Spanish Traffic Fines: How to Handle a Ticket the Right Way

You are back home after a week in Andalusia, the rental car is long returned, and then an envelope from Spain lands on your doormat. Inside is a notice with a case number and a short code such as EP01 next to the offence. Spanish traffic fines are easier to settle than that first look suggests, once you know which lines on the letter matter.

So how much do you owe, and when does the price go up? Can you pay from home without a Spanish bank account? And does it matter that the letter came via your rental company instead of Spain’s traffic authority (DGT)?

This guide takes you through the letter step by step. You will see what each offence costs and how you halve the fine by paying early. It also shows you where to pay online and what the code on your notice tells you.

The Costs: Spanish Traffic Fines Catalog 2026

Every notice you receive falls into one of three tiers set by Spain’s traffic law (Real Decreto Legislativo 6/2015). A minor offence (leve), such as parking where you shouldn’t, costs you up to €100, the lowest tier. For a serious offence (grave) you pay €200, and a very serious one (muy grave) costs €500 unless a special scale applies. Speeding and drink-driving follow their own scales, which you will find further down.

Holding your phone at the wheel costs you €200 and 6 points. Using it in other ways without a hands-free kit, or driving with headphones, costs you the same money but only 3 points. The table lists common offences, always with the full amount before any discount:

Important: these are the full amounts. If you pay within the discount window, a phone offence costs you €100 instead of €200, but you still lose the points. A forgotten seatbelt, a red light or tailgating work the same way: you save half the money, but the points are gone.

For alcohol, you are over the limit from 0.25 mg/l in your breath. In your first two years with a licence, or at the wheel of a lorry, bus or taxi, your limit drops to 0.15 mg/l. The table above shows what each level costs you, and drugs are fined like the higher alcohol level. Above 0.60 mg/l, or if you are clearly under the influence, it is no longer about a fine. A criminal court then deals with your case and can take your licence for up to four years.

Caught speeding in Spain – the speed table with points

Your speeding fine depends on the speed you were measured at. Spain’s traffic law sets it out band by band in a fixed table (Annex IV). If you were only slightly over the limit, you land in the first band: €100 and no points, in town just as on a motorway. From there it gets expensive quickly. Each band after that costs you more money and more points, up to €600 and 6 points. You can read your own case straight off the table below, using the limit and the speed printed on your notice.

On a motorway the first bands are wider, because they start from a higher limit. There you stay in the cheapest band up to 150 km/h, while on a town street that band already ends at 70 km/h. If you pay within the 20 days, that first band costs you €50.

When does speeding become a crime? If you drive more than 60 km/h over the limit in town, or more than 80 km/h over it elsewhere, your case leaves the fine system. A criminal court then deals with it under the Spanish Criminal Code. The last row of the table shows where that line sits on a town street and on a motorway.

Unless a sign says otherwise, you may drive at 120 km/h on motorways (autopista and autovía). On other roads outside towns your limit is 90 km/h. In town, it gets more detailed. With two or more lanes in each direction you may drive at 50 km/h, with one lane each way at 30 km/h. Where road and pavement share one level, you are down to 20 km/h, and local signs can set even lower limits.

Points are logged in Spain’s own register of drivers, where a Spanish licence starts with 12 points. If you drive on a UK or US licence, the officer notes your licence details whenever an offence carries points. The deduction is then recorded against you in that register. According to the UK government, you can drive in Spain on your UK photocard licence, while an old paper licence may need updating first.

Your ITV date, registration tax and monthly budget can be worked out with our other calculators for your move to Andalusia.

The Process: Mail from the Spanish DGT

After a speed camera flash or a parking offence, you receive a Denuncia (complaint) or Notificación de multa (penalty notice). It usually comes from Spain’s traffic authority, the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico), or from the local town hall (Ayuntamiento). You pay a town hall fine, for parking for example, to that town hall, and its notice tells you how.

Your clock starts on the day after the notice reaches you. When the letter cannot be delivered to your address, the authority publishes it in the official gazette (BOE). After 20 days it counts as delivered, whether you saw it or not. Is your own car registered in another EU country? Then EU rules on cross-border data exchange let Spain look up the owner for offences such as speeding, red lights, alcohol and phone use. You receive the letter in the language of your registration certificate or in an official language of the country where the car is registered.

Before you pay or reply, find these three details on your letter:

• Expediente number: your case reference (número de expediente). Without it the DGT cannot match your payment to the fine.
• Date of notification: the 20-day discount window counts from the day after this date. Note it down before the envelope goes in the recycling.
• Description of the offence: every notice states the vehicle, place, date and time. If the ticket also shows a short code such as EP01, read the written description next to it: that text, not the code, is what the fine is for.

