Speed Ticket in Germany (change address)
 

Hi guys,
I rented the car in Munich, Germany and travelled to Swizerland and Germany. While driving, there were two issues of speed ticket.
After I came back to my country, I figured out that the mail address in my account is wrong, and Hertz provided my wrong mail address to the police in Germany.
Even though I talked with the ones in Hertz Germany, they said that they have nothing to do correct those.
As far as the wrong mail address is still in Germany Police, I can't receive the invoice of speed ticket and don't have any way to pay for it.
I wonder if anybody can help me.


THanks,
Jeff

Did you get the speeding ticket in Germany or Switzerland? In Germany the fines are much lower and if the effort for the German police or the city is too big to find your correct address they might drop it. Or worst scenario the next time you enter Germany the border officer will take you in custody until you pay your fine. If you did get your speeding ticket in Switzerland where the fines are much higher there is big possibility that they will not give up so quickly and of course should you return to Switzerland and get controlled for example at the airport they will take you in custody until you have payed.

Best chance to quickly solve this issue is that you contact Hertz again and find out which police department in Germany is in charge of your case and contact them directly.

Nobody is taken into custody at the border for an unpaid ticket in Europe. The hertz claim will have some references you can use to locate the authority that enquired with Hertz. You can then contact them directly.

I've personally seen this happen in AMS and ZRH immigration. In AMS they seem to have a desk within the immigrations office where you can pay by credit card. Not sure what happened in ZRH at the two occasions I saw this happening in or next to my immigrations line.

It is probably not really a "taken into custody" situation, but it seemed to me that they only let the person through immigrations after he has paid his fine.

Just do nothing and the issue will be time barred . You are under no obligation to present yourself to prosecution

That sounds very very strange. Entry points into the EU check your details against the SIS, which shows the immigration oficer if you have been flagged for anything, but traffic violations that are just monetary is not part of that. Also it would be weird for CH authorities collecting German traffic fines?

At these times it were dutch respective swiss unpaid fees of course. Upon checking passport for immigration the conversation as far as I could follow it was like "you have open traffic violation fines, please wait for a colleague to escort you to our office". Neither specifics about the nature nor the amount were told.

Not that strange. It happens in some EU countries. E.g., there are reports of people being stopped and asked to pay the fine when entering the Netherlands:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/euro...amsterdam.html

Unpaid fines and taxes are the one thing in the Netherlands the Dutch are not half-assed about. Heck, they regularly do 100% traffic stops to find those who have outstanding fines and taxes.

That´s what I would do too;)

At least not in Germany.....

At AMS passport control, persons flagged for some kind of civil debts/fines does take place rather routinely. National database checks too.

National database checks. ;)

It would be Swiss authorities trying to collect Swiss fines.

But in the OP’s case, it’s a German fine, and so it would be a situation of whether the Germans go for national database checks for common speeding violations. And I don’t recall encountering German national database checks at German ports flagging for this.

SIS flagging for moving violation fines? While some may love that, it’s not an issue like it is with some of the national database checks.

I wouldn't count on it. I have been asked (out of nowhere) to show my driving license to the immigration officer while transiting from Schengen to Non-Schengen in Munich. Apparently they run checks on stolen/lost documents and my driving license had been stolen two years earlier.

I wouldn't exclude that German border control isn't checkin their database for outstanding fines.

Re: OP's question: Do what you feel comfortable with. If you want to pay your outstanding fines (yeah, those people do exist) you may try to contact German police with the information you have (provided you have any information).

Alternatively you can just wait. The worst case scenario is that you'll be stopped by law enforcement in Germany and asked to pay the fines then and there. Unless you racked up hundreds of speeding fines, it's going to end there. That's what I would do.

I know about the German checks for stolen/lost ID, most -- but not all -- of which are tied to INTERPOL's SLTD.

I've even see non-Germans with no German ID and no record in SLTD (and no travel document loss history) get asked questions by German border control over missing/stolen ID/identity theft that had nothing to do with STLD and was tied back to German national lookouts. But hunting at German passport control for a single moving violation fine? I've never encountered that or been told about that being live by German officials working or overseeing functions in this area. And I would be surprised if I hadn't had this asked earlier when I was following up on what goes on at AMS.

I´m not aware of a database of outstanding fines for whole Germany. Mostly single cities are responsible for fines and the Bundesgrenzschutz isn´t responsible for it.

Pls. stop trying to make people crazy with speculations not worth the piece of paper they would have been written on in the old days. There are no national databases for "outstanding traffic fines" in this country. Full stop. There is even no federal competence for traffic fines but the competence rests with the local communities and/or police authorities. And they have better things to do than to search for an address in the US for a 10 or 20 EUR traffic offence. There is even not a fine against the poster raising the question as nobody could initiate the relevant proceedings due to the lack of address. And under such circumstances the entire thing gets time barred in Germany in general after three months.