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All you need to know about custom number plates

One of the ways that you can personalise your car and make it appear unique between all the vehicles on the parking lot, is to buy a custom registration plate.

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WHEN someone wants to add more personal touch to the vehicle, they need to think about getting custom number plates.

This kind of plate is allowed in many countries around the world, including the United Kingdom. 

It’s normal to have a personal relationship with your car, especially if you were saving for a long time, so you can finally afford it.

One of the ways that you can personalise it and make it appear unique between all the vehicles on the parking lot, is to buy a custom registration plate. But, before you do that, you need to know a few things about the personalisation of your car:

Where to buy a personal plate?

If you live in the UK, you need to apply to the DVLA (Driving and Vehicle Licensing Agency). You need to contact them first before you decide to buy the plates using a broker or by a private purchase contract. DVLA has standards and policies that you should respect when requesting a personal combination of numbers and letters for your car.

They also organise plate auctions and you can bid for the combination you want until you offer the best deal and buy it. It works just like the regular auction, if your bid is the highest, you get the plate you love. 

Another way to get this type of plate is to find a company or broker who will find the form you want. You will need to pay a fee for that. Also, many people sell their personal plates privately and if you inform yourself about the possibilities, you’ll be able to get the number plate you need. 

Trusted and licenced websites

DVLA has a lot of trusted and recognized resellers of their personal plates. CarReg has been buying and selling private number plates since 1988 and has over 52 million to choose from.

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Trading from their high tech offices just outside Wolverhampton where they offer a wide variety of personalised and private number plates. They offer different and legal forms, including the dateless plates, suffix plates, prefix plates, and current plates.

Every format suggests a different part of the UK’s history. People change their regular registrations with personalized ones more often than they change their phone number. Someone wants to keep the retro formats, but another one will always want to follow the recent changes.

How much money will I need to spend?

Depending on the type of the plate and the character combination, it will cost you from a hundred to thousand pounds. The rule is simple, the fewer numbers and letters the plate has, the higher the price is.

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The combinations that look like name initials or like name spelling are more expensive and you may need to find them via private channels. 

How to know if the plate is legal?

You need to follow UK standards for registrations, so you can avoid legal problems. That’s why you need to buy your plates from trusted resellers and sources.

They should be easy to read and to provide essential information about your car. The UK has a few standards that every car owner should respect, such as:

-Using only white and yellow backgrounds

-Using the proper spacing between the characters

-The only acceptable font is “Charles Wright”

-Background patterns are not allowed

The plate needs to fit perfectly in your car and it shouldn’t be missing edges or to be dirty. The legal registrations follow UK standards and are always clear and easy to read.

Difference between the regular plates and personalised ones

There is no difference between these two types of car registrations, in terms of how they look. If you get a random car plate that DVLA gives to you, you only need to pay the regular fees that they demand.

The difference comes with the price of the personal character combination that you choose, in order to personalise your vehicle. If you want a rare plate, you should be ready to pay thousands for it.

You shouldn’t buy it if you see great deals online, because it’s your car and your insurance policy and you don’t want to be scammed. DVLA offers a long list of trusted sellers.

If you choose a private channel, you should check the plate they offer you a few times before paying a lot of money for it. Many of the rarest combinations are already sold and you can only find them online, on the second-hand offers, or you can bid on an auction. 

Can I buy a unique registration and not use it?

According to the DVLA regulations, you can have any plate available, but you don’t need to put it on a vehicle if you don’t want to. You still need to pay the fees and policies, never mind if you use it or not. Some people decide to buy rare numbers for collection purposes.

Also, you can buy it as a meaningful gift for someone you love. Many people want to have personal registration, but this type of personalisation gained popularity recently. In the past, people who randomly got some special combination of characters were considered as lucky ones. Today, if you have enough money, you can also have any plate you wish, if it’s available.

If you want to add a personal touch to your vehicle, you need to be respectful of the laws in your country. Don’t try to over smart the system by putting cheap and illegal plates and stickers to your car.

That will cause a lot of law problems if you get caught. Use only trusted channels to buy personalized car registrations, so you can be sure no one is trying to cheat on you.

You should be ready that the combination you want may not be available. If the owner doesn’t want to sell it, just choose another combination that is also important to you or to someone you know.

Check the availability on DVLA trusted sites and resellers and order the one that you like, and then put it on your car, or keep it in your private collection.

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