I had an email from a lady living in Spain who needed help as her husband had received a fine for not wearing his seatbelt but had lost the paper.   She had already been to the police station, who sent her to Algeciras, who told her she had to go to Cadiz to pay it....etc. etc. etc.   The usual runaround when all she wanted to do was pay the fine!

So she asked for my help and I called the Trafico office to ask what she needed to do to pay the fine without the physical piece of paper.  The man I spoke to was very helpful but told me something I did not know before:

• If the ´multa´ is issued to you by the Guardia Civil or Traffic police then the fine is paid and administered by the Trafico office.
• If the ´multa´ is issued by the local  police, this is administered by the local ayuntamiento and Trafico has nothing to do with it! 

So now you know - that might save you a couple of hours of running around unnecessarily!

By the way, the fine for not wearing a seatbelt was 105 euros....

Spain seems to be getting more organized as each week goes by.   On the tails of the DGT reconsidering the need to carry replacement lights in the car, you will now no longer be obliged to carry a copy of your car insurance policy.

The reason for this is that the traffic police now have access to a database of insured vehicles (Fichero Informativo de Vehículos Asegurados) where they can instantly check if your car is insured or not.  However, if for some administrative failure you do not appear on the list, even though you are insured, they will ask for the documentation.  Should you fail to have it in the car they will create a ´denuncia´ and you will need to present the documentation to them within 5 days to stop it being processed.

So to be on the safe side, it is still advisable to carry your insurance documentation with you - you just don´t need to break out into a cold sweat if you haven´t got it.

via:  Autoescuela.tv

At the moment,  if the police stopped you and found that you did not have a set of replacement bulbs for the lights in your car, you would get a sanction.  However, according to Autoescuela.tv, the  Dirección General de Tráfico (traffic office) is looking at getting rid of this penalty.  The complex design of many modern cars means that it is not always a simple job to change the headlights anymore for example, with some makes and models needing a specialist to change the lights.

Apparently 13,000 motorists have already been penalized for failing to have a replacement set or the correct equipment to replace the lights!  But good news for the rest of us as it will be one less thing to worry about.

Don´t forget though that you still need to carry two red warning triangles and reflective safety jackets in the car.  And if you wear glasses, you also need to have a spare set in the car.

In Spain you will be hard pressed to find a company that will let you pay by monthly instalments for your car insurance which means a hefty sum each year.   If you are lucky they will let you pay every six months or every quarter but that is as far it as goes.

Linea Directa, one of the most well known companies has however introduced monthly instalments for your motor insurance which will come as a welcome change to many who prefer to budget monthly.  They claim it is a special promotion until the 31st of July but I suspect they will offer the service after this date.  

While they are not the cheapest company, they do offer a good support service and are worth looking at if you need the convenience of paying monthly.  They also have an English version of the website which is always helpful!

Visit their website at www.lineadirecta.es.