PAYING A TRAFFIC TICKET TO ITALY FROM U. S. A.

Call your bank and ask if they do international wire transfers. Most banks & many credit unions do. There should be a person at the bank who will help you with this. The police notice should contain the information your bank will need to do the transfer.

I don't think he meant you. I think what he means is if we tell someone that nothing too bad can happen or anything along that line- we are encouraging people not to pay a fine they own. The fact is, no one really knows what will happen as most people pay their fines. The ones who don't and then suffer the consequences never come back to tell what the punishment was. If we tell people they should pay the fine because they did something wrong then those certain people get on the boards and say we are judging the wrong doers. Anyway, I don't think he meant you. Donna

What a feeling of deja vu I'm having. I wasn't accusing anyone, simply stating that this is why you're NOT getting anyone saying what will happen if you don't pay the fine. The same exact thing happened in that previous thread that Carrie posted. I cited the guideline and someone thought I was accusing someone of breaking it. Nope. I wasn't.

What happens if you don't pay?

Let's not start this silly discussion about paying, not paying again since it has been beat to death previously and no one knows the answer.

Laura, for your reading pleasure, is a link to the most recent thread on this topic http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=73275

One of the guidelines for this board is that you are not allowed to encourage someone to break the law.

Who is encouraging anyone to break the law? Did I miss something here????

The question asked is how to pay the fine, not what happens if he doesn't. So does anyone have a good answer to that? If they provided bank details he could do a wire transfer, but most banks charge a hefty fee for that (mine charges
$40 no matter what the size of the payment.) If they provide a mailing address why not just mail a personal check? Then when they cash it you will at least have proof of payment. I have sent personal checks to Italy on two occasions, to secure reservations at a hotel and for an apartment. The recipient had no trouble cashing the checks. Just be sure you convert the euros to dollars properly when figuring the amount.

You can't mail checks to public administration in Italy! They don't take even ITalian checks for anti-corruption provisions. Go to your bank, and ask how can you make a Swift/IBIC transfer, which is the international protocol for money transfer. There is usually a high fixed fee, US$ 20-50 per transfer wire order, regardless of amount, plus a small (0,1-0,5%) surcharge on the amount sent. Those orders can have a handler and a field of additional info (up to 300-something characters) where you can provide your information and anything else sent in the letter (like a reference code or something).

I do not have an answer to your question, but it reminded me of an adventure I had in July actually trying to pay a parking fine. I walked up to the meter maid who was giving me a parking ticket and begged and pleaded that I was an ignorant tourist.She said she had no choice as she had already written the ticket. She was actually very nice and I did not want to jeopardize her job so I took the ticket and went a couple of blocks to the police station to pay the 30 euro. First of all, there was no one at the front desk. I had to knock on several doors until i found a room with 7-8 people sitting around a conference table smoking. I told them I was there to pay a parking ticket. They seemed somewhat startled. A woman in a police uniform came to the front desk and took the ticket and proceeded to read all the fine print like she had never seen one before. All this while smoking a cigarette ( and her uniform was somewhat provocative, I thought) When she finally agreed I needed to pay the 30 euro, she started up the computer but could not get it to work and had to summon someone to help her. This went on about 15 minutes while my family waited out in the car. By this time, a gent perhaps in his late 60's came in for some business and after seeing the trouble they were having with the computer and that he was having to wait in line, started becoming more vocal and using some foul language (I speak and understand Italian). He was completely ignored even though he started shouting about the incompetent fools behind the desk.
I finally paid the ticket, and it was almost worth it to have the interesting experience.