Black points are penalty points that Dubai Police add to your driving licence when you commit a traffic offence, and 24 of them within 12 months suspends your licence. They also follow you into the pricing of your next car insurance in Dubai, because insurers read your traffic record as a risk profile. This guide sets out the 2026 points list with the fines attached to each offence, how many black points are allowed in Dubai, how to check yours, when points expire, how to clear them, and what is actually true about transferring points to another driver.
Table of Contents
Too long; didn’t read (TL;DR)
- 24 black points in a rolling 12 months suspends a Dubai licence — three months for a first suspension, six for a second, one year plus a retest for a third.
- Each black point expires 12 months after the date of the violation that caused it. Points do not roll over from one year into the next.
- Most speeding tickets carry no black points at all. Points start only once you exceed the limit by more than 50 km/h.
- You can check your points free through the Dubai Police app, the MOI app, the RTA channels or by SMS.
- An approved traffic awareness course removes up to 8 points, once a year. The Ministry of Interior’s Accident-Free Day removes 4 points for free.
- You cannot give your points to someone else — but a vehicle owner can move a violation onto the licence of whoever was actually driving.
What are black points in Dubai?
A black point is a demerit recorded against a driver’s traffic file, not against a car. The system exists so that repeat offending carries a consequence beyond the fine: two drivers can pay the same AED 800 for using a phone at the wheel, but the one who does it four times in a year is the one who loses the licence.
Three things follow from points being attached to the driver rather than the vehicle. Points travel with you between cars and between emirates, because the record is federal. Points recorded by a camera default to the registered owner until someone corrects the record. And a company car with five drivers produces five separate point balances, not one.
The framework is set by Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024 on Traffic Regulation, which came into force on 29 March 2025 and applies across all seven emirates. Dubai Police administer enforcement and the points ledger within Dubai; the RTA handles licensing and vehicle registration, which is why a suspension shows up in both systems.
How many black points are allowed in Dubai?
You are allowed up to 23 black points. The 24th suspends your licence. Put the other way round, the maximum number of black points you can hold in Dubai without losing your licence is 23. The count is a rolling 12-month window rather than a calendar year, so the question is never simply how many points you have — it is how many you have accumulated in the last twelve months from any given date.
| Points in a rolling 12 months | What happens |
|---|---|
| 24 — first time | Licence suspended for 3 months |
| 24 — second time | Licence suspended for 6 months |
| 24 — third time | Licence suspended for 1 year, with mandatory retraining and a retest before it is returned |
| 12 to 23 | No automatic suspension, but you are one serious offence away from one. A single red-light violation adds 12 |
| Under 12 | No penalty beyond the fines themselves, and the best position for insurance pricing |
What happens at 24 black points in Dubai
The suspension is automatic and runs for a minimum of three months. It is not a driving ban in the abstract — your licence is withdrawn, and driving during the suspension is a separate and considerably more serious offence. Reaching 24 usually takes either one severe violation, such as exceeding the limit by more than 80 km/h, or a run of mid-weight ones such as two red lights.
Some sources describe an option to pay a fee of around AED 2,400 and complete a one-day rehabilitation course in place of a first three-month suspension, for drivers aged 21 and over. Reinstating a suspended licence is handled through Dubai Police and the Dubai driving licence process at the RTA.
Between 12 and 23 black points
This is the band where drivers get caught out, because nothing visible happens. There is no suspension, no letter, and no prompt to act. But at 12 points a single red light takes you to 24, and at 18 a single instance of dangerous driving takes you past it. If you are in this range, the useful move is to book an awareness course now rather than after the suspension letter arrives.
Under 12 black points
Under 12 points you are a low-risk driver in every system that reads your traffic file, and the points you do hold will clear on their own within a year of each violation. It is also the only band in which you have real leverage at renewal, because a clean or near-clean record is the input insurers use to justify a lower premium.
Dubai black points list 2026: violations, fines and points
The table below pairs each offence with both its fine and its black points, because the two are set separately and often do not track each other. Figures verified in August 2026 against Federal Decree-Law No. 14 of 2024 and current UAE insurer and enforcement guidance.
