Question: Does your advice apply to every Spanish fine?
Answer: no. Spanish traffic law is a bit of a chaos, and you can be fined by DGT (Spanish Traffic Authority), by Trànsit (Catalan Traffic Authority, only in Catalonia), by Trafikoa (Basque Traffic Authority, only in the Basque Country) or by local authorities (only in urban areas). Our advice is limited to the DGT fines; you can identify them by the file number, a twelve digit code with the following format: 00-000-000.000-0. However, the Spanish traffic law is the same, no matter who operates the speed camera. As DGT is responsible for over 80% of the speeding fines we will focus our attention on those.
Question: Can I be fined for going 1 km/h above the speed limit in Spanish roads?
Answer: no. No matter what you read elsewhere, speed cameras in Spain won't activate unless you drive 7% above the limit (if the speed limit is 100 km/h, you'll be fined for going 8+ km/h above the limit).
Question: I want to pay half of the fine amount, but I am well over the 20 calendar days limit. What can I do?
Answer: if you are either a Spanish citizen or a legal Spanish resident, chances are scant that you escape from paying the full amount. If you live anywhere but in Spain, you just need to dial 0034902508686, quote your file number/s and insist that you just found out about the fine/s. You will be given a grace day, and will be allowed to pay with the reduction within the next 24 hours. As this is undoubtedly the most asked question, you have all of the information you might need here.
Question: can I know where the speed cameras are before starting my trip?
Answer: the location of the speed cameras is published by the Spanish government, but speed cameras operated by traffic authorities like the Guardia Civil can vary and are not published. However, the speed cameras of which the precise location is published are responsible for well above 60% of the fines, so it is always good to check this map before renting a car in Spain (to see only speed cameras, leave "radares" box checked and uncheck the others; the map works fine in Internet Explorer, not so good in other browsers).
Question: can I know where the speed cameras are before starting my trip?
Answer: the location of the speed cameras is published by the Spanish government, but speed cameras operated by traffic authorities like the Guardia Civil can vary and are not published. However, the speed cameras of which the precise location is published are responsible for well above 60% of the fines, so it is always good to check this map before renting a car in Spain (to see only speed cameras, leave "radares" box checked and uncheck the others; the map works fine in Internet Explorer, not so good in other browsers).