Pay or Argue? Deadlines and Procedures

In most cases your best move is to pay within the 20 days and close the file. There is exactly one exception. If it is an obvious case of mistaken identity, for example a cloned number plate while you were not even in Spain, an appeal is worth losing the discount, because if it fails, you pay the full fine.

1. Days 1 to 20: You pay with the 50% discount (pronto pago). By paying you waive the right to object, and the case closes on the day of payment.
2. From day 21: Only the full amount is accepted. If you neither paid nor objected, the notice itself becomes the final decision for minor offences, serious offences without points and any notice handed to you on the spot, and it can be enforced 30 days after delivery.
3. Once final: You get one last window of 15 days to pay. After that, an unpaid DGT fine goes to the Spanish tax agency (AEAT), which collects it with a surcharge of up to 20%.
4. Appeal (alegaciones): File it within the same 20 days, with your evidence. You lose the discount, and if the appeal is rejected you pay 100 percent of the fine.

Are you one of the residents or long-term visitors still driving on foreign plates? Then read our guide on Importing a Car to Spain before a routine police check turns into the next fine.

How to pay a Spanish traffic fine

Have your letter ready before you start. You pay fastest online through the DGT’s Sede Electrónica, with the expediente number and the date of notification from your letter. Enter the full amount shown on the notice, not the halved one. The system then shows you what is left to pay, with the discount applied if you are still within the 20 days. You can pay by credit card, debit card or Bizum, and the DGT lists these other channels:

• miDGT app: for phones and tablets, with the same details.
• Phone 060: by credit or debit card. From abroad, the DGT is reachable on +34 902 887 060.
• Correos: in cash at any Spanish post office, plus the fee Correos charges.
• CaixaBank: at branches and cash machines, by card or in cash.
• At a roadside check: if the Guardia Civil traffic police stop you, you can pay the officer by card on the spot, also with the 50% discount.
• Questions about a DGT fine: the DGT’s fines line is +34 987 010 559, Monday to Friday 8:00 to 22:00 and Saturday 8:00 to 15:00.

If you cannot prove legal residence in Spain when the police stop you, the officer sets the fine provisionally on the spot. You can pay it straight away by credit card or in cash in euros, and the 50% discount still applies to that amount. If you don’t, you have to drive the car to a place the officer names and leave it there.

The Rental Car Trap: Double Billing

Weeks after you dropped off the car, a charge from the rental company turns up on your credit card, but no fine has arrived yet? That charge is not the fine itself. Whether the rental firm may bill you for passing on your details, and how much, depends on the rental terms you accepted.

When a speed camera catches a rental car, the notice first goes to the rental company, because it is the registered keeper. The company then has 20 days to name the driver, and it takes your details straight from your rental agreement. A keeper who names nobody, or the wrong person, pays double the original fine for a minor offence. For a serious or very serious offence it is triple, with no discount.

The actual fine then comes to your home address from the DGT or the town hall, and you pay it on top of any rental fee. So you may well pay twice. Your 20 days start when that notice reaches you, not on the day the camera flashed.

Enforcement Abroad: Ignoring is Pointless

If you live in the UK, the US or anywhere else outside the EU, you may assume a Spanish fine cannot follow you home. Within the EU, countries enforce each other’s fines under a joint framework decision (2005/214/JHA). That arrangement only works between EU member states, so it does not reach your address in the UK or the US.

The fine does not simply disappear, though. Once it is final, it stays on Spain’s books for four years before it becomes time-barred. For residents of Spain, the tax agency collects it directly, surcharge included.

For readers in another EU country, there is a lower limit for enforcement. Germany’s Federal Office of Justice, for example, has to refuse Spanish fines below €70 when Spain asks for help. Skip the discount, though, and even the cheapest speeding fine of €100 is above that line.

What a rental company may charge you for handling a fine is fixed in the rental agreement. You accept that agreement when you book. Compare fuel, insurance and extra-fee terms before booking, and you know in advance what can end up on your card.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Verdict

For 10 km/h over the limit you pay €100 and keep your points. With the phone in your hand at the wheel, it is €200 and 6 points. Pay within the 20 days and you only pay half, whether an officer handed you the notice at the roadside or it arrived by post.

The most expensive mistake is leaving the envelope in a drawer. After the 20 days you pay the full amount, and the tax agency can later add a surcharge of up to 20% on top. The debt then stays collectable for four years.