What Happens After You’ve Purchased a Personalised Number Plate?

Personalised number plates have often been seen as the item to flaunt wealth or make a statement but over the years, more and more have popped up and have been seen adorning a variety of vehicle types. What, though, happens once you have paid for this new decorative feature to your car?

Purchasing your personalised number plate

Once you have bought your plate from either a private dealer or the DVLA you should receive a V750 certificate. This proves you have the right to put the new number on your vehicle. Often, when buying from a dealer, they will transfer it for you. However, you can ask for a V750 or V778 from them if you wish to do it yourself or keep the number for later use.

If you are at the stage of considering making a purchase, it is worth remembering that the DVLA hold auctions on personalised plates about 5 times a year, by browsing their website, you can see which numbers are up for auction.

The V750 Certificate of entitlement

You’ll get this certificate if you buy a private registration plate.

The V778 Retention document

The V778 is used when you want to keep the number to use it later or assign it to a different vehicle.

The V317 form

You may have just purchased your number plate but are considering selling your car, by using the V317 you can transfer your current personalised number plate to another vehicle.

Is the plate eligible?

Once you have purchased your new number plate you should make sure it is one that is eligible for your vehicle. Ideally this should be a consideration before you make the purchase. If you are not sure on the eligibility, check this simple list,

You cannot:

• Assign a number starting with Q or NIQ
• Put a private number in a Q registered vehicle
• Use a private number that makes a vehicle look newer than it is- An example being a 09 plate on a car registered in 2005

The plate must also:

• Be made of reflective material
• Have no background pattern
• Not have an altered font
• Display black characters on a white background on the front plate
• Display black characters on a yellow background on the rear plate

You will also need to ensure that the vehicle is:

• Registered with the DVLA in the UK
• Be able to move under its own power
• Be a vehicle type that needs an MOT or HGV test certificate
• Be available for inspection-The DVLA will contact where necessary
• Have been taxed or had a SORN in place continuously for past 5 years
• Be taxed currently or have a SORN in place-If it has had a SORN in place for more than 5 years, it must be taxed and have an MOT certificate.

Applying to assign your personalised plate

Now that you have bought your plate, it can’t just go straight on to the car. If the car is registered to you, then apply for free either online or by post to the DVLA. If it is going on a used car that you have only just bought, await the new V5C to arrive before you apply. IF you have just bought the car brand new, you can give the dealer the V750 or V778 and ask them to apply for you. If, perhaps, you bought the number plate as a gift for someone, the free application via the DVLA will be necessary.

Once the number plate is assigned

Once you have assigned the number you will receive a new logbook, however it can be a 4-6 wait until it arrives. Now that the number plate is assigned to the vehicle you can begin to drive it, but you should be aware that you can only do this once you have affixed the plates to the car. You should keep the original plates though as when you take the private number plates off, the old ones will be reassigned to the vehicle.

Avoiding penalties with your personalised number plate

Your car is now registered under your nice new registration plate, but you will need to make sure several things have been put in place first before you definitely drive away. As a matter of urgency, tell your insurance company. After that, check for any services you may use that are linked to your vehicle such as congestion charge, low emission zone charge etc.

At Euphoria Car Finance we can provide fast car finance for new and used cars, all of which can be adorned with your personalised number plate once you have applied the correct process.

Our expert team are also on hand to help you find the best car finance for bad credit as well as first car finance.