Trouble paying Spanish Traffic Ticket

Are you writing the date in the correct format? DD/MM/YYYY.

Argh! I can only sympathize with your situation, as I had the same problem after a trip in January. Fortunately, I was back in Spain in March, and able to pay it in person at an ATM. (The deadline for discounted fine well past...)

I pulled out the ticket I got in 2017 and the only date on it was the infraction date (fecha de denuncia). It is in DD/MM/YYYY format as JC suggested. Also, if the month or day is a single digit, add a leading zero, e.g, 05 for May or the 5th, rather than just 5. I’m sure that’s the date I used when I paid it online.

I live in Spain and frequently have to do transactions on Spanish websites. Like everyone else I use Google Translate to automatically translate websites. However, the translate process screws up dates when trying to actually complete a transaction. It isn't about Europe versus US date format though. It is more about screwed up data. For example on a website where you have to pick a date on a calendar (like for credit card expiration or the date I want to buy a movie ticket for) the number 11 will change to the word "eleven". The transaction won't work. If I turn off the translation and complete the transaction with the website in Spanish then it works fine. So if you are using translate turn it off and give it a another try. I hope you can get it to work.

samc — My Spanish is B2/C1, so I never considered translating the page. Still, the dates were consistently rejected when I was trying to pay mine.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I tried all the suggestions. I was really hoping that not using Google translate would allow us to complete the transaction. Unfortunately, I continue to get the same error about the date. Oh well! Maybe if I am ever in Spain again I will pay the fine.

If you google your error, there's a few postings where individuals had the same issue, but resolved it by temporarily changing the timezone on their device.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/traffic-ticket-notification-how-to-pay

Do you get an error message something like "revise la fecha notificación e introduzca un valor correcto"? If so, a fix I've seen on another website is that this is due to the "computer time" of where you are (don't ask me what that means!), and mainly seems to affect people in another time zone which is many hours ahead or behind (e.g. USA). The apparent fix is to temporarily change your computer’s time zone to GMT or BST, then try again. I've no idea why this works since Spain isn't on GMT/BST, but apparently it does.

And some comments in a blog discussed the same fix.

https://speedingfinespain.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-field-date-of-notification-is-not.html

This is still an issue and changing the UTC was the answer. Thank you. For those with the same issue, you can change you time/date in the settings function (people usually default to auto, so you can change that and find the proper time zone for Spain(Madrid). The notification date is listed with the stamp, near the bottom of the infraction. It seems similar to the initial #s under the bar code. Good luck and thanks to those before me who figured this out!

Indeed, using Google translate or similar sometimes messes up the websites.

I am not aware being on a different UTC does affect the operations on the website... in principle, it shouldn't.

Assuming it's Google Translate messing it up, let me suggest a different approach...

• Either use two browsers (not two tabs on the same one, but two different browsers!) on the same computer OR
• Use two different devices (ie computer and cellular).

Access one in Spanish and the other one in English. Read the instructions on the second one, but operate on the first one.

Et voilà!... you should be able to use the website as initially intended.

ALTERNATIVE

If you got the ticket within CATALONIA, you could use the gateway of the Government of Catalonia to pay your fine -which is presented in English :)... https://web.gencat.cat/en/tramits/tramits-temes/Fer-el-pagament-i-la-consulta-de-les-sancions-de-transit-00003

Even if you got it in Spain elsewhere, you could TRY the same gateway as it's interconnected with the Spanish DGT (aka Traffic Authority), it even might work.

Good luck.

Hello,

I just received a ticket from my trip in September. I too kept getting the error message that the infraction date was incorrect. I removed the zeros from the date and it worked. My date was September 7, 2022. I entered 7/9/2022 and it worked. I was going crazy because if you select the date from the calendar on the ticket payment page, it automatically added the zeros!!

Hope this tip works for all.

The advice gallagherva offered did the trick, at least as of 05/05/23. After what must have been at least three dozen varied attempts removing the zero from the month is what finally worked. Also not sure if switching to a windows based machine made a difference.

-Craig

I spent more than 2 hours on different days trying to pay my fine. Turning off Google Translate didn't work but setting the time zone to 0:00 (London) was the magic bullet. Thank you!!

Did anyone try what I suggested above?

I just received a ticket and was having the same problem with the web site not accepting the "Notification Date". If you click the ? at the top of the page the instructions tell you what they really need is the date of the infraction. More importantly, you can't rely on the drop-down calendar to format the date correctly. The site won't accept a date with any leading zeros. A date of 25/09/2022, which is what the calendar produces, will be rejected. It needs to be 25/9/2022. Good luck (and slow down!).

Thank you everyone for the helpful tips. Eureka, I just paid my fine at 50% off. I could not pay with Safari browser, had to switch to another one, Brave. I entered in my infraction date without the leading zeros like so, 5/1/2023 and it worked. I paid my fine as soon as I got an official physical letter from DGT, on Feb. 12, 2023. It's more than 20 days from the infraction date and still got 50% discount. Another tip to pay the fine is click on the "computer image" icon which states "Without Certificate". It was a bit confusing for me.

By the way, the official letter I received in the mail is exactly the same one I got from Enterprise Car Rental weeks earlier, all in Spanish. I requested for the information regarding the ticket and Enterprise was able to forward me the document from DGT. I guess I could have paid the fine earlier. Hope this helps.

Was having this same problem and removed leading zeros on the date and that worked!

The leading zero trick didn't work for me. I had to change the time zone on my Windows PC to Madrid time, and it immediately accepted the date without the error. Crazy bug in their web-form! Thanks to all for this forum!

I had to use all 3 tricks to pay: Google Translate, time zone, and leading zeroes. Took almost all day... But it worked!

We also found it impossible to pay a Spanish speeding ticket. I finally called the Spanish Tourist Office in NYC for help. Their agent said we were driving slower than most Spaniards would on that highway! We finally gave up and ignored it. We have been back to Spain since, no problems.

OP, Thank you for for taking the time to try and pay the ticket.

Omgeeee changing the time ZONE WORKED!!!! I was struggling for hours with the same error that the date was incorrect.. as soon as I changed the time zone on my Mac book it worked! Makes no sense but it worked

changing to UTC worked for me as well.