I’ve been living in France for 20 years and have been driving on a UK licence all of that time. Never had the minutest problem but my 2 young daughters have recently just past their French driving tests and notched up 5 speeding fines in as many months. Being the perfect gentleman fall-guy father I paid their fines and took the blame. Am just wondering now if I could be shortly banned from driving even though there is no way those points can be added to my UK driving licence according to DVLC. With one speeding fine I should I think have switched my UK licence into a French one, which I didn’t. Could it be that even though my UK licence is clean in a legal sense, if my daughters carry on like this I will be legally still banned from driving in France if ever there was a serious insurance claim etc? Any ideas please! Most grateful. James
lots of discussion already had on this one - can’t remember where the thread is - technically you have to exchange your licence for a french one as soon as you commit an offence, but you don’t have to exchange it after a year if you haven’t commited an offence. in my case i avoided a whole load of points but they caught up with me after 5 years and I’ve now got a french one but i’m still fighting to keep all classes of vehicles…!
found the thread
Good advice! Keep the English licence as long as possible and if you are asked to change just tell the police that you also spend an awful lot of time in the UK too like maybe more than 6 months.
Just spoke to a friend of mine who has been here for 20 years in Menton. He still has his English licence and doesn’t intend to swop for French or International one in a hurry. Says when the laws changes then we will confront this hurdle when it comes…but not before!
My husband got a speeding fine after we had been here just over a year. The local police rang to say they wanted his licence to deduct the points (in France you start with 12(I think) and they take them away for each offence - opposite to England). He explained that he had an English licence and was told that as he was resident had been here for more than a year he should have a French licence. We changed over with very little hassle. I have also heard via TV and friends that the UK and France are now trying to sort out a reciprocal arrangement for speeding fines as too many Brits are speeding in France and getting away with it. If you can get away with keeping your UK licence this would appear to be the best course of action for the time being. If you were not told to get a French licence it seems that the police in your area are a bit more lenient. Good luck and tell the girls to slow down!!
hmmm don’t get me started on tobacco…
Suz, Yea, couldn’t agree with you more. Trouble is there are some places where radar traps seem to have been placed cunningly to increase government income like it was a stealth tax. My daughter got caught coming back from Spain just after the border and everywhere on that motorway from Barcelona to Montpellier the speed limit is 130. But there are 5k down hill too between the border and the toll gate payage where it is 90 even though the motorway is identical. Very clever, they must make millions with that radar alone! Hope at least the money derived from certain radar stealth tax fines will reduce my income tax somewhat, but I doubt it. Won’t be long before France is one of the Portugal, Italy, Irland, Greece and Spain PIIGS. If it joins this flat broke bonkers politician’s usury club, we’ll just have to call them the PIFIGS or the FIPIGS! No, speed limits are not just about safety, on German motorways there is no limit. Speed radar traps are now also a very cunningly disguised stealth tax which will soon bring in a billion or 2 (if not already) without any elector ever complaining because the traps have ostensibly been created to save lives. Its just the same with tobacco. They keep putting more and more anti-tobacco warnings on the packet, to get them off the legal liability hook, but its another giant stealth tax run by the government mafia which reaps more and more billions…in the name of public health. Ha Ha. (They take around 85% of all the profits because in France its an astronomically profitable state monopoly). A plus James
James, tell them to slow down. Losing your licence sounds like a minor problem compared to what you could lose if they keep speeding. Every year more and more black statues appear at the roadside…if you keep taking their points & fines when are they going to take responsibility for their own lives as well as others?
I’m not goody 2 shoes, I don’t always stick to the limit but after my brother turned my mums car upside down at 17 & was lucky to escape I certainly will not be taking any fines when my 2 start driving (in many years to come).
Suz