l had to go through the outskirts of Chicago where the toll roads start. TOURISTS BEWARE ! Toll booths had signs up indicating equipment not functioning so if you tried to put money in the machine it would not accept it ! Tried it at several toll stations with the same results ! Got a bill in the mail 2 months and 26 days later for $6 toll fees + $12 invoice fees for a total of $18. Back in Alabama where l came from we would call this the equivalent of a speed trap since we don't have toll roads except in a few places in the state. I guess the best thing to do is just don't visit Illinois. read more

What a joke. I was in Chicago for my wedding and logged on THE DAY AFTER MY WEDDING to pay all of the tolls I missed. I was leaving on my honeymoon that night and wanted to make sure they were all paid before I left. I thought I got all of them, but apparently missed some. I just got a $137 FINE IN THE MAIL! No warning - nothing. They say you have seven days to pay and you just have to guess which tollbooths you went through (they don't load your plates on there until later). Missed a few in my haste and I got screwed. I DO NOT EVEN LIVE IN THE STATE. No wonder people leave Illinois - what a joke. read more

Unbelievable tollway charges if you have a small trailer! I bought a 450lb trailer for my Subaru Forester to move my motorcycle around. I passed through the Dekalb 66 and 69 tollways 6 times in a month, then my IPASS auto charged my account twice. I investigated and found that the individual toll increases from $1.80 per pass to $9.50 because I added an axle for a 450lb trailer!!!! Taxation at it's finest folks. I cannot get out of Illinois fast enough, screw you Madigan! read more

It's like driving thru Dante's 9 Circles of Hell. It's a system intentionally designed to rip you off & scam more money out of you if you're not an iPass holder. I refuse to give another faceless entity access to my bank account. Below is a list of the issues from a recent trip: 1. Change only tolls (if you don't have an iPass). Nope, won't take any paper money or a credit/debit card. No manned booth, so you are stuck if you don't have change or you have to wait for a Good Samaritan behind you. The one toll going west from 290 into 88 I believe is actually gated, so you can't drive thru it- how is this not a safety issue? I could be misremembering it, but that doesn't make up for this archaic system of collection even if I am. Other states I've driven in have either machines that will take paper money or a debit/credit machine or the plazas are designed as entry/exit ticket plazas and you just pay based on how many toll points you passed. Fewer plazas and almost always manned. 2. This specifically speaks to the design of the open road tolls. Since I was using GPS, Plaza 51 the York Rd cash plaza is designed so that it looks almost entirely like another exit. Additionally, if you're using GPS, you'll miss it entirely if you're following your instructions. I only caught my mistake coming back. The toll operator, who never stopped yapping on her cell phone when I attempted to ask her this question, instinctively knew what I was asking with a mere point of my finger and gave me my instructions sheet. 3. You are paying more if you are paying in cash at the tolls. Another trick trying to force your hand into an iPass. What cracks me up about this, they'd like to eliminate toll booth jobs. Which are maybe tops $25 an hour (according to Google). I couldn't find any answer to search how many actual tolls exist in Illinois or any numbers on actual manned tollways. So really, how many jobs does this eliminate? So for the sake of numbers let's say there are 100 full-time toll booth collectors at full salary of $25 an hour. That's tops $52000 a year and costs the state $5.2 million a year for 100 people that a toll user can ask a question or seek out for assistance. On the other hand, just this past fall 6 (count em 6), connected people got positions with the Illinois Tollway at a total salary of just under 1 million dollars...let's assume they also have bonuses and expense accounts too. I'm not good at fractions, so you're on your own for that fractional cost of giving 100 people jobs that help millions of drivers vs. giving 6 people jobs that only helps them & their cronies. 4. On my return trip, I again got hit with the change only machine, but this time I was prepared...so I had my 60 cents in hand. Problem is, the machine wasn't working and I had to throw in an additional 75 cents and it still didn't show I paid. I finally had to drive thru (this one wasn't gated). The toll machines aren't marked with a number, there's no listed number to call to report a problem & there's nothing to designate the machine or what Plaza you're at, so you're shit out of luck. Not only will I have to leave it up to the toll gods as to whether I get a ticket, I'll likely never see my 75 cents I overpaid again. Again, what crook is getting the overages? And even more important how not just for convenience but for SAFETY is every booth or machine not required to have a clear designator for drivers? You know when that will happen, when the state gets sued because an emergency happened and someone dies at a toll booth and they had no idea where to tell 911 where they were at. 5. Upon returning home, I attempted to find a number to call to report a problem with the machine. There actually doesn't exist any number to call. I think after tired of hearing me complain, the customer service rep just gave me any old number to end the call. I called it. It was a non-working number. I was told I'll just have to take my chances that I may or may not get a ticket for the machine I paid more money at. I'll also have to take my chances at the appeal process and that it's not rigged (is what I'm thinking) to extract not only a toll you overpaid for but now a fine you didn't deserve. 6. PAY ATTENTION when paying the toll within the 7 day grace period. The website system to pay your tolls isn't user friendly. You can't simply pay your toll by plugging in your license plate & the Plaza number of your toll you missed. You have to know entry & exit points, which is fine if you don't know the Plaza, but it's extra work if you do. Besides that, this is also flawed bc it doesn't allow you to just choose the only toll you missed- it just assumes you missed all from where you got on & off. So if there are 6 tolls between those you will be paying for 6 tolls if you aren't paying attention. You'll have to use Google maps to help you out here. I'm betting that some firm got paid a hefty bonus to design it to extract more $ out of the little guy. read more

