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Traffic Admin Fee in Italy

Posted by (Charlotte, NC) on

Trip to Italy - Sep 2015; paid in full at the counter.

Additional rental chg received - Feb 2016. $50 direct charge to my CC, no details/no information.

After contacting the rental company twice, i finally received this generic explanation:
• The charge that you are seeing is a traffic administration fee, this fee is a charge that is set into place by each individual car rental supplier and is charged when the rental supplier is informed of a traffic violation that occurred during your rental duration with the rental vehicle that was checked out under your name, this fee is charged each time the rental supplier is contacted by the local authorities relating to a violation during your rental.
The email also said the local authorities will contact me with the ticket and details.

After almost 2yrs since the rental, and almost 18mos after the rental agency email, I have not heard from the local agency, nor have i received a traffic ticket.

Per this site, http://www.initaly.com/travel/avoid_tickets.htm, and on other posts, I read that I am no longer liable for the ticket because the local authorities have not contacted me. However, i worry what I read on other postings stating if I travel again to Italy, the ticket could be attached to my passport and I could be pulled from the line and sent with the police to resolve.

OR, since never notified by the local authorities, could the rental charge be false? The rental company has quick access to my credit card; they charged me without explanation; when I first contacted the customer rep could not explain the charge and only after a 2nd call did i receive a generic explanation. BTW, I contested the auto rental charge, obtained a refund, and the rental company has not contacted me since.

So 2Qs to the group... 1) since the ticket never arrived, will i have trouble re-entering Italy? Supposedly the statute of limitations is 1yr after the local agency obtains my information from the rental company, or 2) might the rental charge be a spoof/game to collect additional dollars? The local rental agency charges the CC and hope there is not consumer followup? Thanks

Posted by
4152 posts

The rental charge isn't false. What probably happened is that the municipality decided not to bother with the ticket after they saw where you live. You still would owe the rental company for them needing to report your information. The fact that you disputed it and retained a refund doesn't mean the money wasn't owed, it just means they didn't want to pursue it further.

You won't have any issues re-entering Italy if they are the ones who decided not to pursue you. The rental company was NOT trying to spoof you and get more money. It's common for people make driving errors such as speeding, driving into a ZTL, driving in a bus lane or parking illegally.

Donna

Posted by
3812 posts

Donna is right. It usually happens when the fine is from small towns that don't re-sell their credits to an international debt collection agency..

The number of foreign tourists ignoring the rules and then not paying the fines is so high that small towns and villages just give up when they discover who rented that car.

A fine you did not receive can't have any consequences on your records as you were not given an actual possibility to appeal. The statue of limitstions is one year from the moment they receive an answer from the rental agency, I guess you have nothing to worry about.

The administrative fee you paid is written somewhere on the contract, so you succeeded in scamming a rental company! Congratulations, you are my new hero.

Note that you agreed to pay that fee if the cops needed your name&address for whatever reason, not if you were actually fined. There is a difference.

Posted by
5 posts

Thank you both for the response. RE: the rental agency charge: I filed the CC dispute after my call to the rental company and no one offered an explanation (not even a reference to a possible violation). After the full explanation I contacted the CC company, admitted my error and asked the charge be re-instated (mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa), but the CC said if the rental company disputed, they would re-bill me. I was never refilled. I promise I was not trying to scam the rental company, but I also did not contact them to re-instate the charge. I have used the same rental company, annually, for over 10years, so i assume the charge will catch-up to me sometime.
Thanks again for the responses... after 3 holidays to Italy, I am eager to return for a 4th. Just don't want to be tossed in the pokey.

Posted by
16221 posts

I also disputed a credit card charge years ago (by Europcar). I realized several days after disputing the charge with my CC that the charge was legitimate, but since Europcar failed to respond to my CC inquiry, I never had to pay for that charge. I've rented annually from Europcar after that, including now, so don't worry.

Posted by
11613 posts

Not only were you not given a chance to appeal, you never got the information on how to pay.

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