| Traffic violation | Fine | Black points | Vehicle impounded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs | Set by the court | 23 | 60 days |
| Driving in a way that endangers lives and property | AED 2,000 | 23 | 60 days |
| Exceeding the speed limit by more than 80 km/h | AED 3,000 | 23 | 60 days |
| Driving a vehicle with no number plates | AED 3,000 | 23 | 90 days |
| Exceeding the speed limit by 60 to 80 km/h | AED 2,000 | 12 | 30 days |
| Running a red light (light vehicle) | AED 1,000 | 12 | 30 days |
| Exceeding the speed limit by 50 to 60 km/h | AED 1,500 | 6 | 15 days |
| Overtaking dangerously on the hard shoulder | AED 1,000 | 6 | — |
| Parking beside a fire hydrant or in a reserved bay | AED 1,000 | 6 | — |
| Using a handheld mobile phone while driving | AED 800 | 4 | — |
| Not wearing a seat belt (driver or passenger) | AED 400 | 4 | — |
| Driving below the minimum speed limit | AED 400 | 4 | — |
| Exceeding the speed limit by up to 50 km/h | AED 1,000 | None | — |
| Exceeding the speed limit by up to 40 km/h | AED 700 | None | — |
| Exceeding the speed limit by up to 30 km/h | AED 600 | None | — |
| Exceeding the speed limit by up to 20 km/h | AED 300 | None | — |
This is the point-bearing portion of the schedule, not the whole of it. The full list runs to well over a hundred offences, most of which carry a fine and no points; the complete Dubai traffic fines list covers those.
Why most speeding fines carry no black points
This is the single most misreported fact about the Dubai system, and it is worth stating flatly: exceeding the speed limit by up to 50 km/h carries a fine but no black points at all. Points begin at 6 in the 50 to 60 km/h band, jump to 12 between 60 and 80, and reach 23 above 80.
The practical consequence is that a driver can hold several thousand dirhams of speeding fines and a completely clean points record. The reverse is also true, and matters more: one red light at AED 1,000 does more damage to your licence than five AED 700 speeding tickets. Fines and points are separate systems, and paying a fine does not remove the point attached to it.
Fines and points are not the same thing
Settling a fine clears the debt; it does not clear the point. The point stays on the record for its full twelve months regardless of how quickly you paid. This also means a fine discount is not a points discount — the periodic reductions available on Dubai fines lower what you owe and leave your points untouched.
If the balance rather than the points is what is worrying you, the routes to deal with it are covered separately: how to pay traffic fines in the UAE, and the current position on discounts on Dubai traffic fines.
How to check black points on your licence in Dubai
Checking is free and takes under two minutes on any of four channels. You will need your Emirates ID or your driving licence number; the traffic file number works too. Because the points ledger is federal, the MOI app returns the same balance wherever the offence was recorded, which makes it the right choice if you drive across emirates.
1. Dubai Police app or website
- Download the Dubai Police app from Google Play or the App Store, or open dubaipolice.gov.ae.
- Sign in with UAE Pass, or register with your Emirates ID.
- Open Traffic Services, then Black Points.
- Enter your driving licence number or Emirates ID to see your current balance and the violation behind each point.
2. MOI app — works in any emirate
The Ministry of Interior app and moi.gov.ae return your federal points balance, including points recorded in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and Umm Al Quwain. Sign in with UAE Pass, open Traffic Services and select the black points enquiry. This is the only channel that gives you a single consolidated view.
3. RTA website and Dubai Now
Go to rta.ae, open the Traffic section and select the fines and black points enquiry, then enter your Emirates ID or licence details. The Dubai Now app carries the same service. If you want to search by number plate rather than by licence — useful when the car is registered to someone else — the plate-based route is covered in our guide to the UAE traffic fine check by plate number.
4. SMS and service centres
- Send an SMS reading Points [your licence number] to 7275 and you will receive your current balance by reply.
- Or visit any RTA customer happiness centre or Smart Police Station with your Emirates ID or driving licence.
When do black points expire in Dubai?
Each black point expires 12 months after the date of the violation that produced it. Points do not expire as a batch on a fixed annual date, and they do not carry over into a new year — they drop off individually, one violation at a time, on the anniversary of each offence.
That distinction changes what you should do. If you picked up 12 points in March and 6 in September, you are not carrying 18 points until some year-end reset; you are back to 6 the following March. Checking the dates attached to your points tells you whether waiting is a viable strategy or whether you need to act now.
Two conditions apply. The twelve months must be served without triggering a suspension in the meantime, and the expiry runs from the violation date rather than from the date you paid the fine — so paying late does not extend the clock, and paying early does not shorten it.
How to clear black points in Dubai
There are four legitimate ways to reduce black points in Dubai, and they can be combined. Ranked by how much they remove: an approved awareness course takes off up to 8 points, the Ministry of Interior’s Accident-Free Day takes off 4, a successful appeal removes the points from a violation entirely, and time removes everything eventually.
Accident-Free Day: four black points removed, free
The Ministry of Interior runs a nationwide campaign each year around the start of the school term. Drivers who sign an online pledge and then drive the nominated day without a violation or an accident have four black points removed at no cost. It applies in Dubai and every other emirate, and more than 300,000 drivers registered in 2024.
For 2026 the pledge opened on 17 August 2026 at moi.gov.ae, and the accident-free day itself is 31 August 2026. Register with your Emirates ID or UAE Pass, open Smart Services and select the accident-free day initiative, then commit to the pledge terms — keeping a safe following distance, giving way to pedestrians and emergency vehicles, wearing seat belts, respecting speed limits and not using a phone at the wheel. Points are deducted electronically within weeks of the day, with no centre visit required. Dates confirmed as at 26 August 2026; confirm the current year’s campaign on moi.gov.ae before relying on them.
