All you need to know about speeding fines in Spain

• About the 50% discount for early payment - how to.
• How to pay a Spanish fine step by step - where to find the required information, etc.
• Traffic fines in Europe - you break it, you buy it!
• 100 € speeding fines.

Bonus: do I have to exchange my foreign driving licence if I get a fine? You will be forced to if you are a Spanish resident! Once you move to Spain you will have to get a Spanish driving licence (valid for 10 years, except for the elder), and abid to the Spanish penalty points system.

I paid a speeding ticket by transfer. Now what?

When paying a Spanish fine by transfer it is very important to include the 'dossier number' or 'N. Expediente' in the transfer form, ideally in the comments field.

Anyway, and according to what I have read in different forums, Facebook groups and blogs, it is advisable that you keep a copy of the bank statement and send it by fax to the Spanish Traffic Authority. This way they will have the copy in their records and will be able to track the payment in case it is not registered once the early payment period has expired. You can get a copy of the bank statement via your online banking account.

You should send a copy of this bank statement to the following fax number, 0034902512151. You can include the reference number again in the document and a short text, something like 'Find attached a copy of the bank transfer statement. Do please note that the transfer was made WITHIN the early payment window. / Best regards, XX'.

Send this fax in case you receive a second notification and you already paid by transfer.

Where is the record number?

It isn't always easy to comply with the Spanish Traffic authorities, and their website is far from perfect. Whe trying to pay a Spanish ticket you will be required to provide the 'record number' for the fine. The 'record number' can be found on the top-right corner of the letter when the letter is in Spanish, under the 'N. EXPEDIENTE' label.

The Spanish speeding fine record number is required to complete the payment or to get further information about the ticket.

If the notification is in French, in Dutch, in German, in Italian, in Portuguese, in Polish, in English or in any other EU language, then the 'record number' will be on the top-left, labelled as record number, dossier number, pratica number, etc.

The field for the record number requires 12 digits, so forget the dots and dashes.

Fasten your seat belts!

The Spanish Traffic General Directorate (DGT) has announced that it will be installing 270 traffic cameras that will control the use of the seat belt in Spanish roads. Fines for not using the seat belt are among the eight traffic offences covered by the EU Cross-border Enforcement Directive, which regulates the cross-border exchange of information on road-safety-related traffic offences. 

How much is the fine for failing to wear the seat belt in Spain? 200 euro AND 4 points off your driving licence (the points system ONLY applies to Spanish driving licences - including Spanish residents even if they have not exchanged their licence at the time of the offence). 

How to pay a Spanish speeding fine - step by step

If you wonder how to pay a Spanish speeding fine, I would recommend that you read '50% discount off speeding fines in Spain' before getting started.

This is the link to the official payment form in the Spanish Traffic Authority site: https://multas.dgt.es. It is very important that you refer to this site, I do NOT trust other sites, no matter how convincent the notification is. If the speeding fine can't be paid using the previous link I would leave it in quarantine. If the link doesn't work you can try a PC (where P means personal, sometimes professional computers have tighter security settings), ideally using Firefox or Chrome... If that doesn't solve it, you can still pay by transfer.

Let's see what the payment form looks like: 

1 - this field is set to NIF by default. You can set it to the document type of your choise by using the drop-down menu.

2 - use only numbers in this field, the system adds the right format.

3 - the calendar will apply the Spanish date format.

4 - use this if you need to pay more than one fine at the same time.

5 - proceed to the second step, where the system applies the reduction.

The fields you need to fill are the following,

1. Identification type: either Passport or Other (i.e. Driving Licence). 
2. Identification number: your passport / driving licence or ID number.
3. Name / Business name: the card holder's first name. 
4. Surname: the card holder's middle name.
5. Additional Surname: the card holder's last name.
6. Email: the e-mail address will be used to send the payment confirmation.
7. Document number: in Spanish 'expediente', in French 'dossier', in Italian 'pratica', in Portuguese 'processo'... The record number MUST have 12 digits (you won't have to use the punctuation marks).
8. Amount (with no discount): the total amount (100, 300, 400...). The site applies the reduction on the second step.
9. Notification date (DD/MM/YYYY): the date when you received the notification (you can use the calendar). 

You will need a debit/credit card to complete the operation. For some reason AmEx cards are NOT accepted.