A quick browse of the Internet will show any interested party that there are literally millions of personalised number plates for sale in various styles, sizes and costs. In a market where some plates fetch more than the cost of the high end cars that they appear on, how can a buyer find a bargain plate from the wide array for sale?
The truth is that there are thousands of cheap number plates for sale. Most of them are under a few hundred pounds but they become lost in the large volume of listings of registration numbers posted on websites. The combinations may not always include your initials but will still appear very attractive on the car, bike, or van, that you have in mind. Some of the combinations may be considered just to disguise the age of the vehicle, so it’s not important to buy the initials to suit.
Generally speaking, the best way to find the cheapest number plates online is to start using unpopular letters in your search. Letters such as A, J, M and S, for example, in almost any combination, will only land you in hot water regarding price, as these are used in over 50% of initials for Christian names and surnames in the UK. Try using the letter X, V, U and Z, in the search queries, and presto, a whole different range of prices will appear. It may take a while to sift through the scores of available options, but this advice should leave you well on your way to finding a cheap number plate.
We have already mentioned the letter Z in the search for cheap number plates, and whilst this is clearly an unpopular letter, generally speaking, it can be much more popular in the names of other nationalities other than Britain’s. Until DVLA released the new-style number plates for sale in 2001, the letter Z was only used in Irish number plates. This meant that Irish number plates very clearly distinguished from mainland number plates until then. Irish number plates are a great way of finding cheap registration numbers, as they are all non-year related, or dateless as they are called in the trade, and there are hundreds that can be bought for less than £100. The best of the bargains can be found when the combinations are freshly released by DVLNI in Northern Ireland, and attractive numbers are still to be found such as 5555 or 1234, etc.
Most Irish number plates can be transferred to mainland UK in about four to five weeks. Admittedly, this is a fair bit longer than the cheap UK counterparts, but there are two authorities to consider when transferring an Irish number plate. Those authorities are the DVLA in mainland UK and DVLI in Northern Ireland.
Another consideration when looking for cheap registrations is to look at suffix style number plates. A suffix style number plate is the name given to a registration number that was issued between 1963 and 1982. These are easily recognised, as at the far left of the number plate there is a letter on its own which indicates the year it was issued. These are becoming more and more popular, as the DVLA have been re-issuing them as replacement plates for cars that have had their number plates transferred from them. In some circumstances, there have been some very popular combinations issued that are quite valuable.
As there are companies specialising in building copies of original classic cars, like the Morgan for example, these suffix number plates, and indeed the old English pre 1963 dateless number plates, are quite popular. The reason these are becoming more desirable on this type of car, is that the black and silver number plates that used to be used (before the white and yellow ones of today), make the car look like it was built years ago.
The Private Plate Company offers the personalized car plates that you’re looking for, and also provides an easy means to buy cheap plates. Whether you are looking to buy or sell your number plate, visit us today!