Traffic tickets in Spain on rental car

You don’t have to do anything—the Spanish Traffic Directorate ( DGT) should mail you the citation details at some point. It can take as long as one year from the date of the violation for this to happen. If you don’t receive anything within one year— you are off the hook. They first notify the car rental agency of the violation and then the car rental agency will provide the DGT with your address.

Paying the fine within 20 days of when you receive the DGT notice allows you a 50 percent reduction in the fine. So, if the fine is $100 you can pay $50 within 20 days and your case is resolved.

Thanks for the reply. Will i be able to pay online then. And 8 months that's a big time lag.

I’m not sure how you pay the fine online but there is a way. I believe Spain sends out the ticket by snail mail. That is how you will get the citation. There are frequent complaints by Americans in a similar situation that they couldn’t figure out how to pay the fine since the notification is in Spanish.

If you need to pay electronically but US credit cards are not accepted (which seems common with European traffic fines), check out the fund-transfer service offered by Wise. Many folks on this forum have used it (I have not), and it has worked well at a cost much, much lower than what your bank would probably charge.

There are frequent complaints by Americans in a similar situation that they couldn’t figure out how to pay the fine since the notification is in Spanish.

It's a bit absurd to expect the notification to be in a non-official language, right? ;)

How you receive the citation may depend on who issued it, e.g., a locality or a highway camera.

The last time I received a ticket in Spain was 2017 when leaving a small town and accelerated too soon (before the actual speed limit change sign). On that trip I wasn’t charged by the rental car company (no idea why), but did receive the citation in the mail. The trip was in May and I paid the fine online in July, so you should be receiving the actual citation soon. I had no problem paying with my U.S. credit card.

On the citation, it will be in Spanish, it should tell you where exactly the infraction occurred (the road and kilometer marker if from a highway camera). There will be a link to a website where you can pay the fine. As stated by another poster, there is a 50% discount if paid within 20 days from when you receive the citation in the mail. There will be an infraction number (número de expediente) that you’ll need for payment and you’ll also need to enter your passport number where the form asks for DNI-NIE-NIF-Otras Identificacciones

If the ticket was issued by the DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico) you should be able to pay it at:
https://sede.dgt.gob.es/es/multas/pago-de-multas/

The last part of the URL says … /fines/payment of fines/. The website (Google Chrome should automatically translate it for you) click on the button at the top that says “Online sin certificado” (online without certificate). That will bring up the form you’ll need to fill out.

If the citation was issued by a locality or municipality there will most likely be a different website for paying.

The traffic ticket appears to be issued by Granada. Not sure what we did - the suspense is killing me. Since its been 3 months and hadnt heard anything I thought we were in the clear. Now I am going to worry for the next several months another ticket is looming. Though we tried our best not to speed its not a guarantee we didnt break another traffic violation unbeknowst to us.

At this point all you can do is wait. Maybe you’ll never receive it. If it’s from the city Granada it could be almost anything from parking, to speeding, to driving in a bus/taxi lane or a pedestrian area.