Received a traffic ticket from overseas
Nancy Tan of Fresno, California, wrote (Sept. ’14, pg. 33), “While traveling in Spain with my husband and son in May 2014, we received a speeding ticket, but we didn’t even know we had been cited until at least two weeks later when the rental car company forwarded the ticket to us by email (charging us over €30 for this “service”). The ticket, a fine of €300 (near $403), had been given electronically. The ticket said we had been cited for going 20 kilometers per hour over the limit.
“I printed the ticket out. . . and learned that I could pay online. I tried to do this but couldn’t navigate the website since (it was) in Spanish. I asked my Spanish teacher to help me pay the fine online. She navigated the website just fine, but its final step of accepting the payment simply didn’t function! She then told me that her husband had received a ticket when traveling in Spain several years ago and had run into the same problems trying to pay the fine. In the end, he just gave up and ignored the ticket. So far, nothing bad has happened, despite his traveling in Spain several more times.
“So I’d like to ask my fellow ITN readers about this. How did you go about taking care of a traffic ticket sent from overseas? If you ignored a ticket, what happened? (Please tell approximately when you were in the foreign country and when you received the ticket.) What might the consequences be for ignoring a foreign traffic ticket?”
Subscribers were asked to email editor@intl travelnews.com or to write to Traffic Ticket from Overseas, c/o ITN, 2116 28th St., Sacramento, CA 95818. Following are letters received.
About a year after returning home from our trip to Italy in 2013, we received a letter in Italian that appeared to be a parking ticket for $250. We recognized the location mentioned but had never seen a sign there saying ‘No parking.’ We tried emailing for information about how to pay the fine, but there were communication problems and the response didn’t help us.
Using Google Translate (https://translate.google.com), my husband emailed a letter in Italian explaining that he wanted to pay the ticket and how he planned on sending the money and asking if that was the correct way to do it. When the answer came, he again used Google Translate, so we then understood their instructions.
My worry about not paying the fine was that, on one of our frequent trips to Italy, it would catch up with us when we went to rent a car.
Lee Hanle Younge
Big Flats, NY
I took a wonderful trip to Italy in 2011, driving all over the place. After I got home, I received, through our car rental agency Europcar, a traffic ticket from the Comune di Salo, Uffizio Polizia Municipale that said that I had driven in a restricted zone in Pisa.
I speak Italian and am always careful to look for signs. My travel agent said she had received parking tickets and other traffic tickets in Italy and didn’t pay them. She advised me to do the same. I followed her advice and had no problems and no further mailings from Italy.
However, when I began planning a return to Italy in 2014, I became very nervous about not having paid the ticket and about the possibility of getting arrested on the autostrada!
I examined the ticket again, which was in Italian. Europcar’s cover letter said we could contact their Customer Service Department, so I requested a copy of the ticket in English. When that came, I saw an email address near the lower left-hand corner. I wrote there to get my questions answered.
After much back and forth between my bank and the Municipality of Pisa, I was able to arrange a wire transfer that paid the ticket, which was the original amount plus the penalty, not to mention the wire transfer fee from the bank. I think the fact that I paid the fine through a wire transfer from my bank made the process much more difficult.
I’m happy to say that I drove all over Italy in May 2014 without any problem. Well, I got lost, but that’s another story!
Jo Ann Michetti
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
This story cost me €125 (near $156), but I did get a few laughs out of it.
My wife, Linda, and I spent three weeks in May 2011 driving through towns of northeastern Italy: Cremona, Parma, Urbino, Assisi, etc. Wonderful! Seven months later, an official-looking bilingual document from the Polizia Municipale of Parma arrived at my home informing me that I had “entered a limited traffic area without authorization” on May 11 at 10:43 a.m. “Please pay €125.”
I asked myself, “What would happen if I just ignored it?” Surely, hundreds of Italians must tear tickets up every day and throw them away. But, because we were planning another driving vacation in Italy, I paid it with my Capital One Visa card, which does not charge extra fees for international transactions. The Parma police sent me a receipt.
A few months later I was astonished to find in the mail another official-looking bilingual document from the Parma Polizia Municipale asking €125 for what appeared to be the same offense on the same morning nine months before.
I found in the small print a phone number in Italy that promised an English-speaking agent at the other end. The next morning, at 5 a.m. California time, I called Parma and explained that I had paid already.
