There are many situations in which you might want to sell your number plate. If you’ve scrapped your car but retained your registration on a certificate, you might choose to sell it and make a profit. If you’ve inherited or been gifted a private registration, you might be curious to discover what it’s worth. If you already have a plate you prefer, you might wish to part with the gifted reg for the right price.

There are a host of different kinds of buyers scouring the market for the right plate. If you’re wondering ‘who will buy my number plate?’, read on to find out about the potential buyers who might be hunting for a plate like yours.

Regardless of the kind of plate you’re looking to sell, at New Reg we’ll provide you with a free valuation. This accurate assessment of how much you might stand to gain from the sale of your plate is yours to do with as you wish. You’ll be under no obligation to sell your personalised plate with us, but we hope you’ll give us the opportunity to offer you this convenient service.

Cherished number plate buyers

If you have an older style of number plate you’re looking to sell, you might catch the attention of cherished number plate buyers. If you’re lucky enough to own such a rare registration, you’ll soon discover you possess a much sought-after commodity for cars.

Plate hunters eager to acquire highly prized registrations are often willing to pay large sums to complete their collections. As these plates are the oldest examples from around the country, they are often in significant demand. These older plates typically feature fewer characters, allowing for smaller plates that can appear more stylish and distinctive on vehicles.

You may have heard the expression “a timeless classic”. This applies to cherished plates that, unlike today’s registrations, contain no age indicators. Those who wish to hide the age of their car often seek out cherished plates to buy.

Personal number plate buyers

If the registration you wish to sell resembles a name with its alphanumeric characters, you may attract the attention of personalised number plate buyers. The closer the index marks on your plate resemble the name, the higher the price it is likely to fetch.

The same is true if your reg resembles a well-known phrase or word that has personal meaning to a buyer searching for a private plate. Registrations that resemble hobbies and sporting teams are all popular choices for personal plate buyers. If your plate is humorous, clever or cool, it may also be bought by a buyer looking for a way to display their personality on their car.

If you choose to sell your plate through New Reg, you’ll benefit from our selling strategies. If your plate appeals to people looking for a personalised registration, we’ll group it in clear categories for buyers to find and showcase it for sale.

Number plate cash buyers

The term ‘cash buyer’ refers to an individual who has the necessary clear funds to pay for an item in full. A cash buyer won’t require a finance deal to acquire your number plate; they’ll have the amount they need at their disposal and be ready to pay.

When you’re looking to make a quick sale and get money fast, interest from cash buyers is always welcome.

If you opt to sell your plate here at New Reg, you’ll not only benefit from our extensive experience in selling plates, but also a high volume of traffic when it comes to cash buyers seeking a personal registration.

In this age of data protection, there are very strict guidelines regarding personal privacy here in the UK. However, there are still some circumstances in which it’s possible to find out who a specific number plate belongs to.

If you’ve seen a car parked on your land or left abandoned and wondered “whose number plate is this?”, read on for some steps you might be able to take to find out.

Looking up a number plate with the DVLA

There is a wealth of information you can discover about a vehicle just by glancing at it, including how old it is. This is because modern UK plates include an age indicator. You can find out even more about a car by looking up its registration online with the DVLA. You can discover if a car is taxed, its current tax rate and when it expires. You can find the exact date it was first registered and when its MOT is valid until. If the car the plate belongs to has Statutory Off Road Notification (SORN) status, you’ll see this along with when its last V5 registration was issued.

You can unearth plenty of information about the car itself too. The vehicle’s weight will be listed as well as its engine size. You can see the kind of fuel it requires and further information about its CO2 emission levels. What you won’t find immediately listed is who the vehicle’s registered keeper is.

How to find a car owner by its number plate

In some cases, it’s possible to discover the owner of a vehicle or its previous owner through the DVLA, but you must have what the organisations refers to as “reasonable cause”. Such causes are listed on the government website and include discovering a driver responsible for causing an accident and tracking down the keeper of a car that’s been abandoned. If a car has been parked on private land illegally, you can also trace the registered keeper via a request.

If you’re employed by an organisation that issues parking tickets or you hand out charge notices for acts of trespass, you’ll be able to trace the owner of a plate. If your firm traces individuals suspected of committing insurance fraud, you’ll also be able to access this information – and if you are tracing a motorist who has driven off without appropriate payment for services or goods, the DVLA can also help. In this last scenario, you can also contact the police directly for information when you report the theft.

How to find an address by using a licence plate number

Since they were first introduced in the early 20th century when the Motor Car Act was officially passed, vehicle registrations have included information about the area a car was first registered. While the system for plates has changed over the years, you can still discover this information if you know what to look for.

While privacy laws in the UK don’t allow you to find someone’s address from their plate number, here at New Reg, you can use our helpful tables and search function to discover the specific region where a vehicle was first registered.

How to buy a specific number plate

If you’ve seen a number plate you wish to buy on a car, you might want to approach its owner to find out if they’re willing to sell. The DVLA won’t provide you with this personal information in this instance. With a massive selection of personalised registrations available here at New Reg, you can select from private plates where the owners have already decided to sell. Using our filtering options and helpful suggestions, there’s a good chance you’ll find a character combination close to the one you’ve seen.

