speeding fines....again!

[Katieb]

My husband has just received a speeding fine (automatic camera, 15kmh over the limit) and has made a payment on line but we are unsure about his UK Driver Licence.

Does he need to apply for a French licence - if so how and where? or is his new style Uk (european licence) acceptable to receive the points. The form doesn't seem to ask to send it anywhere - is this request sent out at a later date?

Hopefully somebody will be able to supply some usefully info?

many thanks

Kate

[Ron Avery]

In theory he will have to apply for a French Driving license as the points system is different here, they deduct points rather than add them.  You should wait and see if you are asked to do this by the police.

If you are told to change, you have to go to your prefecture or sub-prefecture with 2 photos, your UK license, your passport, a written request to change your license, proof of residence, utility bill, Carte de Titre and a stamped addressed envelope.  You then complete a pink form.  In some departments the new license is free but this may not be the case where you are.

[0zeb100ddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue]

Hello

My son got done overtaking on a white line. Anyway he got a request to change his licence but ignored it. Hasn't heard a  thing after 18 months.

[Bikboks]

I was caught speeding shortly after arriving in France to live almost four years

ago. I still had an English licence at that time but no carte de gris

since the car was only one week old and it had not been issued. I was a resident with a carte sejour by then. I

was fined 90 euros for this offence but nothing happened with regard to

any points so I would recommend just sitting tight and doing nothing

unless you're asked to.

[Clair]

I wrote this a few months ago, but here it is again anyway!...

A married couple (both UK licences living in France) were caught speeding within a few wekks of each othr.

One was caught by an automatic speed trap, received a postal notifcation of a €90 fine, paid it and that's all that happened.

The other was caught speeding by a gendarmeand fined. The gendarme made a specific request on her fine that she had to change her UK licence to a French one which would then be endorsed with 3 points (or rather so that they could be deducted). She complied and was asked to present her French licence to the local gendarmerie for verification.

[Quillan]

There was a change in the French law that came in to effect on the 1st Jan 2005. Our prefecture is pretty hot on keeping up to date but I must stress that others are not.

If you have a EU credit card type licence with seperate paper part there is no requirement to change it. The points are registered at your prefecture and are placed on computer. You may apply at, or after, three years to have them removed. This has happened to me twice, once for speeding (-3 points) and for using a mobile phone (-1 point - It is illegal to use a mobile phone on a French highway even if you are stationary). Whilst I still have a EU licence issued by th DVLC I have been told by the prefecture that there is no need for me to change it. A friend of mine got 'done' three weeks back and was treated the same way.

To be honest this does rather seem illogical to me as the French and UK points system are exactly the oposite from each other, one adds points, the other takes them away. Also if I commited a driving offence in the UK and had,  lets say, the French equivilent of 11 points and by giving me another two or three would result in my licence being revoked, how would they know? I can only assume that this is all part of the future centralisation of everything to do with driving in the EU. I was rather wondering if you get up to 12 points in the UK and came to France could you deliberatly speed then have 3 points taken off getting you back down to 9? Somehow I think not.

[Teamedup]

You do of course mean driving licenses j'espere! rather than credit cards.......[:)]