When I bought my car from a dealer, I asked the questions I thought would keep me from getting fined. I told them where I lived and asked what I’d need to drive in my residential area, and they said the green environmental sticker on the car was all I needed.
Then in September the postman came to the door with four pink letters I had to sign for. They were fines, all in Málaga, dated May and July, and they were my first in Spain.
I was upset, because I’d been told I was sorted. I appealed online, but when I check, they’re still showing on the system and I don’t know yet what’ll come of it.
Since then I’ve learnt how a driving fine in Spain works, from checking and paying to appealing, and what each one costs, so that’s what the rest of this page is for.
What a Spanish fine looks like when it arrives
Before you do anything with the fine, find out who sent it. It’s printed on the letter, and it changes who you’ll be dealing with from here on.
Fines on city streets (parking, low emission zones and speed cameras in town) come from the city council, the Ayuntamiento. Fines on interurban roads come from the DGT, the national traffic authority. If you were driving in Catalonia or the Basque Country, they have their own traffic authorities.
The letter itself can look different from one fine to the next. My four came as pink letters by post, and I had to sign for them at the door and show ID. My most recent one, for going through a red traffic light, came in a green envelope.
They also don’t arrive quickly. Mine were dated May and July and delivered in September, and on a hire car it can take longer, because the fine goes to the rental company first.
Some people never get paper at all. If you’ve signed up to the DGT’s electronic mailbox, the DEV (Dirección Electrónica Vial), the fine is sent there. It’s voluntary for individuals and compulsory for companies, and a notice you don’t open within 10 days counts as delivered, so the case carries on either way.
Keep track of the day it reached you, because the deadlines below start the day after it’s delivered.
How to check for driving fines in Spain
The quickest way to check is with the DGT itself, which shows the fines in your name in two places:
- Online, through the DGT’s electronic office
- On your phone, through the official miDGT app (iOS and Android)
For the full list, you’ll have to log in with Cl@ve, a digital certificate or an electronic DNI. If you don’t have any of those, you need the 12-digit file number, the expediente, and the date the fine was delivered. Both are printed on the letter, and I check the system this way for my own fines.
You can’t search by number plate, because there’s no public lookup for that.
A fine that couldn’t reach you, by post or by DEV, doesn’t just disappear. It’s published on the Tablón Edictal Único (TEU), the public noticeboard inside the BOE (Spain’s official gazette), and you can search it by name or NIE. Twenty days after it goes up there, it counts as delivered, whether you’ve seen it or not.
How to pay a Spanish driving fine (and get 50% off)
I recently got a fine for going through a red robot (South African for a traffic light), which I never do. The full fine for a red light is €200 and 4 points, and I paid €100 because I settled it within the discount window. That letter arrived green, not pink.
You get 50% off if you pay within 20 calendar days, counted from the day after the fine is delivered to you. So a €200 fine costs €100, and even the top speeding fine of €600 comes down to €300. Two offences never get the discount, driving with a radar inhibitor and failing to identify who was driving.
The catch is that paying at the discount closes the case, and you give up the right to appeal. If you appeal instead, you lose the discount, so it’s only worth it if the fine is wrong and you can show it.
For a DGT fine, you can pay on the DGT payment page by card or Bizum, or in the miDGT app. You can also pay by phone on 060 (+34 902 887 060 if you’re calling from outside Spain), at CaixaBank branches and cash machines, or in cash at Correos (the post office) for a small fee.
Council fines are paid through whatever the letter tells you to use. In Málaga that’s Gestrisam, the city’s tax office.
Here’s how the deadlines run:
- Within 20 days: 50% off, and paying ends the case
- From day 21: only the full amount
- If you don’t pay or appeal: the fine becomes final 30 days after delivery, then you get another 15 days to pay
- After that: DGT fines go to the tax agency (AEAT) for enforced collection with a surcharge of up to 20%, and council fines go to the council’s own tax office
- Four or more final unpaid serious fines: the DGT blocks paperwork on your vehicles and licence
How to appeal a driving fine in Spain
After those four letters, it took a lot of research to find out I had to register the car online as a resident living in a restricted area. I wish someone had told me that before, especially the car company selling it to me.
