I would like to think of myself as sensible with money. (Others may prefer to call me "cheap".) So the fact I spent $867.08 of my hard-earned paying for someone else to drive on Sydney's road network – and didn't even notice – is a source of almost red-faced shame.
Like the five stages of grief, there were several phases of discovery/torture in the process.
Stage one: puzzlement
Hmmm, that's weird. Just surfing through my bank payments and there are still toll road direct debits coming out of our account, three months after we moved away from Sydney.
Stage two: investigation
OK, stay calm. How is this happening? What company is my toll beeper thingy with again? Ummmmm. Well, we set it up in Brisbane, that must be about eight or nine years ago. Hmmm. There's probably emails from them in my old Hotmail account. Ah, that's right: go via. What's my go via login? No idea. (Tedious password reset process ensues.)
Stage three: misplaced confidence
Right, logged in. Finally. Hmmm, most recent toll charges. March 2, M5 at Hammondville. February 28, M2 at North Ryde. February 19, Harbour Bridge. Well, I know for a fact I, and my toll pass, were nearly 1000 kilometres from there. This must be a mistake.
Stage four: escalating horror
Hang on, what's that number plate? Seems vaguely familiar. Ah, yes. The number plate on our old two-door hatch, sold almost exactly three years ago, a month before the arrival of our first child. (I remember smugly noting at the time that some people pay more for a pram than we sold our car for. Clearly they weren't good with money.) But surely we haven't been paying those tolls for three yea … oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
Stage five: anger
Fuuuuuuuu----------------!!!!
Stage six: panic
How much could this be for? The records only go back a few months. This could be hundreds of dollars. Worse. Thousands. Thousands of dollars in someone else's tolls. Fuuuuuuuu--------!!!!!!
Stage seven: denial
This is not my fault! This is NOT my fault. Not. My. Fault. Surely, this can't be my fault. Can it?
Thankfully, in my case, I managed to convince go via it wasn't my fault. That I had logged on and transferred the pass from my old car to the new. And that their requirement to also delete the old vehicle from my account entirely wasn't made clear on their website. (Seriously, what's the point of having the pass if you continue to rack up tolls when it's not affiliated with the car?) Of course, convincing them of this fact was not a simple process – involving emails, website screenshots, an unhelpful phone call to an overseas call centre, more emails and a threat to escalate to the ombudsman. But I did eventually – and somewhat surprisingly – receive a phone call from an extremely helpful woman who agreed with me and refunded the money.
So I'm no longer grieving for the actual cash, just any pride I once had in my budgetary acumen. How we did this for three years without noticing still bothers me. But it's not that hard to see how it could happen. $900 spread over three years is $25 a month. I'd take the train to work and wouldn't exactly keep tabs on my wife's driving habits during the week. Tolls are just something you learn to accept about Sydney. Had we not moved away I probably could have paid them for years to come.
Which bothers me even more. We live in an increasingly cashless economy, where most of the money I spend is either via an algorithm at the bank or a wave of my credit card. Not having to think about every little expense is a luxury. But that luxury can come at quite a cost. Even dull things like logging on to your toll provider are probably worthwhile every now and again.
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