Speeding ticket payment?

[Ellesee]

I received a registered letter with a speeding violation. (51.53 kph in 50 kph zone… 11 months ago). Despite the absurdity of this I want to pay it. The notice only gives option to pay via bank transfer, which has $30 in bank fees. Is there any other option to pay?

I am not sure why this comes direct from the local police instead of the car rental agency. Would have been easy to pay them via cc.

 

[Kportgrl]

We had a very similar experience just outside of Venice, a couple of years ago. Received our ticket a number of months after we were there and it was from the city, not the car rental agency. It was for a very small excess over the speed limit. it said it was payable by credit card, but that system wasn’t working. So we had to pay by bank transfer and it did end up costing us extra. And then we had to pay more on top of that because process they had a processing fee Venice that meant our payment wasn’t enough. it’s our experience that they take their traffic tickets very seriously so we felt we had to pay. And I might add that parking tickets have always been difficult to pay as well. (We’re from Canada). I wish I had more positive information to give you, but our experience was as I described. Italy is one of our favourite countries to visit but we have found that this kind of thing often crops up. And we have learned to accept it as part of the cost of travel there.‍ (That said, France and Scandinavia are likely our next travel destinations for 2025.)

 

[Andrew]

Are the $30 in bank fees from your home bank? If you do a bank transfer through wise.com the fees are reasonable.

 

[Ellesee]

The fees are from the bank for a wire transfer. I dont know anything about Wise. I will look into it- thank you. Hopefully works well for Canada to Italy tfr.

 

[Alpinista]

I'd be curious from which town the ticket was issued. We have received speeding tickets from towns that are basically bumps in the road where the speed zone is kind of a surprise, but that happens in US also. Our GPS usually tells us where the speed cameras are, so do get some warning, but not always. We are the speed limit snails on the autostrada and can't imagine that speeding tickets are very prevalent for the people flying by us.

 

[Ellesee]

The ticket was issued by the Citta di Fiumicino Polizia Locale. Last night at hotel before flying out early the next morning. We went to Fiumicino for dinner and the roads from the hotel to the restaurant were windy with speed bumps so not sure how we even were going the limit let alone over.

 

[Alpinista]

Aggravating — it’s been a while since our last ticket and trying to remember how we paid. We have bank accounts in Italy, so thinking we were able to issue a payment that way.

Happy future journeys

 

[BryanS]

Unfortunately without a PagoPA or Italian bank account, both only possible for Italian residents, you will probably have to do the US bank transfer.

 

[Alpinista]

Unfortunately without a PagoPA or Italian bank account, both only possible for Italian residents, you will probably have to do the US bank transfer.

Just a note that Italian bank accounts are not restricted to residents. My wife and I both have accounts. A codice fiscale, which is necessary, can be obtained through application to the Italian embassy.

 

[vicogirl51]

I received a registered letter with a speeding violation. (51.53 kph in 50 kph zone… 11 months ago). Despite the absurdity of this I want to pay it. The notice only gives option to pay via bank transfer, which has $30 in bank fees. Is there any other option to pay?

I am not sure why this comes direct from the local police instead of the car rental agency. Would have been easy to pay them via cc.

If you are not planning on going back anytime soon I would wait for the notice to arrive from the rental car agency.
Whomever you rented from , the vehicle is registered to them not you , so they are ultimately the responsible party. The rental car agency has your CC on file from that rental and usually they will charge your CC and send you the notice at the same time.
You have an American drivers license so there is basically nothing they can do to you . You are tracked via your passport not your license !
I’d wait!!

 

[NoSpin]

You have an American drivers license so there is basically nothing they can do to you . You are tracked via your passport not your license !
I’d wait!!

I'm not so sure about that. In the US there is a TV show called "To Catch a Smuggler". In one episode there was an American man in his 60's entering Italy with his wife. He wasn't a smuggler, but in his 20's when he was in the US Army he got in some trouble in France and never showed up for his court appearance. France put some sort of hold on him.

The Italian authorities wouldn't allow him in the country. His wife was waiting for him outaide customs. They both had to fly back to the US. They were suposed to be in Italy for only a couple days before they boarded a cruise ship. Well that plan was moot.

If you plan to return to Italy, there is no way I would not pay a ticket. If you're not going back you may be fine, but I have read on here that they turn it over to a collection agency. How that may affect your credit report I'm not sure.

 

[Alpinista]

If you wait, you a likely going to incur late payment fees? I'd just bite the bullet and clear the debt. My view of these nuisance expenses is that I've already paid many thousands of dollars for the trip and paying another fifty or a hundred dollars for something else is not going to make much of a difference.

 

[Andrew]

It may vary by rental company and location, but from what I've read the rental company charges the credit card on file for their effort to find who had the car at the time and forward it to the ticketing agency, and then it's up to the jurisdiction to collect the fine from the renter; the rental company stays out of it. Anyway, I think a money transfer through Wise would work well enough.

 

[Ellesee]

I have paid it using Wise . Seems simple enough. Wise charged $5 and the credit card charged $5 (appears as a cash advance). Status on Wise is sent but not yet received. It could be 30 days before I know for sure the ticket is paid, per the website. It’s a good test for Wise as it would be a way to pay for a rental that requires wire transfer (though that is rare these days). Thanks all.

 

[Ellesee]

Wise shows that the funds have not been deposited in recipients account. I expected they would take the money by now (1 week), even if it wasn’t applied to the fine. Is this just slower Italian administration?

 

[Alpinista]

Just a footnote that we received a ZTL fine today (Ravenna) for a July 1 infraction. Not sure how we managed to get into a ZTL area since we drove to and parked at the train station from an autostrada exit. Oh well......

 

[NoSpin]

You were on the Autostrada? Unless you're driving a Ferrari, that's a ZTL!

Yea, like you said, Oh well.....

 

[Alpinista]

You were on the Autostrada? Unless you're driving a Ferrari, that's a ZTL!

Yea, like you said, Oh well.....

Entered the city from an autostrada exit and drove directly to train station. Walked the city and then got in car and drove straight back to autostrada. Have looked at the ZTL maps for Ravenna and just not seeing where we crossed a boundary. When the cost of the ticket is factored in with the total expenses for the trip, negligible, but irritating.

On a related note, my wife, one of her sisters, and her really obnoxious youngest brother went to Florence for a day a number of years ago. Her brother insisted on driving and refused to listen to my wife pointing out that he was going past ZTL signs. When the bill came, it was for 900E and he then wanted to split the costs. My wife, normally the kind middle child of a large family, used language that I didn't really know was part of her vocabulary. It was really entertaining listening to him rage.