Rather than pay an extra fee of $18 a year, some Maryland drivers are taking the easy way out.
E-Z Pass began charging a $1.50 a month account maintenance fee since July 1, to help defray a per account maintenance charge from one of its contractors. That same month, 4,990 subscribers in Md. closed their accounts, The Washington Post reports.
The number is much higher than E-Z's usual monthly average of 1,000 subscribers who typically leave, but the agency claims they were preparing for more.
"We were expecting more than we got," E-Z Pass spokeswoman Teri Moss told the Post.
Of course, when you have 557,000 accounts - including 70,000 of which aren't active, what's a loss of 4,990? Probably not much, especially when you also get 2,800 new accounts in the same month.
So much for the people sticking it to the E-Z Pass man.
