Retrospective speeding ticket from Spain

[warp9]

Hi. It appears I was traveling 9kph above the speed limit while making haste to Andalucia airport back in Feb. I have received a letter which is all in Spanish and from what I can deduce, owe the authorities either €50 or €100.

Can anyone tell me if this is enforceable and what would happen if I didn't pay it?
Cheers

[george123]

Ignore it. I had something similar from Italy a couple of years ago, never contacted them and never heard another word.

[eldar]

I had a similar thing. I took a large chunk of the EU constitution, google translated it from English to German to French and then Spanish. Then added a picture of a Vauxhall Meriva and posted it. They ignored me

[aw51 121565]

Hire car?

[CAPP0]

aw51 121565 said:

Hire car?

This is the crux.

Short answer, and pretty much all you need to know:

1. Your (or another's), private, non-Spanish registered car - ignore
2. Hire car - you're paying, whether direct or via the hire co who will pay it and recharge the card you used, probably with a surcharge for "admin"

[The Badger]

Ignore it.

[warp9]

Yes hire car. Nothing received from them yet. Will check bank statement.

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

90% chance the hire company have already charged you a fee for passing on your details to the Spanish police.

[agtlaw]

Retrospective? Is there another kind?

[SVTRick]

not if you have changed your charge card they wont be putting anything on it.

[caziques]

CAPP0 said:

aw51 121565 said:

Hire car?

This is the crux.

Short answer, and pretty much all you need to know:

1. Your (or another's), private, non-Spanish registered car - ignore
2. Hire car - you're paying, whether direct or via the hire co who will pay it and recharge the card you used, probably with a surcharge for "admin"

Hire car cannot charge the fine to a credit card, they can try and charge an admin fee for passing on details. If this happens do a chargeback as an unauthorised transaction - at the very least the card company will have to spend some time in justifying the charge...which they can't charge for.

[killsta]

agtlaw said:

Retrospective? Is there another kind?

Perhaps Spain also issue tickets in advance these days.

[CAPP0]

caziques said:

CAPP0 said:

aw51 121565 said:

Hire car?

This is the crux.

Short answer, and pretty much all you need to know:

1. Your (or another's), private, non-Spanish registered car - ignore
2. Hire car - you're paying, whether direct or via the hire co who will pay it and recharge the card you used, probably with a surcharge for "admin"

Hire car cannot charge the fine to a credit card, they can try and charge an admin fee for passing on details. If this happens do a chargeback as an unauthorised transaction - at the very least the card company will have to spend some time in justifying the charge...which they can't charge for.

The hire agreement will state that you are liable for all fines, does the small print not contain words to the effect that you are liable and that if the hire co receive the fine they will recover it from you?

[MrBarry123]

Just pay the fine. You sped and got caught. Is it really worth the hassle over €100?

[Marvtec]

MrBarry123 said:

Just pay the fine. You sped and got caught. Is it really worth the hassle over €100?

Hassle? How is throwing the letter in the bin more hassle than paying €100? You'd have to be a mug to pay any speeding fine you didn't absolutely have to.

[MrBarry123]

Marvtec said:

Hassle? How is throwing the letter in the bin more hassle than paying €100? You'd have to be a mug to pay any speeding fine you didn't absolutely have to.

Read the post above mine.

I'm almost certain that if it's a hire car, you'll end up paying regardless.

[caziques]

MrBarry123 said:

Marvtec said:

Hassle? How is throwing the letter in the bin more hassle than paying â?¬100? You'd have to be a mug to pay any speeding fine you didn't absolutely have to.

Read the post above mine.

I'm almost certain that if it's a hire car, you'll end up paying regardless.

It's unsurprising that scams work so well with attitudes such as "pay up regardless"

Fines cannot just be slapped on a credit card, it's unauthorised use. The hire car company have no idea who was driving, or indeed if the law has been broken.

Any "fine" from overseas is next to impossible to enforce, there is simply no need to pay.

[timetex]

Is this the same advice we would give to foreign drivers getting UK speeding tickets?

Wouldn't we want them to pay up?

[marshalla]

caziques said:

The hire car company have no idea who was driving, or indeed if the law has been broken.

I think they might know who they have authorised to drive the vehicle. If anyone else was driving it, there's a good chance that some law has been broken.

[Neonblau]

caziques said:

Fines cannot just be slapped on a credit card, it's unauthorised use. The hire car company have no idea who was driving, or indeed if the law has been broken.

How do you know what his contract/agreement said?