We’ve always watched in the movies that when someone is getting a new and fancy car, they have registration plates with their name or some important day written on it. It looks very interesting and charming, but as you can guess, it can also be pretty expensive, depending on what you want to put on the plates.
But, movies are movies, and you can’t write something fancy if that doesn’t follow the rules and policies provided by your government. So, if you follow DVLA rules and guidelines, the registrations need to be made of reflective, but still visible material and no background patterns are allowed. You can only choose between black or yellow backgrounds. The first two characters are letters of the city or town codes, the next two numbers give important information about the vehicle, and the last three letters are chosen randomly. You can’t add or remove letters and numbers by yourself, with some DIY projects. If you want a personalized number plate, you need to visit CarReg and see if it’s available, or go to the DVLA office and make a deal with them.
They also have some rules about the custom plates, that they will provide you when you ask for them. Private numbers are allowed since 2001, but knowing that they don’t follow the initial rules, they are more expensive, and you need to provide a lot more documents and information about why you need them. Following the 2001 laws, no custom fonts are allowed. So, what’s left is choosing a combination of numbers and letters that show something personal about you.
But, before you go too far with your plans for personalization, you need to consider these things:
1. Determine your budget
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People simply enjoy spending huge amounts of money on something that makes them feel satisfied. But, that can also be very tricky, because the sellers offer us attractive deals, and we end up spending a lot on something that wasn’t that important in the end. So, it’s pretty easy to spend more money on personalized plates, knowing that you can add or remove something. But, those changes may be costly. So, set that budget and stick to it, so the purchase can be smooth, with no additional stress. If you go out of your budget, you may get yourself in an unpleasant situation, which may cause some troubles (fights at home, for example) about spending the money you planned for something else. And, it’s a personal plate, you don’t want to spend everything you were saving on it. To know more visit https://myreg.com/dvla-number-plates/
2. Your idea will not always be able to be made
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You may have some idea how you want your plates to look, but sometimes, even if you think you have the most unique one, it may not be available when you try to obtain it. It can happen that the combination is taken by someone else, or even not meeting the policies. That’s why you need to check them online first and see if they have the combination you want, and then reserve it or order it.
3. Choose something meaningful
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We will mention the movies again. We often see how they show plates with some words like “dude”, “queen”, or something like that. But, in real life it’s not that easy to get a plate like that. So, you need to lower your expectations and be realistic. Even if it’s possible, you will need to spend a lot of money, and again, who wants to spend the whole savings on registration. Instead, choose something meaningful, something that reminds you of some special day, or creates an acronym or initials of someone who is important to you. You can even use your initials. But don’t expect that you’ll be able to choose some advanced design, because car plates are for identification, not for fun.
4. You will need to pay some fees to the DVLA
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Since they need to make your custom plates, if they don’t have the same combination available already, DVLA will charge some fees. You need to be aware that this service is not simple and cheap, and the price can be a little bigger than the offer you got initially. The fees can be even bigger if you need to transfer the ownership or apply the plates to a new car. If you are buying it for someone else as a present, guess what? It may add some additional fees. So, we are getting back to the first thing on this list, setting a budget, and see what you can get for that money.
5. Don’t try to make your car look new
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Many people try to manipulate with the dates, or even giving a new look to their vehicle. But, that is not allowed by the DVLA’s policies. Some of them will even try to choose numbers that will make people think the car is newer than it is. The whole process needs to be fully legal and following the laws, because every other way may end up in creating a criminal record, paying fees, or even going to jail for 30 days or more.
If people at DVLA are suspicious about what you are telling them, they have the right to ask for additional documents, or even request another technical check with their mechanic technicians. And you don’t want to be shamed by trying to over smart the system, right?
6. Always have another option
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As we said, you will not always be able to get what you want. So, you can have a few different combinations on your list. If the first one is not available, you can go to the next one. Sometimes, you can contact the owner of the plate you want and try to make a deal with them, but we don’t recommend this option. If you still want to do that, you will anyway need to visit DVLA and make a transfer contract with the seller, and of course, pay some additional fees about that.
With a few words said, yes, it’s possible to have customized registration plates, but you need to decide if it’s worth it.