The traffic awareness course: up to 8 points
An approved traffic awareness or defensive driving course removes up to 8 black points, and you can use it once per year. In Dubai it is booked through Dubai Police channels; Abu Dhabi runs its equivalent through TAMM or the Abu Dhabi Police site, and Sharjah through its police service centres.
Published course fees vary between sources — figures from AED 250 to AED 810 are quoted for Dubai — so confirm the current fee with Dubai Police at the point of booking rather than budgeting from a third-party figure. If your points were recorded outside Dubai, the emirate-by-emirate procedures for removing black points in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and the Northern Emirates differ enough to be worth reading before you book.
Waiting out the twelve months
Doing nothing is a real strategy when your balance is low and your oldest points are close to their anniversary. It costs nothing and it is certain. It stops being a strategy above roughly 16 points, where the margin for a single serious offence disappears and the awareness course becomes the sensible purchase.
How to appeal black points you did not earn
A black points appeal is worth filing whenever a violation was recorded against the wrong driver, the wrong vehicle, or in circumstances you can evidence were not an offence — because a successful appeal removes the fine and the black points together. Reports put the filing window at roughly 15 to 30 days from the violation notice.
Appeals are submitted through the Dubai Police portal or app, or in person at a Smart Police Station, with supporting evidence: dashcam footage, a rental or handover agreement, a workshop record showing the car was off the road, or travel records showing you were out of the country. The full process, including what evidence actually persuades, is set out in our guide to disputing a Dubai Police fine.
Can you transfer black points to another driver in Dubai?
You cannot give your accumulated points to another person, but you can move a violation onto the licence of whoever was actually driving. Those are two different things, and conflating them is why this question is answered so badly across the web.
A camera-recorded offence defaults to the registered owner of the vehicle. If your brother, your employee or a friend was behind the wheel, the correct action is not a transfer of points but a correction of the record — the owner declares the actual driver, and the points and the fine attach to that person’s file instead. There is no route, anywhere in the UAE, to hand points you legitimately earned to a volunteer.
Transfer channels by emirate
| Where the violation was recorded | Channel to reassign it to the actual driver |
|---|---|
| Dubai | Dubai Police app or dubaipolice.gov.ae, under Traffic Services |
| Abu Dhabi | TAMM — “request to transfer black points to the driving licence” |
| Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah, Umm Al Quwain | MOI app or moi.gov.ae |
If the offence was recorded outside Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the MOI black points transfer service is the one to use — the same federal ledger that lets points from any emirate count toward your 24 also lets any emirate’s violation be reassigned through it.
What you need to reassign a violation
- The Emirates ID and driving licence number of the driver who was actually driving.
- The vehicle owner’s traffic code number, and the driver’s — if you are not sure what yours is, our guide to UAE traffic code numbers explains where to find it.
- The violation reference and the vehicle’s plate details.
- The driver’s consent. The reassignment moves both the fine and the points onto their record, so it is not something that can be done quietly.
Two limits are widely reported and worth planning around: the facility can generally be used once a year, and the receiving driver is expected to have a clear record. Note: neither condition is published in a form we can cite, so confirm with Dubai Police before you rely on it. If ownership of the car itself has changed hands, that is a separate process — see vehicle ownership transfer in Dubai.
Buying or selling black points is a criminal matter
Social media offers along the lines of “pay me and I will take your points” are not a grey area. Making a false declaration about who was driving is fraud, and it exposes both parties to licence cancellation, fines and prosecution. Enforcement is not passive about it either — traffic cameras capture the driver, and identity is verifiable against the declaration made.
How black points affect your car insurance in the UAE
Insurers price the driver, not just the car. A traffic record showing repeated serious violations tells an underwriter that the probability of a claim is higher than the vehicle and the driver’s age alone would suggest, and the premium moves accordingly. Points also interact with your no-claims discount: the two are assessed separately, but a driver who loses both at once sees the largest increase.
How much it moves depends on the insurer, and no UAE insurer publishes a points-to-premium table. What is consistent is the direction and the shape: a clean record gives you access to the widest set of quotes and the strongest negotiating position, a moderate record narrows the field, and a suspension can put comprehensive cover out of reach until the record recovers.
The cover you hold changes how much that matters. If a rising premium is pushing you toward the minimum, it is worth understanding what you would actually be giving up: comprehensive car insurance covers damage to your own vehicle, while third party car insurance covers only what you do to others.
