Private Plate Retention when PXing

haz_kirbo

Has anyone a clue on retaining your private plates whilst selling your car? I’m currently tearing my hair out trying to get a clear/quicker answer! 

I’ve reserved a new car, and I’m likely to PX my current car. 

I have a private plate, which I want to retain and put on my new car.

DVLA website would suggest I can’t sell my car until I have the 778 Retention AND the updated V5C logbook, and the website suggests paperwork in 4-6 weeks; but the change is instant, so I’d have to update my insurance 3x: 

- Once to update my current car’s private plate to the original.

- Original plate to new car

- New car’s original plate to private plate.

So not only do I have to pay £80 for the DVLA, my insurance are going to charge me another £80 for the 3x swaps; AND I might not be able to sell my car for another 6 weeks (so I’m risking the 10% deposit i’ve already put down on my new car, as I don’t expect him to wait forever)🫠 

I did this process 5 years ago when I bought said correct car, and don’t remember it being THIS much of a hassle. Surely there is an easier way to do it?

Is there any way to do it in person (eg postoffice) so I can walk out with the paperwork in tow?

Penguin_

Are you buying through a dealer? If so they will have done this countless times before.

WellKnownSid

Reputable dealer will do it for you.  You could drive away with the car on the correct plates.

Everyone in our house has a private plate.  FYI the V5c has never taken longer than about four days in the many times we've updated cars and number plates over the last 5 years.

Both of our insurers don't charge for small changes like number plates.  Brokers (or insurers that are really brokers) tend to charge for every change.

You will probably pay the £80 fee to the DVLA regardless, unless of course the dealer sucks that up.

Mildly_Miffed

haz_kirbo said:

I did this process 5 years ago when I bought said correct car, and don’t remember it being THIS much of a hassle. Surely there is an easier way to do it?

It's got easier and quicker. Five years ago, you couldn't do it online.

If you don't wait for the V5C with the correct registration on it, the dealer takes a car on that he can't do anything with until that new V5C comes back in your name, and is then transferred "into trade". That may well be within a week, it may be longer.

If you hand him a V5C with the registration you want to keep, there's a risk that he may actually take ownership of that plate in the event of a problem with the transfer.

If you've chosen to insure with a company that charges you for plate transfers, that was part of the decision you made when buying that policy.

Frozen_up_north

Done that a few weeks ago. Dealers do it all the time. One grey area is the dealer will switch your existing car registration a few days before you collect the new car, they do this on-line. You are then in "no mans land", with your personal plate on the car, your insurance is for that personal plate, but checking on DVLA shows the number does not exist. You will receive a letter with the V5 from DVLA, takes around 4 days.

The idea of the above is so you have the V5 in your hand for the original number of your existing car, so when you go to collect your new car the dealer has all they need to sell your old car.

The new car will be fitted with the personal plate when you collect it.

A slight annoyance is that your insurance company will not be able to change your insurance at the time you collect the new car as the personal plate is not showing on the insurance database for 2 or 3 days... even though it is visible on-line with the DVLA. My insurance is with Aviva and it took the 2 or 3 days before they would transfer insurance to the new car. Fortunately, the dealer was able to provide free insurance for a few days with VW Group Insurance. I guess most main dealers have this facility to overcome the rather odd situation where an insurance company seem unable to accept what we can all see on the DVLA site!

WellKnownSid

Frozen_up_north said:

A slight annoyance is that your insurance company will not be able to change your insurance at the time you collect the new car as the personal plate is not showing on the insurance database for 2 or 3 days... even though it is visible on-line with the DVLA. My insurance is with Aviva and it took the 2 or 3 days before they would transfer insurance to the new car. Fortunately, the dealer was able to provide free insurance for a few days with VW Group Insurance. I guess most main dealers have this facility to overcome the rather odd situation where an insurance company seem unable to accept what we can all see on the DVLA site!

I updated insurance ten days before I picked up my new car.  All arranged off the private plate I'd just bought and didn't even have the retention certificate for.  Just had to tell them what car it was going to be fitted to...