French traffic fine

[Deleted User]

Tarambor wrote: »

Not any more. Like the French if they're stopped they get marched off to the nearest cash machine and vehicle is immobilised if there's no payment, if its an offence that needs to be dealt with in a court they're held in a police cell to be put before a magistrate the following day. If the truck is caught speeding by ANPR they tug it the next time it comes back into the UK.

Exactly! But if you manage to evade them and get back out the country then nothing is then done.

lewishardwick wrote: »

If it was my own car, I'd be more worried.

I just got a letter from the agency running the M50 toll road in Ireland. A whopping €6 (Inc Admin fee)!

I was there in September...

It may come, it may not. For hire cars it's a bit more effort.

I luckily missed it while driving in Dublin in my own car in October as I needed the first left just before the start of it next to the port.

I hear that the M50 Toll just sell the debt to a UK debt collector to try and collect. If you ignore it long enough it'll go away. Not sure what happens next time you drive the same car on the M50 Toll again though.

MikeWhite

jd87 wrote: »

So it's another 3 months on (5 months since the supposed incident) and I still haven't received any fine in the post. Starting to feel like it's just an Avis scam to get their "admin fee". How can I find out definitively if there really is a fine or not?

Ditto us with Avis and Spain.

Bigphil1474

Maybe get in touch with AVIS and ask them for a copy of their fine notification from the French police. Sounds more of a scam to me, but if they've got the paperwork, why not share it with you.

Ergates

jd87 wrote: »

So it's another 3 months on (5 months since the supposed incident) and I still haven't received any fine in the post. Starting to feel like it's just an Avis scam to get their "admin fee". How can I find out definitively if there really is a fine or not?

I doubt that Avis are in the habit of committing such overt fraud for a €42 admin fee.

Richard53

lewishardwick wrote: »

I just got a letter from the agency running the M50 toll road in Ireland. A whopping €6 (Inc Admin fee)!

Deleted_User wrote: »

I hear that the M50 Toll just sell the debt to a UK debt collector to try and collect. If you ignore it long enough it'll go away. Not sure what happens next time you drive the same car on the M50 Toll again though.

I often wondered what they do with UK cars. Being basically honest (i.e. mug) I usually pay the eFlow fee online in advance if I am passing Dublin, giving my UK car registration. I was never sure if I was wasting my money, as there is no way of telling if you have been flagged or not, and I have never heard anything from them. Looks like paying it was worthwhile after all.

[Deleted User]

Richard53 wrote: »

I often wondered what they do with UK cars. Being basically honest (i.e. mug) I usually pay the eFlow fee online in advance if I am passing Dublin, giving my UK car registration. I was never sure if I was wasting my money, as there is no way of telling if you have been flagged or not, and I have never heard anything from them. Looks like paying it was worthwhile after all.

The eFlow site doesn't even say if your car has been on the Toll road or not. It just asks for your reg then the next page asks how many trips you want to pay for. I bet it's only set up to record ROI number plates.

Kat495

Hi jd87,

I just came across your post and I'm dealing with something very similar - rented a vehicle back in June 2019 from Avis in France and a month after my trip received a letter from Avis charging me 42 euro admin fee for a traffic charge.

It's now been a year and I haven't received anything from the French authorities and I was wondering if you've received anything yet? I know it's been a while but like you, me and my partner suspect this may be a scam from Avis.

Thanks.

Norman_Castle

Is it possible the admin fee includes the fine? I would ask for full details of why they believe you are responsible for this. Make them earn their 42 euros.

AdrianC

The French authorities have notified the registered keeper of the vehicle. That's Avis.

Avis have followed the Ts & Cs of the rental contract, in which you allowed them to charge a fee for passing your details on as the person responsible for the car.

The French authorities may or may not then follow up on that.

There's nothing scam, and there's nothing different to the way it'd work for a French driver hiring a car in the UK.

Kat495

@Norman_Castle Thanks we tried, they've completely ignored our emails.

@AdrianC Thanks, was just worried that at some point I'd end up paying more than I should, late payment fees etc. Fingers crossed the traffic charge wasn't worth sending a letter out.