That Number Plate is Worth a Few Hundred Quid

When the Simply Registrations website launched back in 2005, the aim was to attract more potential buyers of private number plates. Little did we know that the website would generate far more enquiries from people wanting to sell their private number plates to us, rather than motorists wanting to buy the personalised registrations we have for sale.

DVLA Personalised Registrations

The DVLA Personalised Registrations sales scheme has resulted in lots of British drivers becoming owners of personalised registration plates. With the new car comes the optional extras, £600 for air conditioning, £1000 for alloy wheels and £250 for an off-the-shelf personalised registration direct from the DVLA.

The £250 number plate serves its purpose and in a few years time when the owner of the car decides it is time for a new motor, there is a decision to be made. Should the owner of the car pay £80 to transfer the £250 personalised registration to his or her new car, or just leave it on the car when it is sold and let it pass on to the new owner?

I Got a Private Number Plate for Free

Quite often the cherished number plate stays with the car and somebody somewhere buys a car that comes complete with a personalised number plate that has no relevance to them whatsoever. The car’s new owner, Lucy in this example, happens to mention to a bloke in the pub that her new car came complete with the personalised registration N66 AKB.

“That number plate has got to be worth a few hundred quid” the bloke in the pub informs Lucy. “Get it sold to one of those cherished number plate dealers and you’ll be quids in.”

Lucy is over the moon. She thinks she has a number plate worth several hundred pounds so the next day she rings round a few number plate dealers in an attempt to cash in on her unexpected bonus. Lucy is disappointed to learn that none of the personalised registration companies are interested in buying the registration from her. Some dealers offer to sell the registration on a commission basis, which means waiting until someone sees the registration for sale and buys it before Lucy will see any of the money.

So How Much is my Private Number Plate Worth?

Very seldom will any registration be worth a huge amount of money if it has been left on the car by the previous owner. It costs £80 to transfer a number plate from one vehicle to another. If the plate has any significant value, the previous owner of the car would have paid £80 DVLA transfer fee to keep hold of their cherished registration.

If you find yourself in the same situation as Lucy having bought a car which comes complete with a personalised registration, it is a good idea to first see how many similar registrations are still available to buy from DVLA to get an idea of its true worth. Indeed there are four-hundred and twenty AKB registrations still available direct from DVLA at the time of writing.

Personalised Registrations that contain Names

If you find that there are very few similar registrations to the one that came with your car, then it could be worth something. The most popular registrations are the ones that spell names such as; BEN, DAN, SAM, SUE and TOM. Some very in-demand sets of three initials include; AJB, DJM, JAH, MJS and SJH. If you are lucky enough to buy a car and it comes with private number plates which contain any of the above names, or sets of initials, then you really do have a registration that is worth at least a few hundred pounds.

If you just want to get rid of the irrelevant private number plate that came with your car and exchange it for a registration that is appropriate for the year the car was manufactured (age-related), you can ask for a replacement registration via the DVLA.