thanks for the replies. We'll see how many times we have to cross the river and see. Will check into "shunpiking" as well.

And have you ever noticed that you never pay a toll to enter New Jersey, but you always have to pay one to leave? When I used to live in CT and drive south I always noticed that it was an NJ escape tax.

Another MD EZP'er turning in.

When I looked at NY, I see this in the agreement:

"Your Account will be assigned to one of the abovementioned New York
entities and your Agreement is with that particular entity."

So it seems like if you do this by mail you can't be sure you will get an acct with TBTA (the one that doesn't charge a monthly fee)?

Can anyone suggest how to get a TBTA tag? We will be thru NY to New england later this month, will stop at the right service center if need be.

Bargainator

robstrash said:In my opinion, the key thing to look at is how the account gets funded. In CA, they operate it like a debit card: every time you get below $10 they add $40 to your account (at least when I lived there 5 years ago). In NJ, they have some algorithm where they look at your usage and then charge you that every month. The problem is, that the algorithm is slow to decrease the value charged. Let's say that you normally have $10 a month in tolls but one month have $30. The algorithm will start charging you $30 every month even if you keep using $10. I know several people that have over $100 balance on their NJ EZPass account and the refund request process takes several months to get any money out. They love holding onto your money for free.

Ideally, you want to find a state that does it like CA used to - once you get below $x, it adds $y so you never have too much stuck in your account.

Oh no! they are earning interest on my $100!!! What does that come out to?

The threshhold in NY is $10. The replenishments can be set at either $25 or $40 or more. The basic one is $25, but if you go over that in a month it will jump to $40. If you don't use it, they won't automatically charge you, until you reach $10 again. I have never had $100 in the E-Z pass account, and I have been with them since day one (on my 2nd replacement tag). Yes, they send you replacement tags when the battery gets weak (about every 7 years.

I have the VA one (I think it used to be called Smart Tag). The minimum is $10. They automatically upload $35 for each transponder if it dips below that amount. I don't believe I was charged an initial fee because I used my credit card. (But this was a long time ago, and I don't remember.)

I had an issue or two where I would get fined. Apparently if the vehicle isn't in your EZPass log, you may not be allowed to use it. (Both times, my parents didn't wave the transponder clearly.)

Thanks for posting, didn't even know they had hit me for $2 already. Doesn't make sense to keep it since I only use it maybe 1 or 2 times out of the year. It almost seems worth while to switch to one where they charge $25 for the transponder, but never know when they might start charging a monthly fee too.

The safest bet would seem to be the NY one, where by law one of the three entities within the NY EZ Pass system cannot charge (Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority).

But no one has replied to my earlier post, how to get one from TBTA/MTA:

"When I looked at NY, I see this in the agreement:

"Your Account will be assigned to one of the abovementioned New York
entities and your Agreement is with that particular entity."

So it seems like if you do this by mail you can't be sure you will get an acct with TBTA (the one that doesn't charge a monthly fee)?

Can anyone suggest how to get a TBTA tag? We will be thru NY to New england later this month, will stop at the right service center if need be."

What about a tag from the Peace Bridge Authority? Text

No monthly fee, no tag fee. But probably wont constitute as a New York Service Center(and MTA bridge discounts) even though Peace Bridge is in the state of NY...

Jon11582 said:I have a MD pass. I emailed them after I got the notice back on June 23rd to figure out how to cancel it but I've gotten no response. I signed up with the Peace Bridge Authority at the same time.

I've already gotten my new tag and taken the old one out of my car. How exactly do you cancel your account with EZPassMD? I wasn't able to find this info, but maybe I'm just not looking hard enough.

I cancelled on-line. Then you have 10 days to mail the tags back.

>>Account Profile>>Close My Account

The 26th of June was only 8 business days ago. I wouldn't start worrying about the delay for at least another week or two.

Jon11582 said:How exactly do you cancel your account with EZPassMD?

Yeah, they make you hunt for the procedure to cancel. Interestingly, the procedure for signing up can be found very, very easily. Go figure.

Anyway, call 1-888-321-6824. Press whatever button on your phone gets you to an actual human being and not just a recorded message. (I forget which menu option it was - the Questions About Billing choice, maybe.) Tell the person you want to cancel your EZPass. You'll confirm your name and account number, and your account will be canceled. Took me about 90 seconds. Could probably have done it online, but this was no more difficult.

Your EZPass transponder contains an evil lithium battery. You can dispose of your transponder yourself, or turn it in at a designated facility for disposal. Your choice. You don't have to turn in your transponder if you don't want to. At least, I didn't. If someone else says he had to return his transponder, I'll take his word for it. Maybe it depends on how long you've had the transponder or how you set up payment or a change in the rules on security deposits or something. But I know that I didn't have to return mine.

Any unused account balance will be refunded in 30 days.

Just for the record, I switched to Virginia. Virginia discourages non-Virginians from signing up, but doesn't actually forbid it in any way. I signed up online. Took maybe 3 minutes. My transponder arrived 4 days later. Tore the old transponder off its heavy duty velcro windshield strips, stuck the new transponder in place. Changeover complete.

I drive in Maryland more than I do in Virginia, but I don't take advantage of any commuter plan here in Maryland, so opting for Virginia doesn't lose me any special discounts.