Unless they've changed the rules, you don't need international driving license, a UK one is fine. Don't think points are an issue.

As for insurance, I think I'm right in saying that the car is insured not the owner, so you can buy a car and not have to worry about reinsuring until the old insurance runs out.

You might also want to know that insurance seems to work a bit oddly out here. When we bought a used car which was only 3 years old we were told we could only get 3rd party insurance for it, since that what the previous owers (who also bought it used) had opted for. So it's like, you can have fully comp. when new, but as soon as it's switched to 3rd party there's no going back.

Also, I seem to remember the way the calculate the value of your car for fully comp. insurance purposes (i.e. what they'll pay out if it's completely wrecked) was odd as well. Something about just devaluing it by a set percentage every year, and not taking into account the 2nd-hand market value of the car at all.

I'm sure someone else on here will have more concrete details than me on the above. I'd be interested to hear about it if anyone does.