Unpaid M50 toll - advice needed!

[Ulick]

Sound like this driver needs more than a bit of advice -


A brazen driver owes the State more than €155,000 for refusing to the pay the M50 toll fee, despite travelling on the busy road 1,018 times last year.

This motorist was just one of the hundreds who didn't pay the toll fee after travelling through the barrier-free collection point on the M50 in 2014, costing the State a potential €5m in revenue.
Almost €100m was collected from the 43 million journeys which were made through the toll point on the M50 in Dublin in 2014, according to the National Roads Authority (NRA).

From the Indo

He owes €155,000 for 1,018 journeys. That works out at €155.26 per journey. Having recently concluded my own (successful) battle with eFlow over unwarranted and false charges that the pricks are trying to get away with charging him 155 yoyos a go is actually believable. It's still a perfect illustration of the service economy in the south, charge rip-off fees for nothing and then keep adding on extras for anything else you can think off. Eircom is another crowd that's great for it. Four months it took them to activate a telephone line at the house and six months later they're still overcharging on my monthly bill.

[armaghniac]

Over 100,000 use the M50 each day and manage to pay, there is no excuse for this freeloader.

[The Gs Man]

Is there any point registering if I'm a Nordie?

Will they send the boys round if I don't pay?

[deiseach]

Is there any point registering if I'm a Nordie?

Will they send the boys round if I don't pay?

Hi, Peter Darragh!

[Ulick]

Over 100,000 use the M50 each day and manage to pay, there is no excuse for this freeloader.

1000 journeys should cost €3000
You don't think being overcharged by €152,000 is reason enough not to pay?

[Ulick]

Is there any point registering if I'm a Nordie?

Will they send the boys round if I don't pay?

They'll send your number to an English debt collector who send you a letter every 10 days for each journey. Each time they send a (computer generated) letter they'll add on another tenner plus a percentage of the outstanding amount which is 'compounded' to increase with the next demand. Eventually after a couple of months, like your man mentioned here, they'll be looking you to sell the house to cover the return journey to Dublin.

[deiseach]

From the original article:

The maximum amount a driver's bill can rise to for a single unpaid journey is €152.60. The toll fee starts at €3.10 for users who aren't registered. "However, there is no cap on what a driver can owe if he makes multiple passages without paying," Sean O'Neill from the NRA said.

I doubt he'll end up paying €155k. But if the only sanction after being caught toll dodging is to pay the original toll, there would be no incentive for any of us to pay.

[Canalman]

Is there any point registering if I'm a Nordie?

Will they send the boys round if I don't pay?

Nope and nope.

Wouldn't hold out too much hope for you in the future getting a bank loan or a mortgage.

[Ulick]

From the original article:

The maximum amount a driver's bill can rise to for a single unpaid journey is €152.60. The toll fee starts at €3.10 for users who aren't registered. "However, there is no cap on what a driver can owe if he makes multiple passages without paying," Sean O'Neill from the NRA said.

I doubt he'll end up paying €155k. But if the only sanction after being caught toll dodging is to pay the original toll, there would be no incentive for any of us to pay.

A 5000% penalty as an incentive to pay? That's not an incentive that's pure robbery.

The English based firm mentioned had me owing them over £300 for four journeys in less than two months after the journeys were made. This was even after payments to were made to their website to cover the original toll and additional penalties. Conveniently for them their automated system doesn't seem to keep track of accumulated amount owed by a car owner but generates a new billing amount with each letter issued.

So if you don't pay a demand within a few days it being issued (2nd class post from England) regardless of when you receive it, then a new letter is issued with penalties. However even if you pay the original demand letter and a the subsequent one is issued then they expect you to pay the subsequent amount even though it's based on a 'compounded' amount that's already been paid previously.

This is nothing more than a scam and it's very possibly yer man is just giving them a big "F*ck You!". If I wasn't watching my credit history in order to buy a house in the south, I'd be doing the same.

[armaghniac]

If you pay it first time then the penalties are moot.

[deiseach]

A 5000% penalty as an incentive to pay? That's not an incentive that's pure robbery.

How much do you think he should owe for ignoring it over a thousand times? For the purposes of the discussion, can we leave out broadsides about the ripoff in general that is tolls.

[Ulick]

If you pay it first time then the penalties are moot.

You can't pay it until you get the letter telling you how to pay it. The point is, subsequent letters and penalties are being issued in an unreasonably short time after the previous. By the time the letter comes with instructions on how to pay, the debt collections have already issued a subsequent letter for a higher amount.

[Ulick]

A 5000% penalty as an incentive to pay? That's not an incentive that's pure robbery.

How much do you think he should owe for ignoring it over a thousand times? For the purposes of the discussion, can we leave out broadsides about the ripoff in general that is tolls.

'On the spot' type fines and if they're not paid, penalty points.
It looks from this system that the English firm are taking a percentage of whatever revenue is raised, so it's in their interest to maximise revenue not to collect unpaid tolls. Whatever governmental department letting this happen is obviously complicit in the scam. 

[armaghniac]

If you pay it first time then the penalties are moot.

You can't pay it until you get the letter telling you how to pay it. The point is, subsequent letters and penalties are being issued in an unreasonably short time after the previous. By the time the letter comes with instructions on how to pay, the debt collections have already issued a subsequent letter for a higher amount.

Bollix. If you are competent to drive a car then you should be capable of paying the fee without needing a personal letter telling you what to do.

[deiseach]

Aren't penalty points a tool of road safety? Most people who neglect to pay the toll and get hit with a fine grumble about it, pay the damn thing, and move on. Again, I'm discounting the people who are being genuinely screwed over by a computer-says-no system, although if the system is supposed to reward revenue maximisation there are surprisingly few of them. Penalty points, on the other hand, are a much more onerous penalty, likely to cause widespread distress. Bringing in that penalty to deal with the kind of person who ignores the toll over a thousand times is way over the top.