I came here to write a scathing review about the Illinois Tollway Authority and specifically the adminstrators at I-Pass. Then I saw that all the other reviews are 1 stars... So I'm giving the Tollway 2 stars, because generally I appreciate the speed of IPass compared to old fashioned toll-booths. That's where the compliments end. I started using IPASS when I began driving a coworker's car. Eventually I bought the car and kept using his IPass. Unfortunately, when I registered the title under my name his IPASS automatically stopped working for the car. A month later I get a bill in the mail for hundreds of dollars in missed tolls and fines. Only after calling did I get the explanation about why... I had heard of people simply paing the missed tolls and getting the fines dismissed, but when I tried to do this they said I couldn't until I got written approval from the previous owner which turned out to be impossible since he left the country... so I asked for some other way. They said there was none and I would have to pay the hundreds of dollars in fines, when the tolls themselves amounted to no more than $25. Time passed, I thought it would go away. Boy was I wrong. A year later, out of the blue I get a bill for $3000. I called in again, they had sent it to collections. Nobody would talk to me about anything. And they suspended my current IPASS which I had been paying in good standing for over a year. And they threatened to suspend my license. Needless to say, talking with them got me nowhere. Each time I called I was bounced from one person to another and always rejected with the same excuse "there's nothing I can do." In fact it seemed there was nothing anyone at the Tollway could do about the fines that they were holding against me. So I paid through the teeth. Life lesson for me, hopefully somebody out there will avoid the same fate... don't get into a position where you're relying on the common sense or basic humanity of anybody at IPASS. It's a big, anonymous entity like many in this world, and if it has something over you, you'd best resolve it ASAP and run the other way! read more

This organization is an absolute joke and a scam. So to my understanding, they retired the pay by plaza system so NOW, you have to sign up for pay by plate (where they save your credit card info) and they are supposed to take the tolls out automatically or they are supposed to show up on the pay by plate site on your account dash board. Well, I kept checking mine daily to pay my missed tolls and NOTHING showed up. But, they emailed me saying my "payment declined" and the last 4 of that payment card wasn't even a card I registered to their site! So I tried to find the missed tolls / payment they wanted and low and behold, NOTHING ON THE SITE. so I check my mail today, and these vermin mailed me a $13.50 payment due. IF IT SHOWED UP ON THE SITE I COULDVE PAID IT AT THE ORIGINAL RATE! Instead of them mailing me and trying to charge fees. I think they purposely don't put them on the pay by plate site so they can mail us with late fees. Would you really put it past Illinois? I wouldn't. $13.50 might not be a lot for the fee, but in the middle of a global pandemic it is and it adds up. We pay enough taxes and are paying more now thanks to our lovely JB, so why am I paying to drive on roads I already pay taxes for? Illinois is ran by money hungry leeches. I will never take the tollway again. I would've bought an iPass, but google reviews state people are even having issues with those! You can't win here, it's all just a bit money pool. Crooks. read more

