Personalised Cherished Registration Number Plates

Personalised And Cherished Number Plates

Personalised-Number-Plate

I decided to get a personalised number plate; so I had a look around at number plates from £250.00 to £2000.00, so as to give myself a good choice, and shop around.

After three months or so searching, I finally found the one I liked! On the same day all of the five character numbers in that series had all sold!

You can buy one from a dealer, or directly from the DVLA, as sometimes they may have just the plate you want if the dealer hasn’t got it.

So I was lucky to be able to get this particular plate before they all sold out! And cheaply from the DVLA by a stroke of luck!

I had my plates made up by a proper number plate manufacturing company correctly and legally, so before I chose my “dream number”, I made sure that it would look the part legally!

The novelty value is enormous, and it hides the age of your car too, as well as “smartening” up the car.
It can also be a “conversation piece” as well!

The idea of this article, isn’t to go on about my own number plate any more though; but to talk about the basic “ins and outs of getting one”, and how to transfer it on your car legally.

Thousands of people are driving around with illegal number plates though, and so this article should help to identify the potential problem.

When you have bought a personalised plate, you get a document saying that you own this number plate, and it lasts for 12 months, or until you put it onto a car.

If you keep it “on retention” as they say, then you will have to pay a small fee each year to keep the number plate going, or until it is on a vehicle.

When you put the number plate onto a vehicle you have to transfer it over using a form from the DVLA.
You get a letter after two weeks saying that you can now change the plate over, and of course notify your insurance.

Be sure to tell the insurance, and that in the event of an accident that they have “no interest” in the plate, so it remains yours to claim back.

In the event of an accident, you should retain your plate right away if you think that your car will be written off, or else you may lose your private plate.

If you are buying a brand new vehicle, you can simply hand the document over to the dealer, and a new set of plates, then he will fit them and register it on the new plate from the start.

When having a new number plate made up, you must by law have it made at an official registered number plate maker, and provide the correct documentation to have the number plates made legally, for UK legal road use.

If using the car for show, or off the public highway you can have “show plates”, but if you are using your car on the public highway you must have legally made plates.

What is legal then?

Only properly made and legally made number plates approved for highway use in the UK.

Proper-Legally-Made-Number-Plates-Approved-For-Highway-Use-In-The-UK

The picture above clearly shows how to have your plate made legally.

You have the choice of two legal fonts…

You can have “Legal 3D”…

Legal-3D-Number-Plate-Font

Legal 3D Number Plate Font

and “Standard Plain” fonts.

Standard-Legal-Plain-Font-For-Number-Plates

Standard Legal Plain Font For Number Plates

So to be fully legal have the above mentioned dimensions and choice of the two fonts shown above.

The number plate must have the manufacturer’s name (of the number plate) written on the bottom of it in small writing, or in the border (if required).

If in the UK, you can also have a legal “GB” symbol on the plate if you want it, or you can have a plate without one if you like.

If you opt for a GB symbol, you don’t need a GB sticker for travel outside the UK. A legal GB logo on a number plate can often help to balance the symmetry of the plate, especially for short five character numbers making it all look centrally placed and even to look at.

Any securing bolts (if used) must be the same colour as the characters, or the background that they appear on.

Do not use different colours to misrepresent your plates.

No honeycomb of other background is permitted.

No other symbols and logos are permitted.

Any additional advertising may appear on a separate tab below the number plate area, but it should not be in the area of the number plate “body” at all, or be in the “legal area” required by law.

The example below is not legal at all!

Plate-Not-Legal-Wrong-Spacing

Plate Not Legal – Wrong Spacing – Wrong Font

If you use an illegal plate you can expect…

A fine penalty at least.

Possible withdrawal of the number by the police.

You will have to have a proper legal plate remade, remove the incorrect one and replace it.

Your car will fail the M.O.T.

You risk being stopped by police regularly.

Cameras cannot recognise the number plate making your car suspicious to the authorities.

The DVLA or most reputable companies would rather that you don’t order the plate if you intend misrepresenting it in any way.

Personalised plates can be…

Old pre-registration plates, these can be put onto a vehicle of any age, as they are “ageless” and don’t have a start date as such. These are usually more expensive; hence the term “cherished”. They increase in value usually.

Prefix ones have the year at the start like M7 LWT. The plate cannot be used on cars older than the year that the plate states. These aren’t really “cherished”, but are personalised, but they can increase in value as well.

New style ones on modern cars since 2001. (explained below in the BBC quote). Some good ones like LAW 70N are still expensive, and this one was £41,000 (GBP).

Notice though that it is represented correctly above, but I still like it!

Quoting below from the BBC…

“New cars now have a letter indicating the city they are from, numbers which represent the six-month period in which they were registered, and three random digits at the end.

The authorities say the plates will be easier to read, not least by speed cameras.

But recent surveys have suggested that few people understand the new system.

Changing times

Since the early 1960s, the age of a car has been indicated by a letter displayed at the beginning or end of the number plate.

But this system has been abandoned in favour of the new code which includes seven symbols, such as AB51 CDE.

The first two letters show where a car was registered, while the numbers indicate the age of the vehicle and whether it was bought in September-February or March-August.

The last three letters are random.

Under the new system, a car bought in the Ipswich area between now and next March, would carry a plate beginning with AV, AW, AX, or AY.

The next two numbers would be 51, with 5 indicating a September-March period purchase and 1 representing the year (2001).

The same car bought next March would feature a plate with the numbers 02, with 0 showing the vehicle was bought between March-August, and 2 for the year 2002.”

End of quote.

Thanks for reading this article, and I hope it helped.