Keeping Your Licence Plates?

Baileycat

Hello, this may seem like a silly question but I can't seem to find an answer for it, and wondered if anyone might know.

When selling/scrapping your old car, is there any option to keep your licence plates? It's not an expensive, private reg plate, and I wouldn't be planning to use them on say, a new car. I have searched Google and all I could find that yes, you can... in America? I can't find anything for UK rules on this, and I guess people would find it a bit funny/dodgy for anyone asking to do so.

I don't know if there's any way that I COULD use these plates fraudulently, it's more that, as Minty is my first car, I've gotten rather attached to him and would like a wee keepsake sad as that is!! :embarassed: I just don't know if it's legal or not.

If anyone knows the answer to this I'd be really grateful, and as an aside, please feel free to rip the proverbial if you wish, I realise I am a bit of a sad act Thanks!

cheeeky_monkey

I think you can buy a second set of plates, put these on the car and keep the first set. Of course, you'd have to do this legally.

Go to this site:

http://www.dft.gov.uk/dvla/vehicles.aspx

Baileycat

Ahh, a lot of good info there, thank you! I could only seem to find information on personalised number plates but I guess it's effectively the same thing. There is a section on "transferring" from one car to another as well. He's not due for being changed quite yet, and I'd really like to keep him forever if I'm honest but I just wanted to know if it was possible to keep the plates legally.

Thanks for this!

w211

Yes, you can,

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/PersonalisedRegAndNumberPlates/DG_4022575

It appears you can keep the plate on retention, and if you get another car, you can put those plates onto your new car, however you can't make your new car look newer than it is.

Baileycat

That's how I understood it too, and surely putting an old reg on a newish car would have the opposite effect and make it appear older, so I'd be OK that way I could see why that would be illegal, if you were trying to con someone into thinking it was newer than it was, and ripping them off for a lot more money :O

Still, the retention thing did leave me wondering - what happens after the 3 years? If you haven't put them on another car, I mean. Do you continue paying to keep them? Do they have to be destroyed? I'm not sure I'd be prepared to spend £100+ each year, on top of the usual motoring costs, just for a memento of my (beloved) first car :P

Norman_Castle

You can keep the number plates but you cannot use them on another vehicle. The registration number belongs to a vehicle. The plastic plates belong to you.

Baileycat

Norman_Castle wrote: »

You can keep the number plates but you cannot use them on another vehicle. The registration number belongs to a vehicle. The plastic plates belong to you.

Now I'm even more confused :huh: The directgov website itself says this:

"As the registered keeper of your vehicle, you can apply to transfer the registration number from your vehicle to another vehicle in your name, to a vehicle you are buying, or to someone else’s vehicle."

I'm not overly fussed either way, I'm happy just keeping the plastic plates to myself even if I'm not able to put them on another car

ROY47

Norman_Castle wrote: »

You can keep the number plates but you cannot use them on another vehicle. The registration number belongs to a vehicle.

wrong

You can pay £80 to transfer the registration number to a newer car if you wish

If you want to keep the registration number to use on a car in a few months (up to 12 ) it will cost ypu £125 to put on retention

If you don't put it on a vehicle within the 12 months it will cost £25 every year to keep it


If on the other hand you just want to keep the number plates fitted on the car to stick on the wall as a momento and not have the same number on any other car you buy

just take the rear off the car the day you take it to a garage to part exchange it and if they ask say it was there when I left home it must have fallen off !:rotfl: :rotfl:

or just have one made for you

such as here

http://www.myshowplates.com/index.asp?gclid=CM-uu4Lslq4CFQlpfAodnT7QLg

wealdroam

If you just want to have a souvenir, and have no intention of ever transferring that reg. no. to another car, I would ask the scrappy if you can have the plates back. If you think that's a bit risky, then get some replacement plates made now and fit them. The new ones get scrapped (seems a waste to me) and you still have the old ones.

scotsbob

I have the number plates from every car and motorbike I have owned decorating my garage wall.

Before selling or trading a car I just take off the plates, stick them on my wall, get duplicates made from the cheapest dealer on Ebay at the time and stick them on the car.

I don't see any need to involve DVLA or anyone else in form filling.

Gloomendoom

Is this a serious question?

Like scotsbob, my garage is decorated with dozens of number plates from cars I've owned in the past and some others that were on the wall when I got the place. They are just pieces of metal or plastic with numbers and letters on.

There is nothing to stop you taking the plates of your car and keeping them when you move it on or even getting some new plates made up with any number that takes your fancy... as long as you don't put them on a motor vehicle and drive it on a public road.