“Yes,” the woman said. “The good news is we have received your payment for that. The bad news is that this is a separate ticket. And the even worse news is that you are going to get a third ticket tomorrow.”
Upon further questioning, I discovered these violations all were recorded at the same place and within seven minutes of each other. Then I remembered the scene of the crime. I had been trying to reach a parking garage and had to drive around the block a couple of times because the ramp was blocked by a delivery truck. One side of that block, it seemed, lay in forbidden territory.
For these two extra violations, the Italian collections lady was on my side and urged me to write in protest. A feisty Italian friend composed for me what she called “a letter they will never forget” and gave me two addresses she had found online.
“Send them registered mail,” she instructed, and I did as I was told.
On July 16, 2012, fourteen months after our visit to Parma, I received a “payment reminder” informing me that failure to pay would lead to “legal proceedings in accordance with international agreements.”
I called my collections lady friend in Parma, who told me I had sent my protest to the wrong place. “Send it to me,” she said, “and I will see it gets to the right place.” Then she added, “Whatever you do, don’t pay it! You will never get your money back.”
That seems to have done it. Here’s to feisty Italian women!
Peter Beuret
Santa Barbara, CA
While in France in May 2014, my wife, Kathy, and I incurred two speeding tickets between Avignon and Carpentras, unbeknownst to us at the time because they were processed through a roadside camera. About four weeks after returning home, we received in the mail two identical envelopes with the infraction papers. The sender was “La République de Française” (not just a local or regional authority!).
The documents were in French, naturally, which is no problem at our end but would not have been insurmountable for a non-French speaker. However, a website URL looks the same no matter what, and once I went to the website and input my location, the text on the webpage switched to English.
To Nancy Tan, who wrote in ITN that she attempted to pay off a ticket online but the final step didn’t function, I would ask this question: ‘Did you call the bank that issued your credit card before you attempted payment on the Spanish website?’*
If she didn’t call to alert the bank of her intentions, then her attempted transaction may have failed due to automatic security measures that “safeguard” cardholders from overseas fraud.
Before making the payment on my citations, I called my credit card company, twice, as we had been home for a month and the temporary lifting of those overseas safeguards that we had requested for the duration of our vacation had come to an end.
Lorenz Rychner, Denver, CO
*ITN sent Nancy Tan a copy of Mr. Rychner’s email and she replied, “ I did not call my credit card company before attempting payment on the Spanish website. However, I do not believe this was the problem.
“For one reason, even though I always call the card company before leaving on a trip overseas, I routinely use my credit card (which does not charge a foreign transaction fee) for one-time foreign transactions — hotel reservations, apartment deposits, foreign airline tickets, Internet shopping, etc. — without alerting the credit card company first, and I have never had a problem.
“Also, there is usually some indication (e.g., a pop-up message) that a credit card transaction is not going through because of some specific reason such as this, and this did not happen on the Spanish website. Instead, it just seemed like something got locked up and the site was not functioning properly.”
I have twice received tickets through my rental car agency after returning from trips to Germany. (I can’t remember if the first or second time was in 2009; I go to Germany about twice a year.)
The first time, I discovered the ticket when I found a charge on my credit card from Avis. I called Avis and asked for an explanation and they said one would be forthcoming. A year passed and I didn’t hear anything, so I called Avis again and asked the status. Ultimately, Avis couldn’t tell me why I got the ticket and they refunded my money, except for an €11.90 handling fee.
A couple of years later, the same thing happened. I waited a year and called Avis to inquire. Again, they couldn’t tell me why I got the ticket and, again, my money was refunded.
To this day, I do not know where I got those two tickets or why.
Don Edmands, Jr., Vonore, TN
Two months after I returned home from an October 2011 trip to Málaga, Spain, a ticket from the Spanish government found its way to my mailbox. I translated it from Spanish to English using Google Translate, then had the translation confirmed by a friend who was fluent in Spanish. I had been ticketed for speeding.
My first course of action was to file a dispute in accordance with the procedure outlined on the ticket and on the referenced website. I never received a response to my letter of dispute.
However, I did receive a follow-up notice from El Centro de Tratamiento de Denuncias Automatizadas informing me that the cost of my ticket had increased due to nonpayment of the original fine. At that point, I decided to pay the fine.
