Speeding Ticket...should I pay it?

Hasn't been much posted here about French tickets. Most relate to the Italians. And the Italians are getting more aggressive with the use of local collection agencies.

Whether you pay or not is your decision. Just keep in mind that we have become a more interconnected world with computers, internet, etc. Now the French can easily find you. Twenty years ago it was impossible to track you down. Thirty and forty years ago I can remember getting speeding tickets in other states and ignoring them because there was no way for them to collect. Now I read in paper that local people have driver licenses denied because of pending traffic citations in other states. It is becoming a small world and hard to hide.

You speeded. You owe the fine. What is there is consider beyond that?

What you describe is exactly the way it works, and yes, you should pay the ticket.

Here's a link with details about speeding tickets and how the fines are calculated: http://english.controleradar.org/speeding-fines.php.

About in the middle of this page -- http://english.controleradar.org/speeding-in-france.php -- is this quote "As a foreigner however you will be granted another 30 additionnal days to pay the fine, but this may or may not be at the low price (first 15 days price)."

I don't know how long it took you to get the ticket in the mail after the infraction. It took our tickets (2 in 2012) about 6 weeks. On our tickets, there was a website where we could pay online with a credit card. After running a lot of the French on the ticket through Google Translate, I figured out that they were charging the lower price and paid it the same day we got the tickets. I was concerned about figuring out the French online, but when I went to the link it was in English. And I had been right about the actual fine amount.

When you go to that link, you will know for sure exactly how much you need to pay. Just pay it and add it to your car rental costs. That's what we do.

Be thankful the French are so efficient at sending the tickets and make it so easy to pay. We got one from Switzerland almost 3 years after the fact and the only way to pay was by funds transfer. The transfer cost was more than the fine!

Why shouldn't we chastise you? You sped, got caught and now don't want to pay the fine. You seem to be searching for the excuse not to pay it: that there will be no consequences. How is that not wrong?

Just pay the ticket. You got it.

What are your thoughts on foreigners who get traffic tickets in your part of the world? Should they pay?

Geez, the guy is just asking a question! Nick, I have no experience with any foreign speeding tickets, but having said that, I'd blow it off if it was me (if I never planned to return to France, that is. If I thought Id go back someday, I'd pay it).

I see the holier than thou moral police are alive and well on the RS forum.
Did anyone see the part of my post that said "leaving the guilt aside for the moment"?

For the others with useful info so far...thank you!

Among the forum rules is one that says we should not encourage illegal behaviour or advise on how to skirt the law.

Lo from Tuscon, above, had the most helpful answer.

It seems that even though the ticket (in French of course) escalates from 45E to 180E depending in how long you take to pay, if you're outside the country they seem to give you a break. My ticket had already gone past the escalated dates, so it appeared as though I owed the 180E, even thought the dates had come and gone while they were tracking me down...kinda not fair, but whatever.

Going to their website, which had a translation button for English, they provided me with an extension of the dates, I guess because we're not in France. Therefore, the fine was still 45E instead of 180E...much easier to swallow.

So all you hard cores can stand down. I paid the fine.

BTW, I was going 6 (SIX!) KMH over in a 90KMH zone...not exactly Speedracer!

quoting the original poster of this question:-

Did anyone see the part of my post that said "leaving the guilt aside for the moment"?

Did you see the question you asked in your headline question: -

quoting the original poster of this question:-

Speeding Ticket...should I pay it?

The answer is yes you should. As soon as you can. Don't worry when they will come after you. They very well might, although if you move house you may slow them down a touch - although these days not much - and the knock on the door will be that much more of a surprise.