I had all the paperwork necessary, and they helped me even prove to the Secretary of State (who wasn't working with me at all) that I was paid in full. Thanks for helping me get my license back! read more

No one at the toll booth to take my money. No way to pay with a credit card. Tried to pay online, but it is hard to do if you don't know the roads in Illinois. Tried calling to pay on the phone, but there is no way to do this. Tried getting a rep on the phone, but hard to find a way through their voicemail to do this. What is good about this system? read more

These people are a bunch of bullies. I live in down state Illinois where we don't have tolls. I was in the Chicago area for work and don't carry change with me to pay the UNATTENDED booths. I know I missed several booths by going through them. The following Monday after returning home, I made a phone call to pay my unpaid tolls, only to be told they couldn't find any violations in their system for me. Knowing I had violations, I went ahead and made 2 payments of $3.50 totaling $7. Fast forward 2 months. I received a bill in the mail for $86, $6 in toll violations and $80 in fines. I immediately called and explained my situation. I was told they would reduce the violations down to two, since I did go through those booths, but the other two violations still stand since I didn't pay for those booths. I then proceeded to ask for a credit of the difference for the booths I did go through and was told, "We don't give credits". I was beyond mad at this point and was told to write a letter stating what happened for when they send me the hearing paperwork. About a week later, I got the paperwork and sent in my written letter and didn't hear anything until today. I got a bill in the mail for $43 stating I failed to provide proof of innocence. So after OVERPAYING the original fines by $1 and more than making an attempt to pay my missed rolls, I'm still on the hook for $43. These people will not be getting any of my money and I will NOT be going to the Chicago area anytime soon by going through tollways. These people are crooks, which suites them well for living in crook county and Chicago. I will be making one more attempt to get these fines dropped, but if they don't, they can kiss my very hairy hind end. read more

I had a violation question and the niced person answered the phone 2/4/20 and cleared up all of my difficulties. It's nice to deal with an Illinois facility that is timely and so great with the public. read more

The Illinois tollway service is terrible. This review is from someone that does not have IPASS. I have multiple issues with the service. Missing a toll: Illinois tollway service does not have your license plate connected to the toll that you missed within the 7 day grace period. After talking to customer service, they told me it takes 4-6 weeks to get this back into their system. You should be able to look up your license plate and the tolls you missed. Not just randomly pay 3.80 for missing random tolls. I get the system needs to take some time to review the cars that don't have an iPass and then get that license plate linked to that tollway by looking at the picture taken. I understand this does take time; however, this also costs money for Illinois tollway to pay, wonder where that comes from. If it takes a long time to link the photo to the car, the grace period should start at the point the toll is linked to the car. Not when I missed the toll. Also, if iPass is going to pay and spend so much time to find the cars that missed the toll. They should use some of that money to update their website. They should make entry points click based (Trip Calculator), incredibly easy to do with Google Maps API if they are using that for their mapping. Otherwise its not terribly hard to make a routing system that picks up the tolls based on the entered route. Automatic Toll (No employee present): The next issue comes for the tolls that are in between the times, 10pm-6am. This is when there is no one working the toll, so you must enter money into a machine. The sign says no change given back. However, the machine also accepts $10 bills; therefore, when I read both, I admit stupidly, I thought it meant no coin change. As this is Plaza 69 the fee is 3.60. All I had was a $10 bill, again stupidly, I assumed the machine would give me $6 dollars back. But no, the machine just said no change given. Which again is posted on the machine. My issue with this is that the machine shouldn't accept bills that are nearly 3 times the amount posted, and then not give change back. Overall, Illinois Tollway service for non-IPASS users is garbage. Just multiple ways of trying to drain more money out of the users to go back to looking for more toll offenders in their 4 week long, license plate matching algorithm. read more

