You have a week to pay online for any tolls you blew through recently. Sucks you didn't know about that, could've prevented it easily.

 

I flew into the windy city and picked up a rental car last fall. As I headed down the highway I found out that there are a lot of unattended toll booths that I had to run because all I had was $20 bills.

I think that if you are going to have toll booths, you need to find a way for travelers to pay the toll.

I did go to their web site and pay the tolls but they still tacked the tolls on to my rental car contract. What I went through to straighten it out was not worth the tolls.

 

If you're planning on renting a car in Chicago or any tollway area, ask about an I-Pass, or if the rental license plate is attached to an account already. More than likely they will have some solution for you that prevents you from needing to pay your own tolls.

 

Be careful if you rent from Hertz. They have a toll pay system called PlatePass, where you can bypass the toll booths and it will automatically bill you to your credit card on file with the rental agency.

The problem is, and the Hertz people will not tell you this, is if you use PlatePass there is a $2.50 per day service charge in addition to whatever the toll is. That's not too much of a problem EXCEPT if you use the service even one time on one day you are charged the $2.50 per day service fee for your entire rental period, up to 4 days. Thus, a 50-cent toll could end up costing you $10.50 by the time you turn your car back in.

 

^^^
That really sucks!

 

OH how I love illinois... home sweet home haha