Unpaid Italian traffic fine: what it becomes after 60 days
Enter the dates of the offence and of service: the calculator shows whether the deadlines have passed, whether service was on time and what is now due for your offence.
An unpaid Italian fine that has not been paid within 60 days of service, nor challenged by an appeal in time, does not stay at the minimum. Article 203, paragraph 3, of the Highway Code provides that the verbale (the fine notice) then becomes an enforceable title for half the maximum penalty, plus procedural costs. Enforceable means the police body needs no further decision to demand payment. For 10 to 40 km/h over, the sum goes from €173 to €347; above 60 km/h over, from €845 to €1,691; for breaking a local parking rule, from €42 to €86.50. Check the service date first: if the fine arrived more than 90 days after the offence was established, or more than 360 days for people living abroad, the obligation to pay lapses for whoever was not reached in time. For vehicles registered abroad, collection can be pursued for five years against whoever is found driving the vehicle.
If you let the 60 days pass
€347
half the maximum (€694) plus service and procedure costs
| Service within 90 days | on time (75 days) |
| €121.10 (−30%) until | 22 October 2026 · passed |
| €173 until | 16 December 2026 · in 53 days |
| Appeal to the prefetto by | 16 December 2026 · in 53 days |
| Appeal to the giudice di pace by | 16 November 2026 · in 23 days |
| After day 60 with no payment or appeal | €347 + costs |
Calendar days counted from the day after service. The tool does not move deadlines that fall on a public holiday: for the giudice di pace the term runs to the next working day (art. 155 of the civil procedure code); for payment, do not wait for the last day.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · Method and sources
What article 203, paragraph 3, says
The text is short: “Where no appeal has been lodged within the time limits and the reduced payment has not been made, the verbale […] constitutes an enforceable title for a sum equal to half the maximum administrative penalty and for the procedural costs” (article 203). The time limits run from service: 5 days for the 30% discount, 60 for the minimum and for an appeal to the prefetto, 30 for an appeal to the giudice di pace (60 from abroad). Once they have all passed with no payment and no appeal, the sum due changes basis: no longer the minimum but the maximum, halved. The amounts below are those in force in 2026, frozen until the update decree for 2027.
| Offence | Within 60 days | After: half the maximum | Extra |
|---|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 km/h over | €42 | €86.50 | €44.50 |
| Over 10, up to 40 km/h over | €173 | €347 | €174 |
| Over 40, up to 60 km/h over | €543 | €1,085 | €542 |
| Over 60 km/h over | €845 | €1,691 | €846 |
| Phone at the wheel | €250 | €500 | €250 |
| Seat belt | €83 | €166 | €83 |
| Red light | €167 | €332.50 | €165.50 |
| Breaking a local parking rule | €42 | €86.50 | €44.50 |
| Parking on a pavement or crossing | €87 | €172 | €85 |
| ZTL or pedestrian zone | €83 | €166 | €83 |
| Alcohol 0.5 to 0.8 g/l | €543 | €1,085 | €542 |
Surcharges follow the penalty. At night, when article 195 raises both minimum and maximum by a third, an unpaid red-light offence is worth €443.34 instead of €222.67. For the heavy vehicles of article 142, paragraph 11, speeding amounts are doubled, and so is half the maximum.
What an unpaid fine costs
After 60 days
€347
| Within 60 days | €173 |
| Cost of waiting | €174 |
Plus service and procedure costs.
First of all, the service date
An unpaid fine is not always a fine that is owed. Article 201 requires the fine to be served within 90 days of the offence being established when the driver was not stopped on the spot, and within 360 days when the person lives abroad. Paragraph 5 is clear: the obligation to pay “lapses for the person on whom service was not made within the prescribed time”. Investigation and service costs, says paragraph 4, fall on whoever must pay the penalty. The calculator above compares the offence date with the service date and flags a delay; a delay still has to be raised through an appeal, as the appeal page explains.
How many days I have left
30% discount
2 days
| Minimum | 57 days |
| Appeal to the prefetto | 57 days |
| Appeal to the giudice di pace | 27 days |
Foreign plates and rental cars
For people living outside Italy the service deadline is longer, 360 days, but the half-the-maximum rule is the same: once 60 days have passed since service, half the maximum plus costs is due. The fine is served on the actual offender or, if not identified, on one of the liable persons shown in the vehicle registers, which for a hire car means the rental company that owns it. If the driver is identified later, article 201 runs the deadline from the date the authorities are able to identify them. For vehicles registered abroad, paragraph 3-bis of article 203 adds another route: if the money cannot be collected from the driver or the owner, enforced collection can be started, within the following five years, against whoever is found driving the same vehicle, under the rules of article 207. Drivers who bring their own car to Italy should keep that in mind before ignoring an old fine.
What stays and what does not
Not paying does not cancel the other consequences: points are deducted and additional penalties, such as a suspension, run their course. On sums due for late payment, law 177 of 2024 set a ceiling: the surcharge under article 27 of law 689 of 1981 may not exceed, for Highway Code penalties, three fifths of the penalty. For anyone still within the deadlines, the cheapest option is still to pay early: the 30% discount page works out the dates. Legal texts read on Normattiva on 24 October 2026.