Motorhome news: Foreign touring ticket solution

Motorhomers and campervanners who receive a penalty fine for a driving offence in other European countries can now take advantage of a new payment system.

In most EU countries, drivers pay speeding or parking fines through local channels, and this includes tourists who cannot pay online with a foreign credit card.

Until recently, the only ways for foreign drivers to pay a penalty after returning home or travelling onto another country were cross-border bank transfers or money wires. The fees for using these can sometimes be more expensive than the traffic tickets themselves. Now PayTicket has been launched, which uses a digital payment platform to allow motorists to pay international driving fines securely with their credit or debit card.

The service has been launched by London-based MoneyNetint, whose CEO Yishay Trif, said: “In the past when you picked up a driving ticket in Europe, you probably didn’t know how to pay. Rules and regulations vary from country to country, so it hasn’t always been easy to pay for a ticket abroad. Fortunately, there’s now an online solution to this long-standing problem. PayTicket is a new service that helps travelers pay their driving fines in minutes. It’s fast, secure and easy-to-use, paying the fine with the minimum of fuss.”

The period between getting fined and having to pay varies from country to country. In Italy, the authorities have up to a year to contact a driver once they’ve obtained their details. In Germany, the period is three months. Once drivers receive a ticket, they usually have 60 days to pay or appeal before the fine doubles. If the fine is unpaid, the issuing authority usually tries to recoup the debt through an overseas debt collection agency.