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DVLA personalised number plate information

It’s relatively easy to get a personalised number plate for your vehicle, if you are determined enough and last but not least, if you have the financial means to cover its costs. There are however a couple of key information everyone needs to know in order to avoid any scams and lose a lot of money on them.

DVLA is responsible to keep track and issue the number plates

This means that there is no other authority which deals with this task only the DVLA. Any changes to your licence plate must be duly informed as soon as possible. The other important thing is, that each process will have its cost of course.

Two key ways to get hold of personalised licence plates

There are two key ways for you to buy personal licence plates and the key is given to you on the official website of DVLA. One thing you need to know is, that UK has tons of different ways of showing the number plate. Although every car owner is allowed to buy an old number plate which suits best to letter or number combination they are looking for, they can only make up a brand new licence plate when it’s in one of the new, currently accepted official formats. This means, if you want a letter- number combination which consists of less letters, numbers or is entirely a different combination from what is used today, then you will need to keep looking, until you find it.

The two key ways to purchase a personalised licence plate are the following:

Be warned though: old, rare licence plate numbers can cost well over a million British Pounds. This is exactly why it’s so important to get it from a licenced dealer and have all guarantees of the legal ownership of it.

Auctions are great if you are looking for a combination to today’s standards. These also cost the least: you can get to find personalised licence plates from around GBP 200 already. On the DVLA website you get the chance to look for a letter or number combination straight away and it will instantly show you what’s currently available.

Auctions are also good if you are looking for such specific combination which would not mean anything for others: for instance initials, birth year, favourite number, etc. This way you will get the chance to buy a personalised number plate for a much lesser price.

There are dealers who will take over all the paperwork and ensure, that you can put on your new number plates and drive with them almost as soon as you receive them. All paperwork and registration related tasks may take around 5 to 10 days to deal with.

If you get a number plate, there are ways for you to transfer it to a new vehicle. And in case you would rather want to change it back, you can do so anytime, this way your registration will instantly switch back to your initial number plate.