We have been thru Illinois 6 times and plan 4 more times this year. We stop to relieve ourselves words can't describe the feeling. We stop for fuel, food, drinks and motels before crossing into thieving Illinois. Its been almost 10 years that they tried strong arming money from us. Never paid never will. I have all my cash receipts sent copies they wouldn't recognise receipts generated by their own equipment. We found an alternate route and vowed to never spend another penny in Illinois. I have AAA and already decided I won't have repairs done there either. I purchased a plan that tows me 200 miles free of charge. I will be towed out of Illinois if I happen to break down there. Illinois how much revenue do you think you have missed over 10 years by trying to steal $200. I can assure you it's been way more than $200. But I'm sure you steal plenty from others on you thievery tollway. read more

This entire system is an absolute joke. All I was trying to do was pay the unpaid tolls that had accumulated because my card on file linked to my ipass was inexplicably removed. Let me repeat... I have an ipass that I pay for yet I was getting hammered with tollway tickets. You can see why I'd call for an explanation. When I did call... my God... the level of incompetence coupled with the misery these people portray over the phone is something special. I had to ask this woman if I was bothering her. She said "OMG" multiple times as if her brain couldn't process the questions snd requests I was asking. This was the second person I talked to. The first one... her name was Margaret and she was just a horrible person. Literally yelling at me... cutting me off... and telling me what was happening with my account was my fault. Lol! The people working here are trash. The system, help, and support on a state regulated venture such as this is an abomination! It fits Illinois perfectly. Give us your money!!!!! Whether it's owed to us or not... GIVE US YOUR MONEY!!!!! You have question? GIVE US YOUR MONEY!!!!! They could care less. The state is the worst, and they're so far in debt they'll gladly rip off each and every single person $1.90 at a time! Scum of the earth organization right here! Classless and embarrassing!!! read more

day 60 for whom the bell tolls... so once i got to chicago i went through a toll, about 5 miles later, and i'm still on the same road, i get to another toll, 3 hours pass and i go about 30 miles and stay on the same road and go through 2 more tolls. so i ended up paying 7-8 bucks to spend 3 hours going nowhere. what was it connery said in the untouchables? oh yeah that's right. that's the chicago way! read more

I have a great idea, IL Tollway,: Why don't you send a bill in the mail prior to a $100 fine?? I live in a state where we don't have tolls, I don't have change in my car!!! The fines are WAY beyond reason. You could easily implement a system that allows people to be *reminded of a toll fee after they have driven through - but I am guessing you make MILLIONS off of people like me by taking advantage of their ignorance. Terrible people, I hate you all. read more

O.M.G. More money for the mobsters coffer. We are from Maryland and I have never experienced anything like this in my life. We're staying out in Lombard and have to travel daily to some other freaking suburb way across town using the infamous 355 tollway. I believe its Orland Park. Folks take your piggybank and then some. You will encounter not .75 not 1.00 tolls but 2.80, 1.30 you name it. Who the hell carries that much change around but wait it gets worse. They are too cheap to man the booth so you encouraged to just drive through and pay the toll within 7 days online. What if I'm a geriatric...wtf go online to pay, really Chicago. Where's the money going...these are not suburbs but underdeveloped rural areas. It's depressed looking out here to be quite honest. So again stay in I guess downtown Chicago if you can afford it or some other place to avoid these ridiculous tolls. This is our second day here and we've already amassed approaching 30 bucks in tolls. I can't wait to leave this mobster state. read more