You have 20 calendar days from the day the fine is delivered to file your appeal, which in Spanish is an alegación. Where it goes depends on who fined you. Parking, low emission zone and in-town speeding fines belong to the city, so they go to the Ayuntamiento, through its mobility office or its online portal. I did mine online.
Fines from the open road, like speeding between towns or drink-driving, belong to the DGT, and you appeal those through the DGT website. Filing online there needs a digital certificate or Cl@ve. If you have neither, you can fax it to +34 987 842 693 or post it to CTDA, Apartado de Correos 505, 24080 León, so it can be done from outside Spain. The DGT’s fines line is +34 987 010 559.
Send whatever backs up your case (photos, receipts, registration documents) and keep a copy of the appeal and the receipt for it. If you’ve got several fines for the same problem, like my four, ask whether they can be appealed together.
If the appeal is turned down, you have one month from that decision to file a second one, the recurso de reposición. It doesn’t pause the fine.
Spanish speeding fines
If the letter in your hand is for speeding, the first thing to look up is the limit on the road where you were caught, because that’s what decides your band. Spanish speeding fines are fixed amounts, so there’s no sliding scale to argue over.
The DGT catches drivers in three ways: fixed cameras, mobile radar in police cars, and average speed sections (tramos de control), which you’ll see more and more of on motorways. Fixed cameras usually have a blue sign with a camera symbol before them, but mobile radar doesn’t have to be signposted.
These are the general limits:
- Motorways and dual carriageways (autopistas and autovías): 120 km/h
- Other roads outside towns: 90 km/h
- Town roads with two or more lanes in each direction: 50 km/h
- Town roads with one lane in each direction: 30 km/h
- Streets where the road and pavement are at the same level: 20 km/h (in Málaga this covers the historic centre and Soho)
The 30 and 20 streets come under the first list below, so in Málaga’s historic centre or Soho, 41 km/h is already 21 over, and that’s €300 and 2 points.
On roads with a limit of 50 or less, the fines go like this:
- 1 to 20 km/h over: €100, no points
- 21 to 30 km/h over: €300, 2 points
- 31 to 40 km/h over: €400, 4 points
- 41 to 50 km/h over: €500, 6 points
- 51 km/h or more over: €600, 6 points
On roads with a limit of 60 to 120 the bands are wider:
- 1 to 30 km/h over: €100, no points
- 31 to 50 km/h over: €300, 2 points
- 51 to 60 km/h over: €400, 4 points
- 61 to 70 km/h over: €500, 6 points
- 71 km/h or more over: €600, 6 points
So on a 120 road you can be doing up to 150 and the fine is €100, while 30 over in a 50 zone costs you €300 and 2 points.
Before any of that kicks in, the cameras allow a margin. Fixed cameras give you 5 km/h when the measured speed is up to 100, and 5% above that. Mobile radar allows 7 km/h and 7%, and average speed sections only 3 km/h and 3%, which makes the tramos the least forgiving of the three. On a motorway, a fixed camera that reads 140 has 7 km/h taken off before it’s compared with the limit.
Go far enough over and it stops being a fine at all. More than 60 km/h over in town, or more than 80 over outside towns, is a crime, and the sentence is three to six months in prison, a fine or community service, plus a driving ban of one to four years.
The points system (carnet por puntos)
Pass your test in Spain and you start on 8 points, not 12. New licences go up to 12 after two years without losing any, which is where every other driver starts, and a clean record keeps building until you reach 15.
This is what comes off:
- Phone in your hand: 6
- Refusing a breath or drug test: 6
- Reckless driving: 6
- Speeding: 2, 4 or 6, depending on how far over you were
- Red light: 4
- Dangerous overtaking: 4, or 6 if cyclists are put at risk or passed closer than 1.5 metres
- No seatbelt: 4
- Child without the right seat or restraint: 4
Lose all 12 and the licence stops being valid. You wait six months, take a course of at least 20 hours and pass a theory test (there’s no practical test), and you come back on 8 points.
On a foreign licence, Spain can’t touch the points on your home licence. The DGT still records the offences, though, and the fines still apply. It’s different if you live in Spain and drive on an EU licence, because then the points come off a Spanish balance, and losing them all ends your right to drive in Spain.
