A good reason to get a Spanish driving licence

We've recently run a Facebook advertising campaign offering to change people's UK or other EU driving licences for Spanish ones (at the very reasonable price of 40€). Now being honest people we have put on the information page (Spanish Driving Licence) that it is not absolutely essential to change your licence even if you are resident in Spain, so we are not trying to win business by panicking people into changing their licence unnecessarily. However if you are resident in Spain and are driving around using your UK licence you should change it if:

- it's one of the tatty old paper ones which you should have changed over to a picture id one by now

- if you approaching 70. This is because your UK licence will expire on your 70th birthday and the DVLA will only issue you a new one if you are resident in the UK. You will thus have to either wangle one by using a false UK address which would be a bit dubious given that the DVLA are connected to other UK databases like the passport agency and social security OR take your test in Spain. Once expired you cannot exchange your UK licence for a Spanish one so do it when it is still in date.

The other problem with a UK licence is if it is lost or stolen. We had a client who couldn't get a replacement in the UK because he wasn't resident there and couldn't get one in Spain because all he had was DVLA letter saying he had the right to drive but not an actual licence. By all accounts the Spanish test is not much fun so maybe it does pay to get a Spanish driving licence.

How to get a Spanish driving licence