When a damaged record makes cover harder to afford
The awkward part of a points-driven premium rise is timing: it lands at renewal, in one payment, at exactly the moment you are least able to absorb it. Spreading the cost is usually more sensible than dropping to a level of cover you would regret at the first claim — you can buy car insurance with Tabby and split the premium into four, or take car insurance with Tamara and pay it down over a longer schedule.
Points recorded outside Dubai still count
Because the ledger is federal, a red light in Abu Dhabi and a red light in Dubai contribute to the same 24. Drivers who commute between emirates routinely underestimate their balance by checking only one police app, and the price of that mistake is a suspension that arrives without warning. The same logic applies to cover: whether you are buying car insurance in Abu Dhabi or car insurance in Sharjah, the record the insurer reads is the national one.
Compare car insurance rates against your driving record
Check your points before you renew, not after. If your balance is about to drop — because an old violation is close to its twelve-month anniversary, or because you are eligible for an awareness course — renewing a fortnight later can be the difference between two quote brackets. The insurers below all price against driving history, and each has different tolerance for a record with points on it.
UAE car insurers that price on driving history
| Insurer | What the driving record affects |
|---|---|
| Sukoon car insurance | Comprehensive plans with a no-claims discount that stacks on a clean record |
| ADNIC car insurance | Policies rated on driving behaviour as well as vehicle value |
| Allianz car insurance | Flexible plan tiers, with discounts weighted toward clean records |
| Salama car insurance | Sharia-compliant cover with competitive rates for low-risk drivers |
| GIG Gulf car insurance | A wide coverage range with safe-driving incentives |
| Orient car insurance | Broad plan choice across driving profiles |
| NGI car insurance | Competitive pricing for drivers with low claims history |
| Dubai Insurance car insurance | Plans suited to a range of driving profiles |
Sukoon was formerly Oman Insurance and GIG Gulf was formerly AXA Gulf; both trade under the new names, and older comparison articles still using the old ones are out of date.
Key takeaways
Managing black points in Dubai comes down to three habits. Check your balance quarterly rather than annually, because the federal ledger collects points from every emirate you drive in and nothing prompts you until the suspension. Know the dates behind your points, because expiry runs per violation and often the cheapest fix is simply waiting. And act at 12 rather than at 20 — the awareness course and the accident-free pledge both exist to be used before the threshold, not after it.
The most reliable way to avoid black points in Dubai is unglamorous and it works: the four offences that generate most point balances are red lights, phone use, seat belts and extreme speeding, and all four are entirely within the driver’s control. The parts worth remembering: 24 points in twelve months suspends the licence, each point clears twelve months after its violation, most speeding fines carry no points at all, and points can be moved onto the driver who actually earned them but never sold to someone who did not.
Frequently asked questions
What are black points in Dubai?
Black points are penalty points Dubai Police record against a driver’s traffic file for traffic offences. They attach to the driver rather than the vehicle, so they follow you between cars and between emirates. Accumulating 24 within a rolling 12 months suspends your driving licence, and each point expires a year after its violation.
How many black points are allowed in Dubai?
You are allowed up to 23 black points. The 24th, within a rolling 12-month window, suspends your licence automatically — three months for a first suspension, six months for a second, and one year plus mandatory retraining and a retest for a third. Below 12 points, no suspension risk applies.
When do black points expire in Dubai?
Each black point expires 12 months after the date of the violation that caused it, not on a fixed annual reset date. Points drop off individually as each violation reaches its anniversary. Paying the fine early does not accelerate this, and paying late does not delay it.
Can you transfer black points to another person in Dubai?
No, you cannot give accumulated points to someone else. What you can do is reassign a violation to the driver who was actually driving your vehicle — through the Dubai Police app in Dubai, TAMM in Abu Dhabi, or the MOI app elsewhere. Buying or selling points is fraud.
How do you clear black points in Dubai?
Four legitimate routes exist. An approved traffic awareness course removes up to 8 points, once a year. The Ministry of Interior’s Accident-Free Day removes 4 points free. A successful appeal removes a wrongly recorded violation entirely. And every point clears on its own 12 months after its violation date.
How much does one black point cost in Dubai?
Black points cannot be bought or paid off at any price — they are not a payable charge. What you pay is the fine attached to the violation, which ranges from AED 300 to AED 3,000 or a court-set amount. Settling that fine leaves the black point on your record for its full 12 months.
How do I check black points on my licence in Dubai?
Use the Dubai Police app or dubaipolice.gov.ae under Traffic Services, the MOI app for a federal view covering every emirate, the RTA site or Dubai Now, or text Points followed by your licence number to 7275. All four are free and need only your Emirates ID or licence number.
Can you appeal black points in the UAE?
Yes. If a violation was recorded against the wrong driver or in circumstances you can evidence, file an objection through the Dubai Police portal, app or a Smart Police Station with supporting evidence such as dashcam footage or a rental agreement. A successful appeal cancels the fine and the black points together.
Comments (0)
Leave a comment