Paying French parking ticket from abroad
- By
- Aparna Patel
- |
- 12 Aug, 2023
- |
Received a parking violation May 2015 in France via a notice on the windshield of our rental vehicle. Had parked, as all others did, partially on sidewalk and partially on road. No signs to indicate no parking.
Tried to go to municipal police stn and also mayor’s office to try to pay as the ticket only indicated an infraction, but not the fine. Finally the tourist info office let us know that there was nothing we could do, just wait for the fine.
We informed the rental company on return of the vehicle, but they said it could only be dealt with by their head office.
Rental company charged 20 Euros for getting a fine and we just received a 35 Euro charge from Centre d’Encaissment des Amendes France, in the mail, with options for payment, including online. There is also opportunity to contest the ticket, but only via post. The online payment was straightforward and easy, with instructions available in English.
Costly error!
Two years ago I got a parking ticket while I was in France. The car was mine, not rented.
When I came back home (in Italy), I simply put the ticket receipt and a check for the owed amount in an envelope and I sent it to the address I found on the ticket itself.
I have not heard anything more about the ticket, so I suppose the French police cashed the check and everything went ok.
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The French system has a weak point when it goes to collecting fines past the borders, at least for traffic offenses. Even speeding tickets do not follow through when foreigners get back to their home countries, unless arrested by police directly. At least for now, since the government is in the process of partnering with other EU countries to be able to claim speeding fines to foreign drivers. I don’t know if parking violations are concerned, as they are relatively small fish.
The aformentioned advice is not here to say it’s okay to break driving laws, anyway.
It is the rental agency that you should rather deal with. Once they get the ticket registered with your car, they can forward the fine to your credit card with additional processing fees. Therefore, I would advise you to call them, tell them about the ticket and ask them what to do next.
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