With many thanks to the kind people of the sub this non German speaker was able to figure out how to and pay the fine. I’d recommend just talking to your hotel or apartment hosts and do it quickly rather than try to learn to do it later while leaving the country, which was our failing but the bier and wein were flowing hard.
Original thread here:
Can anyone tell me how to pay a parking ticket? No digital option. Is it a phone process? from germany
If you get one of these tickets you don’t understand and don’t wish to contest (that’s not my department) your options are to (forget that you’re not in your country and expect there to be a credit card payment process) and :
– Walk into a RatHaus (an administrative building) in the jurisdiction and attempt to pay
– Walk into a bank and use their services to make the payment
– Or use the QR code. QR option might take you into a phone call which you don’t understand, that’s apparently because it’s designed to be used via bank or payment processing aps via a banking app or something like wise.com or possibly even paypal. This may be not possible depending on your country and bank. With European banks it seems like a simple scan and transfer.
I, with US bank accounts, was able to do it via Chase for a $5 fee though QR scanning options were not available. You’d have to go to external transfers and set up a new recipient using the bank and contact information contained on the ticket. Can be tricky as app didn’t accept non english characters but wire went through. Be sure to include ticket number and the code at the top which identifies i think the ticketing agency. Hopefully the ticketing agency gets it fast enough to not report to the rental car agency which would add additional cost to the event.
Be mindful of signs. In small towns where parking signage is not apparent parking rules can still apply and maybe just err on the safe side and use the paid public parking lots which are never very costly anyway.
We found German people to be most helpful and civilized folk very easy to connect with. So talk to someone quicker and not look a lost tourist the way I did. We absolutely loved the country.
[and this is what our 9 year old did the morning after coming home from Germany](https://i.imgur.com/SGulh6S.jpg)
danke schön
3 comments
Thank you very much for the update. We very rarely get follow-up for the advice we give on this subreddit, and it’s great to hear that you managed to sort this out.
Sorry, I didn’t realize you weren’t resident in Germany and didn’t have a German bank account. My response would have been very different if I’d known that.
Wow, we get a really useful update after we helped someone. I’m on the verge of tears. OP thank to you I regain my faith in humanity.