There are a number of costs involved in obtaining and registering a private number plate. The entire process could cost from as little as a couple of hundred pounds, right up to hundreds of thousands. Most people will end up paying somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand in total.

The cost of registering a private number plate

There are a number of costs involved in registering a private plate, which can be broken down as follows.

The private number plate

The first cost is the private number plate itself. At one end of the scale, we sell a range of registrations that can cost from as little as around £100 to £150 here at New Reg. At the other, the priciest car registration ever sold in Britain cost its buyer £400,000 in November 2014. The rest of the top ten most expensive plates in the UK cost between £100,500 and £285,000.

The DVLA fee

There are two ways of transferring a private registration. You can take it from one vehicle and assign it to another, or you can assign a plate that you have bought by taking it off retention and putting it onto your car, van or motorbike.

To move the cherished mark from one vehicle to another, the DVLA currently demands a fee of £80, which is payable directly to the agency. This is submitted along with the required documentation. Both the donor and recipient vehicles have to comply with the DVLA rules, which means they must be taxed and have a current MOT (unless the vehicle is under three years old). In this case, the DVLA fee covers the cost of assigning a new number plate to the donor vehicle. Generally, the DVLA issues a standard age-related number to this vehicle in place of the private plate being removed. This will often be the number the car, van or motorcycle was originally registered under.

Usually, the buyer of a private number plate will be responsible for paying the DVLA fee. However, New Reg can complete this process for you. We will check and submit the required paperwork to the DVLA, along with handling the purchase of the plate.

To retain a registration mark for future use or sale, the DVLA fee is the same. The certificate they will issue then gives you 10 years in which to assign that registration to another vehicle. If you do not, then it can be renewed for another 10 years. The DVLA should send a reminder if your right to use the registration is due to expire.

The number plates

There is a third cost to consider when asking ‘how much is it to register a private number plate?’. This concerns the number plates themselves. The new owner of a personalised registration will be keen to display the new plates on their vehicle — unless the purchase is purely for investment purposes.

Thus the physical front and rear number plates (or rear only for motorcycles) need to be made and fitted. New Reg offer the option of adding this service when you buy a plate from us, and we are registered as a number plate supplier with the DVLA. Strict rules govern the material, font and spacing used in number plate production, so it’s important to be sure that your new plates are fully road legal. This cost and time effective service can be added to the transaction when buying a registration mark from us. Then all you need to do when you receive the plates is remove the protective film and screw or stick them into place before you drive off displaying your new private number plates.