Avis have charged me 6 euro for admin, but I don't believe the Italian police can charge my credit card. Besides, that particular card has expired so they wouldn't be able to...
Cheers....
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No the car is owned by avis, it is avis that will have to pay the fine. They charge you 6 euro for telling you about it in the first place, then if they have to pay the fine, they charge you + admin charge. Happened to me with a parking fine in SA with an avis car.
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Besides, that particular card has expired so they wouldn't be able to...
I beg to differ - charges can be made to a card some years after it has been 'cancelled' and the bank will pay and chase you. Ask people who cancelled cards to try to stop AA/RAC 'continuing authority'.
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I beg to differ again. A continuous authority is an authority to debit more than once, without repeated authorisation from the cardholder. A one off transaction requires the card number, expiry date, and the CVV number if the cardholder is not present.
7 years of working for a credit card company teaches a thing or two.
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Frankly, I don't know about what they'd do about your cancelled card. When you signed the agreement you assumed responsibility for any fines etc. but whether they'd actually chase you abroad is another matter.
8< snip 8<
DD.
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Can't imagine that the Italians could make a computer system work.
I could - probably far better than this country can.
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Having worked with them I can happily state they cant.
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No' you're right, we definitely can't, but I can't imagine that they can either
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Can't imagine that the Italians could make a computer system work.
What you do is throw the bicycle at the power station, then change the tapes under cover of darkness, then put the gold in the boot of the Mini..............
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A continuous authority is an authority to debit more than once, without repeated authorisation from the cardholder. A one off transaction requires the card number, expiry date, and the CVV number if the cardholder is not present. 7 years of working for a credit card company teaches a thing or two.
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SWMBO works in credit card debt collection and confirms exactly what you've said above, Dieselboy, and reckons that should they try to bill you on your old card the issuing bank would decline the transaction, certainly her bank would.
Whether Avis would then bother to chase I wouldn't like to say, might be more bother than it's worth to them but, I would think, you might have problems hiring from them again! And as they are pretty worldwide it might pay to stay on their better side, never know when you might need one of their cars!
Out of interest, how did they bill you for the 6 Euro admin charge? I presume an invoice with the letter, which would confirm what we've said above about the credit card billing.
Slightly off track, when are the manufacturers going to put a Euro sign on our keyboards as well as £ & $ ???? I've got all sorts of squiggles at my finger tips but no Euro, grrrrr.
Cockle
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Buongiorno Senor Cockle,
The letter stated the 6 Euro charge would be added to my "Credit Club Account". Whatever that might be. The car way booked through the holiday company, so you never know, this might all get lost in a big chain of Italian inefficiency!
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Cockle - for Euro sign press Alt Gr and number 4 on top row of k/b.
? ? ? ? ?
Works in XP anyway.
And I had charges from a cancelled (cos it was stolen) card appear on a new card some months after the charges were incurred. The cc company reversed the charges once, then it happened again. I asked them how long I could expect this to go on, they said for ever. However, they magically stoped when I said in that case I would cancel the card...
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The charges would only continue until the expiry date on the stolen card was passed. Unless the card details are placed on a "Hot Card Bulletin", which is pretty expensive, spends can still occur. Once the expiry date has passed however, that particular card is useless. Even guessing the expiry date is no good as the CVV changes every time a new card is issued. Chip & PIN will change all this though as the card companies will have the ability to switch a card off as soon as a loss is notified. Sorry, not motoring, but I thought I'd let you in on that!
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?????????????? to allow you to reply to Avis!!!!!
Alt Gr and the 4 key, The symbol is shown on both my keyboards (one is at least 2 years old), Running very early XP Pro keyboard drivers.
Somebody else will come along and tell you how to find the code using Alt number keypad.
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pmh (was peter)
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Unlike your own car where if you want to risk it you could ignore it*, It's quite likely that the hire car outfit may get done. They won't be happy unless they can get their money back and will go to the ends of the earth to do so.
* (I'm not sure about Italy, but the Dutch have long memories and computer terminals at the ports).
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Ah well, I'll wait and see what happens. I still chuckle to myself over the term "Italian Traffic Regulations"....
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What are the odds of perhaps the most sensible driver in Italy (yourself DB) being penalised when you see how the others drive!
Good luck
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Adam
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Is the letter from Avis itself and does it look "right"?
There've been reports of a scam involving Canary Islands hire cars and similar requests, but i think these came from a shady debt collection company not the hire company as such;.
Your call; but I'd be careful if it's genuine and you intend returning to Italy!
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At the end of the day, I don't think you'll have a problem from the italian authorities because Avis will pay the fine. You 'only' have Avis to worry about.
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Yep, it's from Avis and looks right.
Good point about returning to Italy - last thing I want is to pulled at passport control when we go back!!!
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" but the Dutch have long memories and computer terminals at the ports"
But not at the Land borders.
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But the point is that Avis will pay the fine - so there will be no problem with the authorities.
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I don't know about that. The letter says the authorities will send a payment request to me, so it looks like Avis don't pay...
Catzo!
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Oh right... Sorry, I stand corrected!!
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This all assumes that I ever receive anything! A friend who lived in Italy tells me there's so much red tape that nothing ever gets done!
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Yup so much red tape there. It may take months to get you out of jail next time you visit.
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lol! Although you may have a point!
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As you are back in UK there is no obligation to pay any traffic violation imposed by another EEC State or elswhere but legislation is coming. Note that there may be a marker put somewhere on your name so that if you return and come to notice the axe could fall if not paid.
However there may be something in the small print of the agreement with Avis which will permit them to pay and deduct from you C.Card.
If Avis haven't already taken lira from your account then wait and see if the letter arrives. If it does then your not obliged to respond.
Read the post and thought that it was the scam that was reported last year being practised by Spain and Italy in sending letters to drivers who had hired cars abroad and were alleged to have committed traffic offence and asked to pay fine direct, details are on this forum. May be one of the mods can pull up the thread.
DVD
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dont think dvd is correct
this is certianly the way uk justice system routinely treats foreigners, except in the most serious cases where someone has been killed
this is not the way foreign states treat UK citizens
you may well to all intents and purposes "be able to get away with it" if you never go back to italy, but try entering italy again and you may well find you have serious issues
they can indeed prosecute you, you have the right to go back and defend yourself, but if you dont appear you can be found guilty in your absense, if you then dont pay fine, you can end up on the list of defaulters for routine arrest
italian police forces (there are so many of them overlapping, with totally different styles) and customs/immigration have a culture all of there own shall we say
if its a simple fixed penalty and they chase you, and you are likely to go back i would defend it or pay up
they cannot endorse a UK licence however, but they could ban you from driving in italy
think UK police would be highly amazed at what happens to UK drivers abroad, totally different to how they treat foreigners here
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Probably silly and obvious, but why not wait until the details of the alledged offence arrive?
All this talk of evading etc, might be unecessary if the detauils dont match the car, where you were etc.
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Avis supplied the details including licence plate, date and general location (Florence). All match to where we were thay day.
Have already said I'll wait and see if anything even turns up!
Cheers.
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