Cheap personalised registration plate, is there such a thing?
Article by Kiran John
Hearing stories of personalised registration plates selling for £10,000?s, you could be forgiven for thinking that they are the preserve of the very rich. Just this year alone has seen 2 record-breaking sales of registration plates F1 and S1 ? both with price tags in the region of £400,000.
So what about the rest of us? With budgets closer to £400, is it possible to buy a cheap personalised registration plate? Is anything available for less than £1,000? The answer is?absolutely. In fact, the choice in this price range is enormous.
The cheapest personalised registration plates are from Northern Ireland. They can be assigned to cars on mainland UK, and there are lots of them. They?re referred to as Irish registration plates, and they can be bought for less than £100. Add DVLA fees to that, and (at a squeeze) you should be able to have one on your pride & joy for around £200. At this price point, the choice of private registration plates is almost endless. And if all you wish to do is hide the age of the car, this is the best option. It?s unlikely you can expect to see an increase in the value.
Irish number plates are great private registration plates because they are generally much more affordable than other standard UK plates. They have no year identifier, so can be assigned to any vehicle, whatever its age. And the use of the letters I and Z has made some 3-letter words (such as OIL and BIG) and names (for example GAZ and LIL) available. Even these can be bought from around £500 ? depending on the accompanying digits.
If Irish number plates are not your thing, both prefix and current style number plates can be bought from around £150. This will get you your initials. Though, if you want a 3-letter shortened name on your private registration plate, like DEE or JAK, you should expect prices to start at around £800 for current style number plates, and £1000 for prefix plates.
You may find a cheaper private registration plate if you can buy direct from the owner, as there will be no dealer premium to pay. You?ll find these on specialist sites like theplatemarket.com, or auction sites like ebay. If you buy in this way, use an independent number plate transfer service for security.