Do you know how to pay a traffic ticket? Currently there are several ways to do it, even from the comfort of your couch at home. Today you can also pay a fine online.
The worst nightmare for every motorist? Receiving a fine. Unfortunately, the only thing you can do is to pay it as soon as possible to avoid penalties and repercussions. By law you have a maximum of 60 days to pay it. For those who pay immediately after receiving it, there will be a discount.
If you pay after the deadline, the amount of money will increase, except when there is a confiscation of the car or even a suspension of the license.
How long do we have to pay a fine online?
It is good to know what are the times to pay a fine, to be able to avoid late payments. If you manage to pay the amount of the fine within 5 days of its issuance, a 30% discount will be applied to the entire amount. If instead the fine is paid after 5 days, within a maximum of 60 days available to avoid late payment, there will be a reduction of the entire amount to be paid. If the fine is paid instead after the 60 days, the law provides that the amount is doubled, due to the delay in payment.
Fines, in addition to arriving at home, we can find them on the windshield of our car. In this case the 5 days to have a reduction of 30% of the amount to be paid will be calculated from the day in which the report is notified at home and not from the day in which you found the notice on your car. On the report showing the infraction there is a notice, which explains the possibility of being able to use this 30% discount. When you are in possession of the report you can make the payment with one of the methods that we are going to explain below.
How to pay a fine online
If you receive a fine you can pay it either on the sites of the municipality, if the fine was made by an agent of the Municipal Police, or on the site of the Italian Post Office, if the fine was written by the Carabinieri or Police. Another option is to pay it by bank transfer online.
Paying a fine from the site of the Municipality
Already since 2016, most Italian municipalities provided a platform on their site, to be able to pay fines online, thus avoiding the tedious lines that are always created at post offices. If you decide to pay it through the site of your home municipality, you will find a suitable platform to pay it. You will have to enter in the private area the data that will be requested, which are: the license plate, the number and the date of the report and, sometimes, the time of issue of the fine is also requested.
At the end you will have to enter the data of the card with which you will pay the fine. From the site of the municipality you can keep track of the file in every detail, for example, check the minutes of the sanction, know which articles of the highway code have been broken, know what are the speed limits to be respected, check any photos taken if you had entered the ZTL areas or have information to pay fines if you live abroad.
Paying a fine from the Italian Post Office website
To pay a fine issued by the Carabinieri or the Police, you can access either the Post Office website or download its application. You will have to create an account by following the procedure indicated. Riceverai un codice tramite un telegramma, che attiverà un nuovo indirizzo di posta elettronica creato dal sistema. Effettuata questa procedura di registrazione potrai finalmente accedere alla sezione per il pagamento dei bollettini sul sito delle Poste Italiane. C’è una sezione dedicata alle multe, con la differenziazione tra le multe emesse dai carabinieri e le multe emesse dalla Polizia di Stato. Per prima cosa dovrai compilare un modulo con tutti i dati personali che ti verranno richiesti, anche i dati del tuo veicolo e del verbale. Nel dettaglio, andranno inseriti i seguenti dati:
- nome e cognome del trasgressore;
- l’indirizzo;
- il codice di avviamento postale (cap);
- la città dove si è presa la multa;
- la provincia in cui appartiene la città;
- il numero del verbale;
- la targa dell’auto che è stata multata;
- il giorno del verbale;
- il codice dell’obbligazione: una serie di 16 numeri, che di solito è segnato nell’ultima riga sul verbale e sul bollettino.
Dopo aver finito di compilare il modulo potrai scegliere il metodo di pagamento più adatto alle tue esigenze, tra carte di credito sotto il circuito Visa e Mastercard, oppure PostePay o potrai decidere di pagare con il conto BancoPostaonline. Se il procedimento è stato svolto correttamente, si riceverà un avviso di avvenuto pagamento al proprio indirizzo di posta elettronica associato all’account di Poste Italiane. The increasing use of technological devices, which allow you to make fine payments online, is definitely an advantage, on the one hand to be able to take advantage of the reduction in the amount of the fine, on the other hand for the convenience of being able to make the payment at any time of day, from your home without any loss of time.
Paying a fine online through the bank
If you want to pay a fine through the bank, you can do it quickly and easily. You will have to log in to your home banking through your customer code and password and then choose the item that interests you the most to be able to pay the fine with the method that suits you best. Remember, however, that the value date does not always correspond to the date on which the transaction is carried out by the bank.
Paying a fine at the tobacconist's
Technology is advancing, but if you are not skilled with mobile devices, fines can also be paid at the receivers who are affiliated, in Italy there are about fifty thousand. It will be easy to find the nearest receivership to you. The procedure is as follows: the manager of the receipt reads the bar code on the bill with which you make the payment, or type on the keypad data that are written on the report. The amount of the fine must be paid in cash, or paid with Lottomatica prepaid cards.
The maximum amount of the fine to be paid cannot exceed 1500 euro. At the end of the procedure the payer will be issued with a receipt that cannot be falsified, because it will be issued in watermarked anti-forgery paper. We recommend that you keep it for at least five years after the payment is made. As an additional fee you will have to pay a commission of 2 euros.
For those who want to pay fines at Sisal ticket offices, the method used is the same. Sisal receivers display a logo on the outside, which makes it easier to identify them. The municipality will then receive the amount of the fine on its bank account, which is always indicated on the slip and that you can check electronically, like all other transactions that have taken place since the day after payment.
Paying fines at the Municipal Police
If the fine was issued by the Traffic Police or Municipal, you can go to pay it at the office of the municipality where you live, or at the provincial section of the Polstrada. You will be able to pay the fine only with cash, because it may happen that in small municipalities or at the Traffic Police is not available to make the payment through the POS.
All violations of citizens, unfortunately, are not marked on any register, which you could instead go to consult in case you think you have made any infraction. Even asking the police is useless, because the data of the person and the data of the vehicle might not be crossed yet. The only solution, if you think you have committed an infraction, is to wait for the registered letter to arrive at your home.
Even if the police are aware of your infraction, resulting in a fine to be paid, you will always have to wait for the fine to arrive at your home in order to pay it. Article 201 of the Highway Code states that: "The obligation to pay the amount due for the violation, by way of pecuniary administrative sanction, is extinguished against the person to whom the notification has not been made within the prescribed period". In fact, if a fine arrives at your home after the prescribed period of 90 days, you are no longer obliged to pay. Did you know that?
If, on the other hand, we want to know if there are already fines against us, of which perhaps we are not aware or, for example, if we have forgotten to pay or, unfortunately, we have lost the report, in these cases you can consult a tax bill issued by the Collection Agent, made available on the Internet. In this case you can connect to the site of the Inland Revenue to read all the fines still to be paid. The number of the folder and the date of notification will be indicated. The site also makes available the possibility of paying the fine, avoiding making the situation worse and adding, to the price of the fine, the penalty for late payment.