Their website gave details of the procedure for paying online via credit card, but the site was not working and would not accept my information. At that point, I gave up.
Having a delinquent traffic ticket from Spain and not knowing what the consequences would be if I returned there, I stopped visiting Spain. I have found that Portugal is a great alternative, with rental homes and condos that are a lot less expensive than those along the Spanish coast near Málaga.
Michael Dresser, Anaheim, CA
With regard to traffic tickets issued overseas, I can tell you that in nearly every country, the instructions for payment are not in English and are very difficult to pay, so my M.O. has been to throw them away.
I travel to Scandinavia about six times per year. I have been issued parking tickets in Norway and Sweden, have thrown them out and have never had a problem. The last one I got was in Sweden in August 2014. Some of these were issued in supermarket parking lots patrolled by private companies.
I rent with Avis exclusively, worldwide. They send the notices to my home address, after which I might get three or four ticket reminders, then the reminders stop coming and I’m never bothered again.
About two years ago in Norway I was nearly issued a ticket for parking in a handicapped parking space. I was using a temporary American handicapped placard, which was red; the issuing officer said they see only blue ones.
I had checked with Avis in Oslo to make sure my placard was legal, and the policeman told me it was totally legal to use but that in Norway they place the placard on the dashboard on the driver’s side instead of hanging it on the rearview mirror as we do here Stateside.
Toni Stafford
Manhattan Beach, CA
On a visit to North America in 2012, I was traveling in Canada toward the American border when I was stopped for speeding. Six weeks after my return to Britain, I received an email from the Toronto traffic offence penalty office politely reminding me that I had left Canada without paying my fine.
There was a copy of the ticket along with details on how to pay by credit card, which I duly did. I cannot remember the amount involved, but it was a fraction of the fines given out for similar infractions in Britain and Europe. How they found my email address is still a mystery.
Britain and Europe have tightened their policies toward “fine dodgers” considerably in the past couple of years, and this now extends to people visiting from any country, including non-Europeans.
Within the last decade in Britain (and in most other European countries), Automatic Number Plate Recognition, or ANPR, cameras have been introduced. These are used to monitor and record all traffic on roads everywhere, including main highways, smaller roads and city streets, and at all entrances to seaports and airports.
They photograph hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day, and the information is automatically recorded with the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Authority and on the vast Police National Computer, where full details of each vehicle are already kept on record, including the current roadworthiness certificate, the Road Fund Licence (tax) and the registered keeper.
All traffic police cars in Britain, and those in most European countries, are fitted with ANPR cameras. Should a police officer want to stop a vehicle, he can check on the ANPR system to obtain details about the driver and vehicle before the stop.
The introduction of these cameras was allegedly for “national security” reasons, and, in fact, most cities have cameras watching and recording street action, primarily to prevent crime, but the cameras now are also used to monitor vehicles and automatically issue fines to drivers committing offences.
When, for example, a vehicle traveling at a speed in excess of the statutory limit passes an ANPR camera, the main database locates the details of the registered keeper within seconds. He is immediately notified of the infringement, where possible by email but also in writing.
The registered keeper of the vehicle must either pay the fine or notify the authorities as to who was driving the vehicle at the time of the offence.
In addition, should a driver go through a monitored red light or through a prohibited area (of which there are many, with some poorly marked), a fine is automatically generated without the driver’s being aware if it.
And if a vehicle without the correct documentation (for example, one with expired tags or no insurance) passes a police vehicle fitted with an ANPR camera, the police driver is notified by an alarm in the police vehicle ANPR system. It is then simple for him to apprehend the offender and issue a ticket.
Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Portugal all have ANPR cameras. Italy, Spain, Greece and Eastern European countries are gradually following suit, as their finances permit.
The reason why such importance is placed on this in Britain and Europe is that, in addition to a fine, a motoring infringement also imposes a number of “points” on the offender’s driver license. If the offender ends up with 12 such points, his license is suspended for up to two years. Thankfully, people from outside Britain and Europe just have to pay the fine; they do not suffer the penalty points on their licenses.
On 21 Feb. 2015, I made phone calls to Enterprise Vehicle Rental UK, Hertz UK, Budget Vehicle Hire UK and Avis UK, and I posed the following question to each of them: “if an overseas renter leaves the country without paying a fine (speeding, parking, etc.) he incurred during the hire period, and you then receive the fine after the bird has flown, what happens?”