This was a helpful thread and will be useful should I receive a ticket in the mail in the next 4-6 weeks. There are cameras everywhere and sometimes it is difficult to go precisely under the correct speed, especially in 30 KPH zones and the stretches of freeway near cities (Toulouse) where the limit is 90 even though you are on a straight highway with minimal traffic. Your brain says 90 is very very slow in that situation. It complicates matters when the rental company messes with your speedometer. Yes, in theory if you think you are going 50 KPH but due to the altered speedometer you are actually going 45 KPH, that should be helpful to you - however, if the traffic behind you and passing you is giving you the indication that you are actually going very slow, relative to what is typical on the road, then your tendency is to drive closer to the normal flow of traffic. All in all, I both (1) won't be surprised if a get a ticket and (2) definitely feel like I was usually one of the slowest drivers on the road.

We actually got a parking ticket in Germany in 2014. I tried to pay the fine before I left the parking lot and was told I could not pay it there because "fines are handled by another company."
It wasn't just foreigners that were issued parking tickets. There were several Germans in the office at the attraction who were told the same thing that I was. I was told a letter would be sent to the rental company and they would forward it to me
When we finally got the letter and had it translated, a 10 Euro fine, was going to cost me $75 USD in wire transfer fees to pay it.
My husband called the German embassy in our state, to ask for help. The official laughed, said not to pay it and feel free to travel to Germany again!
So we never paid it.

"I see the holier than thou moral police are alive and well on the RS forum."

Oh please, you asked the question! Being "holier than thou" is different from being a moral person anyway, imo.

Do you plan to return to France one day? If so, you would want to take care of the ticket. There may be agreements between France and other countries too, that may be an issue in the future if you chose to not pay the fine that is due.

I had no intention of entering this conversation, but "Holier than thou" ? "Moral police" ? For Pete's sake, you asked whether you should pay the fine. What response did you expect? Flout the law? Drive however you choose? Bear no responsibility for your actions? Endanger other drivers and pedestrians? It only took me one speeding ticket here at home 40 years ago to figure out how to avoid a fine. I learned a lot in college and grad school, but one lesson that I recall as if yesterday came not from my Profs but from a classmate who leaned over and whispered, "Well Denny, never ask a question unless you're prepared to hear the answer."

"I see the holier than thou moral police are alive and well on the RS forum."
The reaction was to the title.

This question has been gone over many times before with people coming to the same conclusion based on the experience of others who received tickets. That's why the answers were shot back fast and unequivocal.

Unfortunately, the RS Forum search function is difficult to use to search for answers in old posts, so people end up asking similar questions and this happens to be one that comes up every summer; Forum regulars have heard a lot of evidence in favor of paying the ticket. Everyone who asks the question is hoping for a way out--aren't we all--but the answers come back loud, clear, and fast that it's just like getting a ticket wherever you live. The person's experience in Germany mentions "companies" which is different than dealing with government entities.

I was also going to stay out of this discussion but it seems pretty simple. If you pay your speeding tickets at home (wherever you live) then why wouldn't you pay your speeding ticket in another country? Flaunting the laws of other countries is what makes an ugly tourist.

And the way that the OP posed the original question, not to mention the question in the post "what are the repercussions of not paying it", was begging to be given a way out.

I don't know the answer to your question, but if you used a credit card to rent your car, can't the French authorities charge your card for that amount?

Terry, I have not heard of that happening, but the rental co will almost certainly bill an "administrative fee" to the cardholder for their trouble in directing authorities to the driver.

The French authorities cannot charge the credit card without authorization of the card holder. It's not different from any other authorization. Just because one authorizes the car rental agency to make charges does not mean that one authorizes an unrelated third party to do the same. Now if the auto rental company paid the fine and charged the card holder that would be different, but the rental companies do not do that. For now, all that can be charged is the administrative fee.

And the administrative fee shows up on the credit card statement well before the ticket arrives, so you know it's coming.

In your rental agreement, you agree to stay within the laws of the country in which you are driving. Sorry to hear that ethical behavior is not a concern for you, and at least one other poster.

Ouch Zoe. I guess you missed the post where he said he had paid it.

Bets, I did miss it. Apologies to the OP.

