tom_mn

Because it's not till weeks later that the traffic violation notice from a comes. Did an offense occur? Was it fair? Was the sign covered by vegetation (very common in Europe)? Something that would almost certainly be waived if stopped on the spot by an actual policeman, becomes a $250 post trip bill.

So cancel that card, pronto.

PalenQ

And what about the 99% of the cases where the driver was at fault, often by not taking time to know the local laws!

I find your wanted disregard of the law disgusting - do the fine pay the fine - best of all do not blame it on such shoddy things that the OP raises which are extremely unlikely to be the cause.

the iconic Ugly American IMO!

kybourbon

What does cancelling the card have to do with anything? The rental company only charges the fee for providing your address/info to the police, not the traffic ticket. Even cancelling the card, you might only avoid the info fee, but the ticket will likely be mailed to you.

In Italy, it's usually a camera that snapped your pic during the violation and the rules are one year to get the ticket to you.

tom_mn

It's the cameras that are disgusting.

Yes, but the $50 "info fee" is almost worth canceling the card over on its own.

Happy to live in a place where only drivers can be fined, not license plates. Better to pay police officers to police than use these cameras.

And where was the flash? We thought we were safe because we never saw a flash.

Everyone else was driving faster anyway.

Dukey1

Well, Tom I am sorry to tell you that there are a lot of places IN the United States which use speed cameras and those most definitely DO fine license plates.

I suppose we could get into the inevitable never-ending discusion about whether or not speed cameras are effective in changing behavior. We could also get into a discussion about whether or not people who get speeding tickets AT ALL are ones you want living near you, too.

janisj

tom_mm: I get it, you sneak children into hotels rooms, and cancel credit cards to avoid legitimate responsibilities . . . great lessons you are teaching your kids.

nytraveler

Well here we have a lot of traffic cameras and speed limits have just been changed from 30 to 25 to reduce the number of accidents/deaths of pedestrians.

And yes, the car rental agency will find you here too - and you can expect the fine to be $250 and up.

Again- you need to man up and stop being such a whining wuss.

bettyk

It's possible that you may not receive a ticket. We never did. We weren't even sure what we did. We received a letter from Avis telling us that they would be charging us a fee, which they did.

It can be very confusing driving in a foreign country, even when you DO attempt to learn all the traffic signs.

We just returned from a trip to Austria and there were lots of cameras everywhere. Our GPS warned us of most if not all of them. Sometimes, there were signs warning of radar but other times there weren't.

What we found strange is that many people were driving faster than we were and we wondered why. They should know that there are cameras and they'd get a ticket but didn't seem to care.

tom_mn

I wasn't actually driving, but can attest to completely normal driving that day fitting in with everyone else.

Next time I will get a credit card that gives oodles of points or miles and waives the annual fee the first year, use it enough to get the bennies, rent the car in Europe then cancel it upon returning. East Germany circa 1978 big brother problem solved.

40 euros to forward your address to the police? Hardly a reasonable fee.

Michael

Happy to live in a place where only drivers can be fined, not license plates. Better to pay police officers to police than use these cameras.

Don't drive in San Francisco.

40 euros to forward your address to the police?

Similar fees are levied by U.S. car rental agencies.

I think that you should give up driving altogether.

Alec

BTW,cancelling your credit card doesn't work. By T&C of your card, you are responsible for all charges arising during the period of card ownership, even if the charge doesn't come through months after. So provided they can show the charge relates to an incident that occurred when you owned the card, you are still liable to pay it.

NewbE

<Happy to live in a place where only drivers can be fined, not license plates.>

<Everyone else was driving faster anyway.>
<can attest to completely normal driving that day fitting in with everyone else. >
How old are you? If you are over 15, you should know that that is the lamest excuse in the book. I hope you are foolish enough to try it on one of those actual police officers by whom you so look forward to being stopped.
"Officer, I was just following everyone else!"
If you think that will save you, please try it.

NewbE

<Happy to live in a place where only drivers can be fined, not license plates.>
Forgot to add, don't drive outside your home state, then, because it's one of the last bastions of camera-less policing.

Look on the bright side: soon you'll have drones to whine about!!

Jean

What country/countries were you in?

"Completely normal" driving does not mean you didn't violate some regulation. Did you drive into a town (of any size) that day?

"Everyone else was driving faster anyway." Do you know that it was in fact a speeding ticket? Was there never a time all day that you were driving faster than other cars?

"Something that would almost certainly be waived if stopped on the spot by an actual policeman..." And you know this because....?

leslieq

Haahaa...just as I was logging on to ask a question about this type of thing I found this discussion.

Just opened the mail and found what I think is a speeding ticket from France ("exces de vitesse")??

We were never stopped by a police officer. Do they have cameras recording your speed in France? This was in Realville. I remember it as a very small town.

Of course I will pay the fine if this is the case.

Next question: do you go to a bank and have them issue a check? The fine is 45 euro if we pay on time. The document is in French (of course!) and tests my limited traveler's French.

Hope someone can give some advice on how to handle this. Thanks.

Michael

Do they have cameras recording your speed in France?

Yes. The leeway in terms of speed is very small. French friends mentioned getting ticketed for going 2 km. above the speed limit in a tunnel.

greg

leslieq,
For France, isn't there a reference to an online payment option somewhere on your ticket?

Something like this?

https://www.amendes.gouv.fr/portail/index.jsp?lang=en

leslieq

Greg: you just nailed it! Under the "payment par carte bancaire" is the internet site you reference above.

Without your help I never would have figured this out.

MERCI!!!

leslieq

greg--just completed the transaction. Super easy and would never have figured it out without you!

It definitely was a speeding camera.

hetismij2

Where was the flash? Several years ago.
Cameras are digital, small and generally don't flash nowadays.
Don't speed and you won't get a fine.
DH collected another fine a couple of weeks ago. €56. Yes he was speeding and coughed up of course.

I get heartily sick of posters complaining about being caught breaking the law. You aren't being targeted because you are a tourist, you are being targeted because you broke the law. Pay up and stop moaning.