They all gave the same response but in slightly different wordings. At their Bath branch, the Enterprise UK representative stated, “When we receive a fixed-penalty fine, we pay it immediately. We then forward the documentation to our European head office for recovery. The hirer will have signed on the hire agreement that he accepts responsibility for fines he incurs while renting the vehicle. Our European office will then charge the hirer’s credit card with the amount of the fine plus a £36 administration fee. The hirer is notified of this action.”
(Editor’s note: In the UK, “fixed-penalty” fines, or “fixed-penalty notices,” according to the UK Automobile Association, deal with “minor parking and motoring offenses,” and are “used to enforce ‘moving traffic offenses’ such as speeding and traffic light offenses… .” A fixed-penalty fine does not require a visit to court, but a driver may contest one in court if he wishes.)
As all authorities in Britain and Europe now accept credit or debit cards, it is not difficult for an offender to pay his fine regardless of where he lives. This can be done over the phone or by email. Note, however, that sending credit card details in an email is not advised.
There is no avoidance of the entire system or any way of beating it, so the advice is to be careful to keep to the speed limit, do not park in prohibited areas, and do not exceed parking time limits where limits are imposed.
In Britain and France in particular, the authorities are especially vicious and aggressive. And in many cities, such as London, York, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bath, Cardiff, Dublin, Belfast and, of course, Paris, an incorrectly parked vehicle will be physically lifted off the street. It is then very expensive and inconvenient, taking a lot of time and paperwork to get the vehicle released.
The city centre of the beautiful city of Bath, in the west of England, is now “divided in half,” where motorists are concerned. Joining the two “halves” of the city is a road that permits buses, coaches, taxis and special license holders only. Although the street restriction is clearly marked, many people who are not familiar with the area or the sign drive through the street and receive fines.
This ridiculous restriction was allegedly introduced to dissuade people from driving cars into the city centre, but the truth is that it is simply a money-making scheme. In 2013, fixed-penalty fines were issued, 78% of which were to overseas visitors. This generated around £1.6 million to the city’s coffers!
Anton Prole
Wiltshire, England, UK
For a traveler who receives a traffic ticket or parking ticket while driving in another country, what are the repercussions of not paying the fine?
In online research, ITN has found no first-hand accounts of anyone having been prevented from entering a country by Immigration authorities due to an unpaid fine for a driving infraction.
Citizens of European Union nations, however, are subject to reciprocity agreements between member nations, and points garnered from driving infractions incurred in any EU country by a driver will be added to the driver’s record. In regard to driving infractions, the US has no reciprocity agreements with European countries.
However, a driver with outstanding traffic tickets who wants to rent another car at a destination may be refused, especially if trying to rent from the same company. In online forums, a few travelers have reported this happening to them.
Whether or not payment of a fine is pursued by authorities depends on which country the fine was incurred in, which company the vehicle was rented from (if any) and the amount of the fine. On his driving-advice website DrivingAbroad.com, a traveler with an interest in self-driven trips wrote of his research, “I’ve heard a number of stories of New Zealand authorities employing debt collection agencies abroad to pursue fines.”
Gemut.com, a hotel- and car-booking website for Germany, Switzerland and Austria, notes that, in those countries, at least, it is unlikely that a car rental company will pay for a driver’s traffic ticket and then charge his credit card.
It’s stated on that website, “The driver, not the car’s owner, is the responsible party… For a rental company to pay a customer’s fine and then charge his credit card would deny due process. Since it’s not responsible, the rental company doesn’t care whether the fine is paid or not.”
ITN found, in the “Terms and Conditions” for Avis Rent A Car in Austria and Switzerland, the statement, “As registered keeper of the vehicle, we are legally obligated to communicate the driver’s personal data to the authorities whenever a traffic violation has occurred… For this effort we charge an administration fee…” Note, however, the Terms did not state that Avis pays the fine and charges the renter’s credit card, although ITN could not confirm that it will not.
However, as Anton Prole, a tour company owner and private guide based in England, wrote in his letter above, the opposite situation is in place in that country, and a person renting a car authorizes the rental company to charge any outstanding fines to his credit card as part of the hire agreement. According to Avis UK’s contract, “If a parking ticket or traffic violation occurs during your rental… Avis will notify you if we have had to pay any charges on your behalf and will deduct these from your credit card…”