For 180euro you wouldn't pay, but for 45 euro you would? I am not really sure, but somewhere in that logic you have established a value on your integrity; and its pretty low. That's a shame.

Thanks to all you lovely people for questioning my morals, integrity and reason for living. I exceeded the speed limit by 4 miles per hour and thought the fine excessive and unfair since it appeared the fine was maxed out because of the time it took to find me.
Geez, what a nice bunch of people.

Actually, the fine is excessive and unfair. We have red light and speed cameras here. Before any ticket is issued, the photographic evidence is reviewed by the local police department and a decision is made by the police whether or not to issue the ticket. For speeding here, it is not "written" into the law, but generally a transgression of under 5 mph will be ignored if there are no other extenuating factors involved (e,g, unpaid tickets on that plate) to allow for, among others, mechanical error. A red light ticket will be reviewed to see if the driver made an effort to stop before going through, and so on. And, anyone ticketed has the right to appeal and go over the photographic evidence in court. You must be sent the ticket within a specified time frame (30 days in Philadelphia), and you then have an option to enter a plea and contest this within the next 10 days. Our traffic court has been cleaned up, it's part of our state's municipal courts, and it is not a rubber stamp for tickets.

And this is where the unfair part enters in. By the time this has been tracked back to the rental company and you have been contacted, you no longer have this option, nor the option to pay timely, and generally it is completely impractical for a foreigner to come in and protest this through court channels had they been notified timely. I am actually shocked to see that you were given the chance to pay the basic fine, rather than the late fee. I think that's the first time I've seen that here!

Now I am not saying it is policy through Europe, but is there any reason for the jurisdiction of authority to not just issue every ticket involving a car identified as a rental (readily available to them) and see what they get back? I am all for the idea that if you made the violation you need to pay the fine, but there also needs to be due process.

RE Lo had the most helpful answer I have seen on this subject. I hope other in this situation find it among all the other "useless rhetoric" that this has evolved into. Everybody take a deep breath and move on to the next problem. This one has been resolved.

France is not part of the US? No kidding. There was an infamous case involving a convicted murderer in Philadelphia who somehow escaped, and after years on the run, was found illegally living in France. And France would neither extradite him to the US nor otherwise expel this illegal alien. Are you saying that there is no due process in France? Keep in mind, I am not passing an opinion either way on whether or not one should pay up one's foreign automobile violations. I am only pointing out the unfairness of the system and how it is applied.

" is there any reason for the jurisdiction of authority to not just issue every ticket involving a car identified as a rental (readily available to them) and see what they get back?"

No Larry. It's not about us, any other tourist, or even people who rent cars. It's about getting those speeders to slow down. France and Italy had a pretty high accident rate due to speed and drinking. Nowadays, people drink less before driving, and French people know cameras and radar are everywhere, so it's having an effect. Notice that no GPS with French maps has the fixed radars or cameras on them. The French government passed a law that the radars and cameras had to be removed from GPS software. (I have friends who haven't updated their TomToms for years in order to use the old maps that still have the radars marked; they miss a new autoroute from time to time) So due to these measures, the death toll from traffic accidents has decreased and they want it to go down even more. Therefore no, it's has nothing to do with us or discrimination; it's about them.

OK, Connie, I agree. Enuf already

" France would neither extradite him to the US nor otherwise expel"

Larry, that's likely due to the fact that the death penalty is still used here.

Gosh darn it, Nick - After much searching I had found my pitchfork and had just lit my torch...

Thanks Eileen...very funny. What no boiling oil?
Sanctuary!

Actually, at this point, extradition to France, which we absolutely loved, is seeming like a great idea!

Let's move on.

Is 7oz of (extra virgin olive) oil enough? I haven't done the 'boiling oil' thing in ages...

"Double, double toil and trouble:
Fire burn and cauldron bubble"

7 oz should be plenty for this crowd.

You're hysterical.

(doffs hat)