The $10 minimum required on your tolltag account.

[TheChadVIII]

The Texas Department of Transportation keeps interest generated on money that must be left on toll transponder accounts.

TxTagMotorists who use the TxTag electronic transponders to drive on Texas toll roads are having their accounts raided by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). The agency requires a bare minimum of $10 be kept in any account at all times. If the balance falls below this level, TxDOT automatically charges the credit card on file $20. TxDOT then pockets the interest accumulated from the accounts linked to the 390,000 vehicles equipped with TxTags.

An average account generates about $1 in interest every year. Although $1 is not much, Texas tolling authorities have mailed motorists bills for 25 cents in alleged unpaid tolls and added penalties of $5.25 on anyone who ignored payment of the trivial amount.

For TxDOT, keeping the interest on the $9.8 million in motorist accounts generates about $400,000 in annual revenue. The money helps defray the cost of the multi-million dollar Keep Texas Moving public relations campaign designed to convince Texans of the need for more toll roads.

Source: TxDOT sitting on mound of TxTag cash (Austin American Statesman (TX), 12/10/2007)

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/21/2114.asp

[HudsonHawk]

So don't use a toll tag and pay cash.

I honestly don't see where the problem here? If you don't like the system, don't use it. No one is forcing it on you.

[synaptik]

lofl .... the only thing i hate about it is when i forget i am getting low and they take the $$ out at a bad time other than that i love my toll tag ....

all kinds of companies do business like this

[black roadster]

On top of that you save money and time with a tolltag.

Pay cash and a gate now costs you $1.00 and you have to stop vs. $0.70 with a tolltag and I don't have to stop. No brainer for me.

You do need to keep an eye on the balance so you don't get a surprise charge to your bank account or credit card but I only use my tolltag occasionally.

[synaptik]

i like the way 121 does it if you dont havea tag you get a bill every once in a while for the toll fees and you never have to stop sweet deal

[TheChadVIII]

I honestly don't see where the problem here? If you don't like the system, don't use it. No one is forcing it on you.

Ok, Mao. I didn't think that we had public opinion to improve government systems.

all kinds of companies do business like this

On top of that you save money and time with a tolltag.

What happens when they ARE forcing it on you. You've read the articles about the Corridor proposals.

The extra money they're getting isn't going towards the toll road or new highways or orphans or whatever, its going into an advertising plan for more toll roads. Its not a company, its your government. They're not supposed to use marketing tactics to squeeze more money out of you.

I'm going to pay around a third of my income this year in taxes and think that if funds were handled better in this system, I could get from Plano the Carrollton every day without paying an extra $40 a month at some point in my life.

[synaptik]

well texas legislature has all but decided that all new highways in texas will be toll roads so it will prob actually cost you more to get anywhere lol

[TheChadVIII]

Yea I know haha. Its not like its hurting my bank account right now.

I just think the system is on its way to more corruption. Government shouldn't act like a corporation. Their main effort shouldn't be to take as much money as they can.

[synaptik]

at least they didnt almost sell that toll road to an international firm ... so we could make some spanish company rich

[tailchaser]

Yea I know haha. Its not like its hurting my bank account right now.

I just think the system is on its way to more corruption. Government shouldn't act like a corporation. Their main effort shouldn't be to take as much money as they can.

If, instead of holding your $10-40, they dinged your credit card/bank account for $.70, they would be paying the credit card processors about $.35 for every transaction... So... would you rather the money gain interest and go to the state's coffers or would you rather pay a higher toll since you'd be chipping 35 cents to the credit card processor every time you drove through a booth?

[synaptik]

If, instead of holding your $10-40, they dinged your credit card/bank account for $.70, they would be paying the credit card processors about $.35 for every transaction... So... would you rather the money gain interest and go to the state's coffers or would you rather pay a higher toll since you'd be chipping 35 cents to the credit card processor every time you drove through a booth?

this too is a good point +1

[TheChadVIII]

I'll play your game TC. Enter credit card processors - stage left.

I'm have a car with a transponder, and TxDot has sensors to track me. How hard do you think it would be to track the number of times I went through which gates in a month or a quarter, then bill me for that? One transaction, one small processing fee. It already happens every month when I use up my $30 that they'll let me take out of my $40 account. I would actually be paying a fewer amount of times if they used up all the money in the account before recharging it.

However, extra money generated going into the state's coffers is fine, pay for new improvements on the roads, education, or on something more beneficial to the state. Not into TxDot for a campaign for more toll roads. They should be making enough from the initial tolls that we pay when we go through their gates.

[synaptik]

121 does just that ... without the transponder

[TheChadVIII]

The argument isn't about paying tolls.

Its about them using tactics to generate extra money for themselves. Holding $10 from every user's account generates interest. The government is gaining interest off of everyone who has a tolltag account, and using that interest on a campaign to grow itself.

[Titus]

I'll play your game TC. Enter credit card processors - stage left.

I'm have a car with a transponder, and TxDot has sensors to track me. How hard do you think it would be to track the number of times I went through which gates in a month or a quarter, then bill me for that? One transaction, one small processing fee.

But now you are making interest off of the states money. If it isn't OK for the state to make a little interest off of your money, I don't see why it should be OK for you to make interest off of their money. I like the credit card for every transaction idea.

[TheChadVIII]

Again, I'm not arguing about the payment process of the tollways.

This is about an additional $400,000 annually generated in a shady banking method at best, that goes to a multi-million dollar campaign on why we need more tollways that could be filtered to something more worthwhile.

[POS Racing]

Ya know the toll tags lets the government know exactly where your car is at all times, plus I have seen on the interweb where it can actually read your mind!

[synaptik]

Ya know the toll tags lets the government know exactly where your car is at all times, plus I have seen on the interweb where it can actually read your mind!

and if its on the interweb it must be true ...

[TheChadVIII]

At least in Texas right now they don't use the average speed-tracking technology through the gates.

[tailchaser]

The argument isn't about paying tolls.

Its about them using tactics to generate extra money for themselves. Holding $10 from every user's account generates interest. The government is gaining interest off of everyone who has a tolltag account, and using that interest on a campaign to grow itself.

So... return all your NTTA tags, open a Texas Tag account, and manually send in $1 every time you need to use the tollway. You have an option, so quit yer bitchin'!