Personalised number plates have been available to buy for your car since 1989. Available through the DVLA, a service offered for the last 30 years. It is estimated that the DVLA has made as much as £2billion selling private number plates.
There are around 45 million personalised number plates that are available to buy. How much they will cost you will depend on what you want them to say and quite how personalised they are. The first thing to think about is which style you want your number plate to be.
Different types of private number plates
There are four types of number plates that you can buy in the UK. Which one you choose will have an impact on how much it costs.
Current style
The current style of registration plate has been used since 2001 and contains seven characters. There are two letters, then two numbers with three random letters at the end. The numbers will be a representation of the age of the vehicle.
There are personalised versions of the current style of number plates available to buy. If you do buy them, you will find the variations between them and standard number plates are hard to spot.
Prefix style
Number plates that were issued between 1983 and 2001 are known as prefix plates. This is because the first letter of the number plate is what represents the age of the vehicle. Each letter relates to a year, such as F being registered to August 1988.
Suffix style
Between 1963 and 1983 the UK issued suffix style number plates. These number plates have the indicator of age at the end of the plate. It comes in the form of a letter, so, A would have represented 1963 whilst B would have been 1964.
Dateless style
One of the most expensive number plate types that you can buy is what is known as a dateless style. These were used prior to 1963 and nothing within the number plate relates to the age of the vehicle.
How much can I expect to pay for my personalised reg?
The basic form of private number plates you can be purchased from the DVLA or from personalised licence plate stockists. Expect to pay somewhere around £250 for the basic formats and up to £2.500 for more sought after styles.
Number plates which are dateless will really only be found sold at auctions. You can expect the cost of these to be higher as well as rise quickly. This all depends on the demand for the number plate.
The thing to remember about number plates is their cost depends on supply and demand. You may think your number plate is personal to you. Though having your initials or the first three letters of your name isn’t going to appeal to everyone. Therefore it might not cost as much as you may think to buy.