How to reduce Flensburg points legally

What the law allows

Search results promise many ways to clear a points record. The points system in Section 4 StVG contains exactly one that lowers your total: a voluntary seminar. Everything else is time. Neither the remedial course that new drivers are ordered to attend nor traffic psychology counselling removes a point, because the law attaches a deduction only to the seminar. The one other event that wipes points is a fresh grant of the licence after it was withdrawn, which is hardly a strategy.

For expats this has a practical side. Points do not belong to a licence card, so swapping a foreign licence for a German one leaves them in place, and leaving the country only pauses your exposure, not the record.

The driver improvement seminar

The Fahreignungsseminar is meant to help drivers spot and change unsafe habits, as Section 4a StVG puts it. It has two parts that the two seminar leaders coordinate with each other.

Part one: with a driving instructor

A driving instructor holding a special seminar licence runs two modules of 90 minutes each, either one-to-one or in a group of up to six (Section 42 FeV). The first module covers your own driving history, what mobility means for your daily life and how the points system works, with topic blocks chosen from the offences participants actually committed, from speeding and tailgating to phone use or alcohol. You leave with a self-observation exercise. The second module may start no sooner than a week after the first and begins by going through that exercise.

Part two: with a traffic psychologist

Two individual sessions of 75 minutes follow with a psychologist who holds a separate seminar licence. The first analyses what triggers the risky behaviour and ends with written goals; the second, at least three weeks later, checks how those goals worked in practice. Psychologists need a university degree, specific training, several years of relevant experience and, tellingly, no more than two points of their own.

Language and cost

The law does not set a language for the seminar. Since both parts depend on conversation, ask providers in advance whether they can run it in a language you are comfortable with; nothing obliges them to. There is no official price either. Driving instructors and psychologists set their own fees, so compare offers, and treat any figure quoted as a provider's price rather than a standard rate. Check whether a quote covers both parts or only the instructor's modules, since the psychologist often bills separately.

The certificate

The leader of the final part issues the certificate, signed by both leaders and by you. Section 44 FeV obliges them to refuse it if you missed a session, openly rejected the aims or did not take part actively. You then have 2 weeks from the end of the seminar to get it to the licensing office.

What a seminar does at each total

The deduction depends on your total on the day the certificate is issued, and on the last deduction being at least 5 years back.

Because the psychologist's second session cannot start until three weeks after the first, people close to a threshold sometimes start too late. The register stores your seminar for five years, so a second course within that time adds nothing. To see your current total and whether a deduction is still available, request your free Flensburg extract.

Waiting for entries to expire

Every entry runs out on its own date. Section 29 StVG counts from the day the decision became final, usually two weeks after a fine notice was delivered.

A newer offence does not hold back the expiry of older ones; that rule disappeared in 2014. The catch is in Section 4(5): when the authority decides on a reminder, a warning or withdrawal, it uses your total on the day of the latest offence. An entry that expires while that case is pending does not help. For new drivers there is a further delay, because entries are not deleted while the probationary licence is recorded. Enter your own dates in the points calculator to see when each one drops off.

An example with a reminder letter

Take a driver whose file shows one point for a red light final on 5 November 2024, two points for a speeding case with a ban final on 12 June 2025 and one point for a phone at the wheel final on 28 May 2026. On 11 October 2026 that is 4 points, so the reminder has just arrived. A seminar finished with a certificate issued now brings the total to 3. The red-light point stops counting on 5 May 2027. Without the seminar the total would then be 3; with it, 2. A further ban, which always brings two points as the page on the German driving ban explains, would take the first driver to 5 and the second to 4: one extra point of margin before the warning at 6.

Already at six or seven

At this stage the authority has sent a formal warning, and the seminar no longer changes your score. What remains is time: the next entry to expire is the only thing that brings the total down. Section 4(5) also means that any offence committed now is assessed against the six or seven points you hold today, even if an old entry expires before the decision. Many people at this level switch to public transport for certain trips or stop driving in situations where their previous offences happened, simply to let the calendar work.

New drivers on probation

If you are still in your Probezeit (probationary period), two systems apply at once. The remedial course ordered after an A offence belongs to the probation rules and removes nothing from your points. A voluntary driver improvement seminar still gives the usual deduction between one and 5 points. Entries are not deleted while the probation is recorded, although they stop counting once they reach their expiry date. The page on the probationary licence covers the steps.

What does not work

For years, agencies offered to place points on someone else for a fee: a stranger declared that he had been driving. Since 1 July 2026 the Fifth Act amending the Road Traffic Act has made this a specific offence. Section 4c StVG bans attempting to deceive an authority about who committed an offence from annex 13, offering that service, and arranging or offering contact with someone who will do it. Each act can bring a fine of up to €30,000 under Section 23 StVG.

Handing in your licence just before reaching eight points is no escape either. If at least two decisions were stored at that moment, Section 4(10) StVG treats the surrender like a withdrawal: no new licence for 6 months and usually an MPU assessment first.

When a point expires

Points of the entry123

Final on: monthJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember

Year2020202120222023202420252026

Expires on

01.09.2027

Period	2.5 years
Finally deleted on	01.09.2028

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