Saving Money on EZ-Pass

By Rocky Lopes.

This is a reminder that effective July 1, 2009, holders of Maryland E-ZPass toll transponders will be assessed $1.50 per month "cost recovery fee" per account, regardless of usage. For an explanation about this poor decision by the Maryland Transportation Authority, see the earlier post on this blog.

Casual users may find that paying $18/year for the privilege of having transponders from Maryland not to be worth the cost, when you can get transponders from other EZPass participating entities for free or lower cost. A list of providing entities and a cost comparison is here.

I just got mine from another provider, for free. There is no account maintenance charge, either. I am sending back my Maryland transponders to the state with a letter of explanation (the address is: PO Box 17600, Baltimore, MD 21297.) I have asked that they close my Maryland account and refund the remaining balance to me.

If you haven't ordered yours from another provider yet, it's time to do so because it takes several weeks to get them. Do it now, and return your Maryland transponder(s) to the address above. Tell 'em by doing so that they can extract their "E-Z Tax" from people who don't read this blog.