For many years, if your number plate spelled out a name or resembled a well-known word, it was simply a matter of luck. Issued by the DVLA without any consideration for this, getting a plate now considered popular was a completely random coincidence.

Over time, dealers in second-hand number plates began to see trends in the kinds of plates people were buying and the amounts of money they were willing to part with to purchase them. Some plates were clearly viewed as being more valuable than others and dealers in plates began buying and selling them based on certain attributes.

While what makes a number plate valuable can depend on the purchaser’s perspective, there are some clear reasons why some registrations are more sought-after than others. Number plates may be bought and sold for significant amounts for a variety of reasons, sometimes, the number plate may be worth more than the value of the vehicle.

What’s the value of my number plate?

To get an idea of your number plate’s value, the first step is to consider the desired qualities in registrations and see if yours ticks any of these boxes.

Demand is the major factor affecting the price a plate may sell for. The more buyers are interested in your registration, the higher the amount you’ll receive for it. You may find you have many potential buyers competing to purchase your plate and this can drive up the selling price.

The age of a number plate can also be an important aspect of how valuable a plate is. The earliest number plates, sometimes referred to as dateless plates, are often highly desirable. Unlike the current registrations issued, as well as the prefix and suffix style plates that preceded them, these early plates include no age indicator. For car owners who wish to keep their vehicle’s age a secret, this can be a powerful selling point.

Shorter registrations are also highly prized. While mainly this is due to them being older number plates, there are other reasons as well why a plate with fewer characters might be considered more valuable. It’s legal to have the width of your number plate shortened providing it still possesses the appropriate margin around the characters. A smaller number of alphanumeric characters makes for a smaller plate, allowing more of the car that carries it to be seen.

Finally, if the characters on a number plate resemble a name, or popular phrase or word, this can also hike the value. The more closely it resembles the name or word, the more highly it’s likely to be valued.

How do I value my number plate?

The first step in selling a number plate is to make sure you get an accurate valuation of its worth.

Valuing a number plate on your own can take time, patience and in-depth research. A far faster and easier way to complete the process is getting expert assistance from a number plate specialist like New Reg. With our simple-to-use contact form, you can send us your registration along with some essential contact details and our team of experts will get to work. With a wealth of experience and knowledge from buying and selling number plates, we’re perfectly placed to make a plate valuation for you.

We’ll email you our assessment and let you know what your plate is worth, and if you agree, you can go ahead and sell via us. While we hope you’ll do this, you’re under absolutely no obligation to sell through us, so there really is nothing to lose by getting in touch.

While travelling on UK roads, you may have seen some variations when it comes to motorcycle number plates. From black and silver plates positioned across the front wheel, to some that use no plate at all at the bike’s front, not all motorcycles carry the same style of reg. Another element that varies is motorcycle number plate size.

You might have come across a motorbike with a very small plate at the rear – so small that both the authorities and other motorists would struggle to read it. On seeing such a plate, you might wonder if the rider is breaking UK law and question exactly what is the standard size of a motorcycle number plate? Read on for a wealth of information that will help you make certain you stay on the right side of the law.

In the UK, we have very specific rules that govern the size of these plates, so if you see a motorcycle with a tiny plate, the chances are the owner is in breach of the law.

What is the legal size of a motorcycle number plate?

The standard size of a plate is most commonly nine inches by seven inches in total. While there is no exact ruling on plate size, the letters it contains must always follow this sizing correctly. Since 2001, all the characters on motorcycle registrations have been required to be 64mm in height with a width of 44mm. The exceptions to this rule are the number 1 and the letter I.

There are also rules regarding how thick the letters are, along with the distance between letters. Both the stroke and the spacing must measure 10mm. The gap that separates the age identifier numerals and the randomly selected letters must measure 30mm and the distance between the two text lines at bottom and top are required to be 13mm. Lastly, 11mm of space must be left between the edge of a number plate and the characters it displays.

UK motorcycle number plate law

Motorbikes registered prior to September 1st 2001 are entitled to spread text on three lines if preferred, but displaying a registration on a single line is illegal. Motorcycles registered after or on September 1st 2001 can only display their number plates at the rear of the bike. Older models may display their registration at the front, but this is optional.

Characters and colours of legal motorcycle plates

As with car registrations in the UK, the two alphabetic characters on a plate refer to the region where a bike was originally registered. These are followed by an age indicator created by taking the last two digits of the year the bike was registered in, or by adding 50 to this number if it was issued in the second half of the period. The last three letters on a bike plate are random. Those buying a brand new bike can select these characters themselves and use them to reflect their brand of bike or even their own initials. To be within the law, the registration should be spread over two separate lines and be presented on a square number plate.

As with car registrations, these rear plates on bikes must be presented in black characters on a yellow plate crafted from reflective material.

To ensure your motorcycle number plate meets the conditions set out in law, it’s worth purchasing through an experienced dealer like New Reg. We’ll ensure your motorcycle number plate matches all relevant criteria, helping you to avoid paying fines or failing your annual MOT test. Fines can be as high as £1,000, so it’s well worth making sure your plate is legal.