If I could give this a 0 star I would, So I've been to 14 states through out the U.S and driven through 11 states. Never have I been in a money hungry state such as Illinois. I'm from California and drove to Iowa to attend school there in which I have only encountered one tollway from Colorado which was easy to pay. Now driving from Iowa to Illinois wasn't too bad beautiful drive and I was proud to make make it to Illinois, the state where President Obama resided for a while. I drive further in to a tollway and pay the first one for 3.60. Not bad. Continue driving I got change for days! I got this, then another toll, and another, and another. So on. WTF, so I make it to my hotel and have to go to the airport to pick up my Girlfriend. Then out of nowhere an unmanned toll for 1.50? Are you serious...I have to pay 1.50 in change? Ain't nobody got time or money for that. So I say f*ck you to the toll and drive off. Never have I experienced this many tolls in any state except for Illinois. Come on even Colorado has 1 toll! but more than 1 in Illinois? Thats just greedy. Everywhere I go there is construction going on but is that where the money is really going? Or is it going to some politicians pocket Republican or Democrat, neither that represent the people but just money sadly. This is a form of illegal extortion from the state of Illinois to rip people off. Not only that this state is very "out of state unfriendly" If you're out of state there is no warning for tolls or fines until you get there. Come on not everyone lives in Illinois get your head out of your Ass. This is going to deter people from visiting your state thus reducing your profit and value as a state. I am happy to drive through Nebraska, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, etc with no problems but here...I do. I really hope the state gets rid of these money sucking tolls, I can't believe the people here are too sheepish to rally against this, I'm sorry but this state and its politicians should be ashamed of itself for being money hungry. It sucks how people who come here to visit a great state have to pay fines just to visit and if they can't afford it what're they going to do? On a good note customer service lady was friendly and told me that within 24 months with 3 unpaid tolls they will charge you, luckily I only missed one so I do not have to pay but man making a person stress is not good. I had to wake up at 6am to give them a call. Not a way to make people happy. Overall Illinois needs to get their sh*t together and end these tolls, please I encourage you to drive to any other state out west and tell me how the tolls are...wait there are none. read more

Literally the most inconvenient, and cost prohibitive option. These guys love charging fees, charges and other debits from your account. Some how they have access to your CCard & think all charges are acceptable. Disappointed, but who isn't in a Monopoly, read more

The plan was to charge tolls until the roads were paid for - how many decades ago was that? Authorize THIS Mr. Tollway!

Definitely invest in an iPass..it makes life so much easier!! Otherwise, you're gonna always be scrounging around for change everytime a toll in Chicago pops up! Even with the iPass, I give the Tollway authority one star...for all the times in the past that I have been stuck at the toll booth with no change..or not enough change :( read more

Yeah the tow is a little too damn expensive. They need to lower it. I dont appreciate paying 80 cents now just to go to Woodfield. Damnit.

After I sent this review through IM, I was contacted by the Director of the call center. She listened, looked at the issue and resolved it immediately in a fair manner. Thank you Illinois Tollway Authority for trying to be better! read more

By far the very worst system I've ever had to deal with. There is absolutely zero customer service when there are issues with tolls. All toll booths were closed and the website was down for more than a week. Then, I decided to map out my trip since I couldn't get an invoice for the license plate, finally paid the tolls, and then I get billed separately for more tolls by the rental company. I most definitely paid way more than I owed because go figure, you can't write down which plazas you're going through while you're driving!!!! When I try contacting the Illinois tollway, there is no number to call and the responses to your e-tickets are of zero help!!! They do not answer your needs at all. I'm so beyond angry. I'd rather pay more to avoid ever traveling to Illinois again. And it's such a stupid thing to feel but this is completely ridiculous to have to go through! I wish I could give them a negative rating... Negative 1000 stars from me. read more

If I could give the Illinois Tollway Authority zero stars, I would. I live out of state and was not expecting there to be 859,614,865,932,148 toll stops. Not only was that inconvienient for me to stop at each toll to pay and I didn't have that much exact change on me, it was often hard for me to get over and exit in enough time so I missed a few tolls. I thought like any other state I would receive a bill for my unpaid tolls but instead I received a bill for my unpaid tolls and $20 per toll that was missed. When I called they told me I had 7 days to pay my toll without a fine, please tell me how anyone who knows nothing about the Illinois Tollway would know this? I live out of state for God's sake. Honestly, just a way to dig deeper into our pockets. Crooks. read more

The rediculous thing is that sometimes you don't realize you don't have change. This is easy to forget, especially if you don't travel these roads regularly. They do allow you to pay later by mail (I've written checks for like $.75) but it's just so frustrating. There must be a better way than this. read more

I have never had a worse experience in my life. I sent in several documents proving that I have a valid EZ Pass but every time I am told my documents are not accepted. I finally manned up and paid one fine and was told everything was taken care of. Then I get a document that I still owe $250 !!! They lied directly to my face. This corrupt system should be shut down. read more