What a speeding fine costs in Belgium — and when it stops being a fine

Almost everyone knows someone who got a fine and could not work out the amount. That is because there is no fixed price per speed: the amount is built in three steps, and the second one depends on where you were driving.

Step 1 — the correction comes off first

The measured speed is not the speed you are judged on. The statutory technical correction comes off first: 6 km/h for readings up to 100 km/h, and 6% above that. Measured at 96 in a 90 zone, the retained speed is 90 — no offence.

Step 2 — the amount climbs faster where it is more dangerous

Above the limit there is a base amount for the first few km/h, then a fixed amount for every additional km/h. That per-km/h amount is higher in built-up areas, in 30 zones, near schools and in residential zones than it is on a regional road or a motorway.

So 20 km/h over does not always cost the same. The same 20 km/h weighs more outside a school than on a dual carriageway, and that is deliberate.

Step 3 — above a threshold it is no longer a fine

There is a point at which the case is no longer settled by immediate collection and you are summoned to the police court instead. That threshold sits at more than 30 km/h over the limit, and at more than 20 km/h in 30 zones, school areas and residential zones.

Past that point it is not an amount you transfer. The court can impose a much larger fine and, on top of it, a driving ban — which for large excesses is frequently not optional.

The amounts themselves

The euro figures are index-linked and change. We deliberately do not freeze them into a table that will be wrong next year — check them against the official channels, or against your own payment notice, which always sets out the calculation.

• The correction is already applied to the amount you receive — the speed shown is the retained speed.
• If you do not pay, an increased sum follows, and then the court anyway.
• A foreign plate does not help: within the EU, traffic fines are collected across borders.

What to take from it

The lesson is not to memorise the price of each km/h. It is that the places where speeding costs the most are exactly the places you least expect to be measured: village centres, school streets, residential areas. Those see a mobile check far more often than a fixed camera.