We rented a car recently in france and returned to find a 180 euro speeding fine in the mail.
The original fine was 35 euro but because we hadnt paid on time it rapidly increased. Of course our valid excuse is that we were not in australia to receive the fine in the mail. There is a way to apply for reduction, but you have to pay 65 euro in advance and I have heard that often they refuse and then you have to pay anyway.
I am tempted to just ignore the fine and see what happens. Does anyone have any past experiences with this?
What to do about a french speeding fine?
razorack999 on 22/09/2015 - 09:43
Comments
I don't believe that anyone is allowed to use your credit card to pay for anything without you approving it. That would be considered a fraudulent activity.
If that did happen, the payment can be disputed through your bank.
About the fine however, I am not sure as to whether there would be any consequense if it is not paid.
Don't they do it here with car rental and hotels? If they find damage to your rental car and trace it back to you, they charge you…yeah you sign about that when you rent the card. Same with hotel and mini bar charges after you check out? Being a rental car place in France, they might have got OP to sign something similar? You get fines….we are pinged for it…we will charge them back to you.
You may be right perhaps it depends on what was signed at the rental car company. They could attempt to withdraw the money from the credit card.
I called my bank and they advised that irrespective of what was signed, the credit card owner would be covered under our laws and nobody is allowed to take monies from your credit card without your approval. If it did happen, you should put in a dispute through the bank.
I have a friend who travels overseas yearly and as soon as he returns home, he has his credit card cancelled and replaced. He is very cautious. You never know who has a hold of your credit card details and what they do with those details.
I cancelled and replaced our credit card following a trip to Italy where we hired a car and were worried we may get hit with a speeding fine. I had read that Europcar simply take the $$, including a fee for processing the fine, from your credit card - I could be bothered dealing with any fight that may have ensued to have the transaction cancelled, so simply cancelled and replaced the credit card.
I can confirm this is how it's supposed to work. (You do approve it when you sign and hand over your credit-card @what. This is why hotels and car rentals require a credit-card.)
I didn't know what the charge on my credit-card was, so I requested a charge-back. Months later the fine came in the mail (the rental company didn't have my address quite correct).
I was concerned that the next time I tried to rent a car I'd be refused, but that didn't happen. I assume they tell the authorities they couldn't trace the driver and hopefully it goes away?? Or next time you're in the country you get arrested. I'll let you know what happens… if I can get ozbargain access in a foreign jail.
i guess the thing is that they have your CC and your Drivers licence. So once you try to rent a car again , your Drivers licence will come up as having unpaid fines?? Or maybe that is too sophisticated for the french.
I'd probably just chuck it in the bin. I got a parking fine while I was on holiday in Bondi, but once I googled "parking fine bondi beach" I found out that the Waverley Council is the biggest revenue raiser in terms of parking fines and infringements out of the Councils in Australia, and the legal ramifications had no effect since I was from another state, I just laughed and chucked it out. lol
could be some handy info in some of these links
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=french+speeding+fine+holi…
I will pay it. It will keep increasing + the rental company has your details. and you won't be able to dispute trust me, being from Europe I tried, and it never worked out. That's how government makes money.
I know we are all bargainers here, but when you got a fine, just pay it asap to avoid having to pay extra charges for no reasons.
Would you want a French person to pay their Australian fine?
would the australian fine increase from 35 euro to 180 euro in three weeks?
i was 5km over and am now expected to pay $280
Try going through a toll here and don't pay the fees. That will answer your question. Those fines grow faster than my money plant or bamboos.
I think it was a radar
get issued with new credit card number saying its lost
Then return the fine to senderThat would be fraud. Don't do that.
Just pay the damn fine. This is like the third thread I've come across where someone has gone over to either the US or Europe, got a speeding fine and then doesn't want to pay.
It is no different to Australia but if the rental car company has all your details they'll just pass them on to authorities and you never know. When you go back to France they might have a warrant for your arrest.
No I want to pay the original amount because I had no knowlege of the fine until I got back and it had gone up 600%. The problem is that the french system does not allow a reasonable and transparent appeal process .
Try and contact the appropriate authorities by email or something. If necessary work out a time where you can call them via Skype and talk to a actual person.
Send them a formal email saying that because you hired a car and live in Australia it has taken a while to get back to you and would like to apply for a reduction based on that. Also explain that you weren't actually in Australia when the fine came and provide your flight booking details (i.e copy of your e-tickets etc) to prove that.
I assume the hire car place probably has an admin fee for having to do all the paper work as well.
have you heard about the french administration nightmare. They are massive in numbers and massively inefficient. Also draconian (see Uber)
Could you imagine trying to contact and Australian roads authority by Skype? I doubt the French authorities would be any different.
If you have the original 35 euro paperwork, pay that.
You can then very convincingly argue that you paid as soon as possible and you can't be held responsible for delays in international correspondence.That is the problem. The first piece of paperwork was 180 euro
If it's a rental car, they might be able to forward the fine to the rental company to pay..and then the rental company can use your credit card details to charge it back to you. Am just wildly throwing 'can happen' stuff around here.