Whether you’re planning to pick up a new registration for yourself or as a present for a friend or family member, you might be asking yourself ‘what do I need to buy a number plate?’ Purchasing a number plate with us here at New Reg is simple and quick, with an expert team on hand to answer all your questions.

Put simply, to buy a number plate all you really require is an idea of the kind of registration you’re seeking and the funds needed to buy the one you want.

What documents do I need to buy a number plate?

You won’t need a valid driver’s licence to buy a number plate. In fact, you don’t even need to know how to drive a car. This can be welcome news if you’re looking to purchase a plate for a friend or family member as a one-of-a-kind gift. Private number plates, when purchased, can be issued on a certificate of entitlement. The document will list the person who purchased the plate and the nominee by whom the registration will be used.

If you’re buying number plates as a gift, at New Reg, we’ll get your plates made up for you and even gift wrap them.

Do you need a V5 to get number plates?

You won’t need to be in possession of a V5C vehicle registration document, sometimes called a logbook, to buy new number plates. However, when it comes time to assign the registration you purchase to a car, you will.

You can assign a number plate to a vehicle of your choosing either online or by post through the DVLA, or if you purchase your plate with us here at New Reg, we can handle this task for you.

When you’re ready to assign your number plate, you’ll need to include the V5C registration document in your postal application. If you apply online, you’ll simply need details found in the document, so get prepared and keep them handy before you start the process.

After your plate has been assigned, you’ll be sent a new vehicle logbook by post to reflect your change in registration. There’s no charge for assigning a number plate to a car, however if you want to keep the old plate previously used by the vehicle, you’ll need to pay the DVLA a fee of £80. The old registration will then be placed on a certificate of retention. You can choose to keep it for use later, or if you no longer need it, why not find out what it’s worth and sell it on? At New Reg, we offer free valuations and can help you sell your plate at the best possible price.

Does a car need an MOT to transfer a number plate?

In most cases, a car that is three years of age or older will require an up-to-date MOT certificate if it’s involved in transferring a registration. If the vehicle the plate is being taken off and the recipient vehicle that will be now using the plate are three years old or more, you’ll need a valid MOT certificate for both. If you’re removing and assigning a plate by post, these certificates must be included in the documents you send, along with other relevant documentation such as V5C logbooks.

If you’re making your application online, you’ll need to make sure both vehicles have valid MOTs before you begin. At New Reg, we can assist you with transferring and assigning number plates – offering a smooth transition to your new personalised registration.

It became compulsory for cars in the UK to carry plates back in the early 20th century when the Motor Car Act was passed. Since then, number plates have consisted of at least one letter and one number. These alphanumeric codes were developed in order to provide the authorities, along with other motorists, with a way to identify the vehicles involved in collisions or crimes.

While all cars contain a Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) stamped into certain parts like the engine block and chassis, number plates provide a far easier form of identification. Positioned at both the front and rear of vehicles, these easy-to-read plates are much simpler to spot, especially when a vehicle is on the move.

The current format of UK number plates issued includes a total of seven letters and numbers. Two letters are followed by two numbers and then three more letters to complete the index marks. While sometimes the way the letters and numbers are placed next to each other resembles words or phrases, for the most part they appear entirely random. However, if you know how to read a registration, you can tell a lot about a car with a quick glance at its plate.

If you’ve just purchased your new car with its own registration, you might be asking “what does my number plate mean?” Read on to discover the wealth of information to be found in the letters and numbers your car is sporting in its personal reg.

What do the numbers on a number plate mean?

While at one time the numbers on a plate showed simply the sequential order they’d been registered in for their specific region, today’s format uses two digits as an age indicator. These two numbers are designed to let those looking at a vehicle quickly know its age. To attempt to make an older car look younger with a newer registration is illegal.

Number plates are issued in two batches each year in spring and autumn. Plates released in the first launch take their third and fourth characters from the last two digits of the year date. For example, a plate issued in the first release for 2019 will feature a one and nine. To show a plate comes from the second batch, the year date digits are again employed but 50 is added to them. An autumn plate for 2019 would therefore show a six and nine.

If you understand how to read the age indicator, you can tell how old a car is to within six months.

What do number plate letters mean?

There are two groups of letters on the latest style of number plate – two at the very start of the registration and three at the end.

The first two letters on a plate indicate where the vehicle was first registered. Here at New Reg, you can use our helpful tables and innovative search facility to find out where your car hails from at a glance. You can look up the two-letter code and narrow down where it was registered to a very specific region. Previous formats were far more difficult to work out, with letters nominated sometimes by importance – for example, London registrations would begin with A as it was the capital city. Today, London number plates start with an L.

The three letters that end registrations are issued sequentially to dealerships selling vehicles. As they tend to be issued in massive batches, you’ll often find same make and model cars with similar registrations. The characters are used to differentiate cars from each other when they were registered in the same region and are of identical age. It is these three characters that make them unique and easy to identify.