The worst offences go further than points. Extreme speeding, drink-driving over the criminal limit and refusing a test are crimes, and a court can ban you from driving for up to four years.
Drink-driving fines in Spain
If you’re asked to blow into a breathalyser in Spain, the number that counts depends on how long you’ve had your licence and what you’re driving. These are the limits:
- Most drivers: 0.25 mg/l in breath, 0.5 g/l in blood
- New drivers in their first two years: 0.15 mg/l in breath, 0.3 g/l in blood
- Professional drivers (buses, lorries, public transport): 0.15 mg/l in breath, 0.3 g/l in blood
That 0.5 g/l is the usual level across the EU. New drivers and professional drivers get a much lower one, so if you’ve only just passed your test, the standard limit isn’t yours.
One glass of wine can put you over, so if you’re driving, don’t drink at all.
Once you’re over, the penalty goes up with the reading:
- Over the limit, up to double it (0.25 to 0.50 mg/l in breath): €500 and 4 points, classed as very serious
- More than double (over 0.50 mg/l in breath), or caught over the limit again within a year: €1,000 and 6 points
- Over 0.60 mg/l in breath or 1.2 g/l in blood: a crime, with three to six months in prison or a fine or community service, plus a ban of one to four years, and the car is immobilised
Saying no to the test doesn’t get you out of it. Refusing is a crime in its own right, with six months to a year in prison and a ban of one to four years.
Remember to sort travel insurance before you go to Spain. I use SafetyWing, which you can buy even after you’ve left home.
Other fines that catch people out
Look at the amount on almost any Spanish traffic fine and it’ll be one of three numbers. Minor offences go up to €100, serious ones are €200 and very serious ones are €500. Speeding has its own scale, and a few offences cost more than any of these, like the €1,000 for the worst drink and drug cases.
Points work separately from the money. They only come off for specific offences listed in the law, so a fine doesn’t always cost you points as well. My own was a red light, which I paid at half price.
These are the fines worth knowing before you get in the car:
- Phone in your hand: €200 and 6 points
- No seatbelt: €200 and 4 points
- Child without the right seat: €200 and 4 points
- No V-16 warning beacon: €80
- Driving without the right class of licence: €500 (driving with no licence at all, or after losing all your points, is a crime)
- No insurance: €601 to €3,005, and the car is impounded for a month
- Red light: €200 and 4 points
- Illegal overtaking: €200 and 4 points (6 if cyclists are involved)
- Parking in a disabled space: €200, and you can be towed
- Driving in a bus lane: €200, and you can be towed
The V-16 is the newest one on the list. Since 1 January 2026 the connected V-16 has been the only legal warning device for Spanish-registered cars, and it replaces the triangles.
Then there’s the radar inhibitor, which costs €6,000 and 6 points. The car is immobilised until it’s removed, and there’s no 50% discount. A radar detector is €200 and 3 points. Both are in the Ley sobre Tráfico (Royal Legislative Decree 6/2015).
Parking fines in Spain
Pull into a space in any Spanish town and it’s the paint along the kerb that tells you whether you’re allowed to be there. Parking catches out locals and visitors alike, so if you’re driving into a town you don’t know, it’s worth reading the separate guides on where to park in Malaga, Ronda and Nerja before you go.
Blue lines mean pay-and-display, the zona azul, and you’ll need a ticket from the machine. Green lines are resident parking in some cities, and you need a permit to use them. A continuous yellow line means no stopping and no parking, while a broken yellow line means no parking. White lines show where you may park, though there can still be a time limit on the signs.
Each council sets its own kerb colours, so read the signs as well as the lines. The fines are set by each council too. I live in Málaga, so these are the city’s, from its 2024 mobility ordinance:
- Blue zone with no ticket, or overstaying: €100, and the car can be towed if there’s no ticket or once it’s been there three times as long as you paid for
- Parking on a yellow line: €100, or €200 where it’s dangerous
- Blocking an entrance or garage (vado): €100, and the car can be towed
- Disabled space without a permit: €200
- Bus lane: €200, and the car can be towed
If your car’s been towed, you pay the fine plus the tow and the storage at the municipal pound (depósito municipal). In 2025 SMASSA, the city parking company, proposed about €100 for a tow and about €15 a day in the pound, but the final approved rates weren’t published at the time of checking. Call SMASSA on 952 33 10 44 for the current amount.
