MoneyNetint launches PayTicket, a payment service for foreign motorists who receive tickets while travelling.
More people are driving on vacation than ever before, with 120 million vehicles being rented out each year, triggering a massive rise in traffic tickets. Google reports there have been 322,000 searches per month (in 17 countries, including the USA, UK, and Hong Kong) about ‘online fines payment solutions’. In the Netherlands, eight million traffic reports went to foreigners in 2017 alone. An estimated 5% of tourists will receive a traffic report on vacation, and paying the fines through money wires or bank transfers is slow, expensive and inefficient.
In most EU countries, you pay the speeding or parking fines through local channels, and this includes tourists who cannot pay online with a foreign credit card. Visitors who don’t know the country’s driving rules are often caught by traffic cameras, especially in restricted traffic zones or bus lanes. Until recently, the only payment solutions available were cross-border bank transfers or money wires. The fees for bank transfers and money wires are often more expensive than the tickets themselves. PayTicket solves this problem with an easy-to-use platform that allows motorists to pay international driving fines securely with their credit or debit card.
Yishay Trif, CEO of MoneyNetint, 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 travellers pay their driving fines in minutes. It’s fast, secure and easy-to-use, paying the fine with the minimum of fuss.”
All over Europe, local authorities are using advanced enforcement to issue penalties to both domestic and international motorists. Most driving tickets are logged electronically to the rented car’s licensing plate, and the issuing authority then collects the driver’s details from the car rental agency.
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.
