Personal Number Plates

[drum]

I know several people have personal number plates on here, what's the cheapest way to buy them these days?

I want a particular plate, that I know is available.

[Andy.]

Through the DVLA I found, looked around but found hidden costs with other companies. With the DVLA there price includes the lot including the transfer fee  :D

DVLA

[drum]

Just had a look on the DVLA site, and they don't list the plate I want, but the other sites do  :(

[Andy.]

Hmm.... I'd of thought all new or private plates would be available from the DVLA  :?:

Well if you are prepared to pay the price, go for it  

[drum]

Like you say there are alot of extras, to the extent that a plate quoted as about £400 comes to well over £600 by checkout.

I can't figure out how these places can offer a plate that the DVLA won't. I might ring them when I get chance.

[hobbit]

A lot of these firms buy the plates from various sources including the dvla

[karloss]

The DVLA should be able to tell you if the plate is "available" ie, registered to something. If they don't know about it then be careful. Some of these companies don't actually hold the numbers(or any rights to them) they get your order and then go and see if they can get hold of it!
Bought mine straight from the DVLA. You'll end up paying them a wad no matter what.

[Ben]

Got mine from the DVLA. It seems that someone else tried to buy the plate from a broker on the same day, and was told he could have it, and he paid his money (I believe). When the broker called DVLA to secure the plate, they missed the boat...

If it's a non-issued plate, then the DVLA is the best place to go.

If it's been issued before, then the brokers are the only place to be able to get them from generally.

Cheers

Ben

[Sooty]

Just had a look on the DVLA site, and they don't list the plate I want, but the other sites do  :(

As Kev says the brokers will list numbers that as far as the DVLA is aware are registered to someone.
When I put my private plate on retention for a few months I got letters from more than one broker asking if I wanted to sell it, if I did they would advertise it and if they sell it they would then buy it off me and sell it at a profit.
You may find the the plate you want is in that situation.
If that is the case the only thing you can do is buy it off the broker unless you can find out who it is registered to and that is very difficult because of the data protection act.

[hobbit]

True Bev, but as far as contacting the owner, not sure if dvla would forward an enquiry to the retainer from the buyer

[V8MoneyPit]

Don't think they will. And if they did it would probably take 3 weeks to get there  :lol: