crellston

I have just returned to the UK after spending six months in Spain to find a speeding ticket for €100 waiting for me plus a letter from the rental company requesting an " admin fee" of a further 35.

I am at a lost as to how to pay these charges as my Spanish is not up to translating the document. The rental company seem to be asking for payment by international bank transfer but that would cost more than their charge! Anyone have any experience of paying these fines or suggestion as to how to go about paying? If I ignore the demands, are there likely to be any repercussions if I return to Spain? I am likely to return next year but don't really want any hassles on arrival in the country.

Any suggestions would be appreciated..

Christina

Is the document real long, or could you post the part about how to pay on here and someone can translate it for you. Did you just try an automated translate function online? At least you ould be able to get most of it, but sometimes legalese can be difficult to translate.

YOu must have agreed to that admin fee in your rental terms, it's very typical so not surprising at all. Most people on here seem to get tickets in Italy, you could probably search for those, in terms of what will happen, although you being a UK resident, you may have to be more careful.

I suspect you can't pay by credit card because it isn't really a charge or purchase the rental company can bill you for. But I would have thought you'd have direction from the government as to how to pay them, not to the rental company. I think that's the usual in other countries.

thursdaysd

As I understand it from reading the Italian stories, the fee to the rental company is reimbursement for their "trouble" in passing your info on to the police, and is quite separate from the fine. If you paid the rental company by credit card, you should be able to pay this fee the same way. The fine is another matter.

Michael

If you have a UK bank account you should be able to do an electronic transfer to the Spanish authority's bank account. Or use an outside company such as http://www.xe.com/xetrade/. I use it to transfer funds from the States to Europe and their charges are no more than a couple of percentage points above the daily rate.

Christina

oh, yes, of course the admin fee is from the rental car company for handling the matter and having to follow up on it. I would think that should be payable by credit card, also, but you never know.

ribeirasacra

The fee you should pay to the car rental company.
The fine you should read this.
I hope that the information is still valid.
http://www.mamunahmed.com/08/speed-c...-fine-from-uk/
Web site do tend to change.

cathies

Can I just say that it's nice to read a post asking how to pay the fine, rather than a poster screaming blue murder for being fined and trying to avoid the payment.

hetismij2

That is a really useful link ribeirasacra . It would seem to still be valid too as the most recent comment is from April 2013.

I'm surprised the rental company didn't just charge their fee to your credit card. That is what they normally do.

crellston

Thanks Cathies! I too have never understood the reaction of some people when they get caught out in foreign country..
Thanks to all of you for your responses, particularly ribeirasacra. The link you provides was really helpful that is until I got to the last screen and I got a notice saying that it was not possible to pay this fine online and I should phone for assistance. As we are off to South America for the next six months next week there is little else I can do except to pay The Hertz admin fee by bank transfer ( just in case they blacklist me from renting a car again) and I will just have to visit the traffic police offices when we next return to Spain and hope tha the fine does not escalate.

thursdaysd

If the rental company is Hertz, have you tried calling their UK office?

Have a great time in SA - looking forward to the TR. Are you still blogging at the same address?

ribeirasacra

I think the fine has a discount if paid a certain time before hand. You can phone tomorrow (Monday) or any other week day. But being located in Spain I expect eh office to close around 13.30 to 14 hrs and not reopen until the following morning.
Here is the table giving the fines occurred: http://cosaspracticas.lasprovincias....-multas-tabla/
Along the top is the speed limit.
Under are the ranges of speed which you could have travelled over. The word Multa means fine (in Euros) So you are somwhere in the top line.
Do not worry about points as Spain has a very different system to the rest of Europe so that cannot be applied to your DL.
This article explains that there is a margin of error allowed in the speeds. This is different for the type of equipment used. A fixed camera (ie a road side box) it is for speeds below 100kph the margin of error is at 4 kmh and for speed above 100 kmh it is 4% of the total.
If the camera was located in a car (ie mobile) then the margin of errors are as follows: below 100 kmh, ii is set to 7 kmh and above 100kmh 7% of the total speed you was cought at.
There is this help page I found on the DGTs website: https://apls.dgt.es/IWPS/help/sincertificado_en.html

I hope this helps.

ribeirasacra

BTW what I should have said was ensure your fine has allowed the margin of error in its calculation. If not it seems advice is to claim that on your return. How I do not know, sorry.

crellston

Thanks for the good wishes Thursdaysd. I think I will be using the same blog as I don't seem to be getting on that well with the Wordpress version ( it must be me!) . Either way I will post the link on the SA board and my profile when I start.

Rib - thanks for the additional info. I have paid the hertz charge and have written to the Spanish authorities saying I will pay on my return to Spain at the end of the year. Hopefully this will prevent any additional charges accruing and my arrest and detention at the airport!!!!!

ribeirasacra

OK, let me know and I will visit you, I have been to Madrid, but never in my life visited a prison!
All joking aside. Have a great trip to SA; I envy you.