Please provide accurate information about using a UK driving licence whilst living in Spain and the procedure for changing over. I have heard that after changing his licence for a spanish one, a Brit was later refused a car hire in England because he no longer had a UK licence!
Thank you

You can use your UK licence without problem. Why would you want to change it over?

Although it is a european licence, if it is used in Spain for more than 6 months and to be legal, you are supposed to take it in and get a Spanish stamp on it.
Also if you have residencia you are supposed to exchange it for a Spanish one.
More info here

http://costablancaexpats.net/pats/trafico.txt

i was gonna say the same thing. if u intend on staying in spain, you will need to have ur license "authenticated/stamped as jdr says. they dont take ur license away, they just register your license with ur spanish address. its like having the wrong details on ur licence, as u now live in spain, ur address is wrong on ur licence. its just a way around that so they can see that u live here if u do get pulled over

IF you are not living here permanently, ie more than 180 days (6 months) of the year, then u dont need to change it.

i´ve been here four and a half years, and i´ve not had mine stamped. the police have told me on 2 occasions that i need to...but i haven´t yet. when i was stopped i proved my address by my NIE paperwork.

COULD you order a new one from u.k and say you lost it, change the old one and have two??

DONT :lecture: , please

WHAT do you think a spanish and an english license sound good to me!!

Gosh its a wonder no one has thought of that before.....

There are so many traffic regs its crazy, and if they are not complied with the police can just tow your car to the pound, 50 €+ till you get the paperwork or whatever as proof.

Yeah, the old advice on getting speeding points for the first time was to lose your licence and get a duplicate before sending it off for the points...still got a clean one for later...!

Be careful with not having your license up to date. It carries quite a heavy fine. A friend of mine recently received one in Chiclana

I still have an old paper licence is it better to get the new photocard one before leaving UK to live in Spain?

Yes you should really have a euro one, which they stamp if you stay for more than 6 months.
I dont think the Spanish police like the paper ones...