private plates on bfg vehicles?

zoemeakin

i am going to be moving to germany can i keep my private plate on my bfg registered car?

mannews

I beleive not, you have to register your car registered with the BFG to be able to get your petrol or deisel vouchers and to be registered with bfg you have to have new number plates on, your lights adjusted etc. It doesn't cause any probs having your number plates changed and it doesn't cost you any money either.

strong96

yes you can, will dig out the link about taking your own privates plates with you, we're doing it as your able, even spoke to bfg vlo who confirmed we could.

debtfreein2009

I moved to Germany 13 months ago and was advised at the time by DVLA that my private number would have to put on retention. They explained that when the number is removed by the BFG it gets returned to DVLA and would be lost. After checking and re-checking the advice I transfer the plate to the rentention prior to leaving the UK. I think it cost around £75 to do it and then £25 a year to up keep it. You have to do it before leaving the UK in plenty of time so you've the new UK plate on your paperwork V5 etc. You do have to register the rentention certificate to a UK Address. Your vehicle will be issued with a new BFG registered number which will be removed when you de-bfg the car and another UK plate issued. When you return back to the UK you simply pay to transfer the plate back onto your card. If you need any more info drop me a pm.

mannews

We went to Germany and had the BFG plates put on our car, returned to UK last year march 08 and it did not cost us a penny and we got the original plates back, now that is from the horses mouth and when I say the original plates I mean the exact same ones that were on the car originally. When you say private number plate does that mean a personnal number plate.

debtfreein2009

I think the OP is discussing a private registration number bought from DVLA. This number is normally one which doesn't show the vehicles true age for example, a P reg plate on a 58 plate car.

BFG will issue a age related plate whilst in Germany and then DVLA will issue another age related plate when required. They cannot guarantee that your private number will be safe upon your return to the UK as someone can purchase it if it's not been retained by the owner.

DVLA do try to issue the same UK age plate back when the vehicle is returning back to the UK to save on number plates etc, but they still can't guarantee that you get the same number back.

Personally I paid a bit of money for my plate so I wouldn't consider risking losing it. I bought mine for the long term so am quite happy to pay for the rentention and up keep.

mannews

:cool: not as simple as it seems then.

flutterbyuk25

You will need to retain the personal plate prior to exporting the vehicle through BFG.

You need form V317, V5C/logbook, MOT, vehicle should be taxed and costs £105 for 1 year (or you can pay extra £25/year on top of this for 2 or 3 years retention).

Submit to local DVLA office. Within 10 working days you will have new registration mark to put on vehicle (age related), new MOT and new tax disc. Then within further 2-4 weeks you will have new V5C with the replacement numberplate and the V778 retention certificate for your personalised plate.

You can then export the vehicle and re-register with BFG.

Don't forget to send back Section 11 from your new V5C to notify of export, once the retention has been completed.

V317 is downloadable from www.direct.gov.uk/motoring or you can get it from local DVLA office.

HTH

x