Low emission zone (ZBE) fines
Málaga’s low emission zone started fining in late 2025 and stopped again in October 2026 after a court ruling, so if you paid one, it’s being refunded through Gestrisam, which needs your bank details. The full story is in the guide to Malaga’s ZBE.
Elsewhere, the ZBE (zona de bajas emisiones) still applies. Many Spanish cities now have one, and a car that doesn’t meet the emissions rule can be fined for driving in. Barcelona and Madrid, through Madrid 360, both fine. Valencia only fines label-A cars registered outside Valencia province, and other cities are still bringing their zones in.
The standard fine is €200, or €100 if you take the early payment discount.
Look at the car’s environmental label (the etiqueta ambiental) before driving into a big city, and if it’s a rental, it’s usually stuck on the windscreen. The green label on my car didn’t cover the separate residents’ registration I was fined over.
Rental car fines in Spain
When you pick up a fine in a hire car, it goes to the rental company first, because the company is the registered owner. It then has 20 days to tell the authorities who was driving. If it doesn’t, the owner’s fine is double or triple the original.
Most companies charge an admin fee to your card for this, typically €20 to €50. After that the fine is issued in your name and comes by post or email, sometimes months later.
Minor offences expire after three months and serious ones after six, but asking the rental company for the driver’s name stops that count. Once a case is open, the authorities have a year to finish it.
I’ve rented cars in Spain (Jethro usually did the driving) and I’ve never had a fine on a rental, but after a trip it’s still worth checking the DGT website and watching your card statement. Keep the rental agreement and the return paperwork too, since a fine can land long after the trip.
Some companies sell “fine protection” packages with a rental car. I’d usually skip them. They handle the admin when a fine comes in, they don’t prevent one.
Do tourists have to pay driving fines in Spain?
Yes, tourists have to pay driving fines in Spain, and if the police stop you and you can’t show that you live here, they can ask you to pay on the spot. That applies to visitors from other EU countries too. You can pay by card or cash, and the 50% discount still applies.
If you can’t pay there and then, the car is immobilised until you do, so it’s worth having a card or some cash on you whenever you’re driving.
Camera fines work differently. Spain shares driver details with other EU countries under the EU Cross-Border Enforcement Directive (2015/413), which means a camera fine can reach an EU-registered car at its home address. If you’ve driven your own car down from another EU country, the fine can follow it back.
What the directive doesn’t do is make your home country collect the money. Ordinary DGT and council fines aren’t sent abroad for enforcement, though the fine stays on record in Spain.
Fines aren’t the only thing to watch for as a visitor, and the tourist scams guide covers the rest. In Málaga, the city’s own fines for things like scooters on the pavement and crossing on a red are in what not to do in Málaga.
What happens if you don’t pay a driving fine in Spain?
Ignoring a Spanish driving fine is a bad idea wherever you live, because it only gets more expensive. I’d always pay within 20 days for half price, since it’s by far the simplest route.
If you don’t, a DGT fine goes to the Spanish tax agency (AEAT) after the last 15-day window. From there the surcharge is 5%, 10% or 20% depending on when you pay, plus interest once it reaches the 20% stage. A council fine follows the same path through the council’s tax office, which is Gestrisam in Málaga.
The AEAT can take money you have in Spain, including bank accounts, wages and tax refunds. Separately, the DGT blocks paperwork on your vehicles and your licence once four final serious fines are unpaid.
Non-residents with nothing in Spain aren’t off the hook either. The debt stays on record for four years after the fine becomes final, and it can be collected if you come back with a car or money in Spain.
Official resources
- DGT (traffic authority): dgt.es
- Check your DGT fines: sede.dgt.gob.es/es/multas
- Pay a DGT fine: DGT payment page
- Appeal a fine: DGT appeals page
- Fines that couldn’t be delivered (TEU): DGT noticeboard search
- DEV electronic mailbox: Dirección Electrónica Vial
- Identify the driver of your car: DGT driver identification
- Málaga council fines: Gestrisam
- Fines for drivers from other EU countries: DGT
- miDGT app: iOS App Store / Google Play
