How ordering a private plate works

You are ordering the right to display a registration mark, not a physical thing, and it is yours once we have secured it. Every UK registration mark is unique, so the one you are looking at is the only one there is.

Step by step

1. You order it. We check availability the moment your basket is priced and again immediately before your payment is taken, so you can never pay for a private plate that has just been taken. We take your payment, then secure the private plate for you straight away, and your confirmation email is sent once it is secured in the name you gave. If we are unable to supply it, you receive a full refund.
2. If you ordered number plates, you send us your ID. The law requires it before physical number plates are manufactured. Your confirmation page and email carry a secure link: photograph your documents on your phone or upload a file, one minute’s work. Nothing else in your order waits on it.
3. Your certificate is issued. A V750 DVLA Certificate of Entitlement names you as the person entitled to assign the private plate, and nobody else can be nominated while it is yours. If you are assigning the private plate yourself, we post it to you, so allow a few days; if you ordered number plates it travels in the same package as them. If you chose our assignment service, we keep it and use it to assign the private plate for you, so nothing is posted.
4. You assign it, or hold it on the certificate until you are ready. Applying to DVLA Swansea yourself is the ordinary way and costs you nothing further. If you would rather not, choose our assignment service in your basket, £20.00 per registration mark, and our trained staff assign the private plate to your vehicle for you. If you do, we will ask for two details from your V5C: its 11-digit document reference and the registered keeper’s postcode, exactly as they appear on it.
5. A new V5C arrives from the DVLA showing the new registration mark.
6. Tell your insurer, and anything else that knows the car by its registration: parking apps, breakdown cover, toll accounts.

What it costs

The price of the private plate already includes the DVLA assignment fee of £80.00 and VAT. We show the £80.00 so you can see what it is, but it is not added at the checkout. Number plates, if you want them made, and our assignment service, £20.00 per registration mark, if you want it, are priced separately and shown before you order. Number plates are always sent by Royal Mail Special Delivery, with the postage included in their price and any paperwork inside the same packaging. For a registration mark on its own, postage is chosen at the checkout: Royal Mail Second Class is free, Royal Mail Signed For is £10.95 and Royal Mail Special Delivery is £16.95 including VAT.

How long it takes

Expect your documents within 7 to 14 working days of us receiving everything we need from you. The post is usually the slowest part.

Cancelling

When you order you ask us to begin straight away, because securing the private plate is what stops somebody else buying it, and you tick a box saying so. Once the registration mark has been secured for you it cannot be cancelled: the documentation has been processed and the mark is reserved and personal to you. If you change your mind, tell us in writing; for a £50.00 fee including VAT we refund any parts of your order not yet fulfilled and ask the DVLA once to cancel the documentation and refund the fee.

Number plates are a separate matter. They are made to carry one registration mark and nothing else, so they are goods made to your specification and cannot be cancelled or returned. If they arrive faulty or not as described your rights are unaffected.

Cancellation and refunds sets out what happens in each case, including where you get everything back.

Transfers and retention explains the V750 certificate, age restrictions explains what your vehicle can wear, pricing itemises every part of the cost, and delivery says what arrives and when.