Your last visit to Italy may now be a distant memory, but you’ve just received a reminder in the form of a fine in the mail for a traffic violation - probably one you didn’t even know you’d committed.
It’s an unfortunately common experience. Speed cameras, restricted traffic zones and parking in the wrong areas can all land you with a hefty fine while driving on Italy's roads, and it’s easy to fall foul of the rules even if you’re familiar with them.
If a ticket has landed on your doormat, or you've been notified of one by your car hire company, the question now is what to do and how to pay. If you’re outside of Italy, it’s not always clear how the payment process works.
To make it as painless as possible, here’s our guide to paying Italian traffic fines from outside of Italy - plus what to do if you want to contest the fine, and what happens if you simply don’t pay.
What happens if I get a fine?
Any infringements you committed on Italy’s roads may take a while to sting. If you live abroad, it’s usually several months before you receive the fine.
If you were driving a hire car, the rental company will get a notification first, as the police have 90 days to issue a fine to the vehicle’s registered address in Italy.
READ ALSO: Can you be fined for driving a foreign-registered car in Italy?
If you see a charge from the rental company on your credit card, it's not because they've paid the ticket for you and are passing on the cost - it'll be an administrative fee for handling your ticket. These fees can be up to €90, meaning they may cost more than the fine itself.
The rental company has 60 days to send police authorities the driver's data, including your home address. At that point, the company will probably also forward the ticket to you.
However, this doesn’t mean you need to pay the fine immediately.
How do you pay the fine from outside of Italy?
The ticket you receive from the Italian rental company will be written in Italian, with instructions for making a payment in Italy - meaning you'll need an Italian tax code and bank account to make the payment. In some cases, there may not be an option to pay online at all (the exact payment process varies depending on the Italian municipality that issued the fine).
Obviously, if you live outside of Italy, you're unlikely to have an Italian tax code or bank account, which leaves some worried drivers wondering if they'll have to ask an Italian friend to pay the fine on their behalf. But there's no need.
If you're outside of Italy, you should wait for the police to send a ticket directly to you - and this could take a while. Police have 360 days to send it once they receive your home address from the rental company.
Police in Rome and Turin contacted by The Local confirmed that tickets sent abroad would be written in English, and would include an IBAN number for payment via bank transfer.
Police said this ticket would be sent out by registered post, meaning it must be signed for. The payment deadline and timeframes for discounted payment kick in from the date you receive the letter and sign for it.
You have 60 days from the date of receiving the notification to pay your ticket. However, the amount depends on the payment date. The longer you wait, the more you have to pay.
The following timeframes apply, according to Article 202 of Italy’s Highway Code (Codice della Strada):
- If you pay within five days of receiving the notification, you will get a 30-percent discount for early payment. You will find the exact amount on your ticket.
- If you miss the five-day window but pay within 60 days, you'll pay the original amount.
- After 60 days, the fine will increase (and will keep increasing) due to late-payment fees and interest.
Before sending the payment, check to make sure the IBAN number corresponds to an Italian municipality.
When sending your bank transfer, write the licence plate of the vehicle, the date of infraction, and ticket number in the reference. And make sure you obtain a payment receipt for your records.
If your bank charges fees for international transfers, you may want to make the payment using a service such as Wise (formerly Transferwise).
The payment is considered complete when the funds arrive in the municipality's bank account, rather than from the date on which you send it, according to the Interior Ministry. This means you'll need to consider the fact that it can take anything from two to five working days for an international transfer to arrive.
Can you contest the fine?
Yes, you can appeal if you think you have good grounds to do so, but you should first consider whether it’s worth the hassle that comes with doing this in Italy.
Paying the fine immediately with a 30-percent reduction is the least expensive and by far the least stressful way to deal with it. If you appeal, you forgo this discount and risk the fine increasing in the meantime.
But if your fine is especially high, or is truly invalid (and you can prove it), you may feel the dispute is worth the tangle with Italian bureaucracy.
READ ALSO: EXPLAINED: How do you dispute a parking ticket in Italy?
Valid reasons to contest a fine include errors on the ticket regarding the day, time, place and location of the offence, or if the vehicle type or number plate are incorrect.
If you don’t speak Italian well, you’re very likely to need the assistance of a local friend or legal professional.
What happens if you don’t pay?
You could be tempted to just ignore the Italian fine since you’re back in your home country, perhaps on the other side of the world.
But while Italy may have a reputation for being chaotic and disorganised, the reality is that authorities are generally pretty hot on issuing and collecting fines.
The ticket won’t go anywhere - it will just continue to accrue interest and the payable amount will rise.
The municipality can enlist a debt collection agency and at that point you’ll no longer be able to contest the ticket. And unpaid tickets may also cause problems when hiring a car in Italy on future trips.
Getting a ticket is never a pleasant experience, but paying it as quickly as you can is the least expensive and stressful option in the long run.
Please note that The Local is unable to advise on individual cases.
You can find all the latest news and essential info on driving in Italy in our driving section.
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