[Rick Lee]

I've always blown these off in the past because the tickets from Germany always arrived weeks after their due dates and with no way to know what kind of late fee they'd tack on or if they'd then consider it paid or unpaid if I just paid the original fine amount sans unspecified late fee. Furthermore, my bank charges a $40 foreign wire transaction fee, making these tickets pretty expensive. I never heard from the rental car companies about these, never had a problem renting on my next trip, have had plenty of police interactions on subsequent trips, and so I'm pretty sure these just fell through the cracks.

I just got one from Switzerland, directly from the police 60 days after the infraction. They got me for 61 km/h in a 50 zone, gave me 5 km/h forgiveness and so for a net of 6 km/h over, the fine is CHF 120 or $141 USD. This is insanely expensive. I remember the flash, I was coasting down a hill, not at all in a hurry and with no one around and in the middle nowhere.

I thought I read in an old thread here that Dottore said Switzerland is pretty militant about collecting on there, while other countries aren't. I may drive into Switzerland again someday (years from now), but am almost positive I'll never enter via an airport. I rented this last car in Frankfurt and wonder how long a ticket in Switzerland can take to go stale. Any idea? Cloggie?