Selling a number plate

Puterkid · 07/02/15 - 21:20

Thought I'd ask about this. I'm selling a car for practically £0 as it's a bit of a liability. However, the number plate spells a word and a london post code, and someone told me it could be worth a bomb. I tried googling, but all the sites offering valuations seem to want to your name, address and car details and just fall short of getting your shoe size:o etc, and I don't know who I'm actually sending this too so am reluctant.

Any advice re. a reputable company that could help without all this giving away of my personal info?

Thanks in hope:)

gemma-the-husky · 07/02/15 - 22:16

they are asking this because as it stands, you would sell the plate on the car, so the car itself would affect the value.

However, they don't generally buy your car, they sell the plate for you, take a commission, and then sort it all out by transfer.

Ask them what it would be worth on retention, and then it would cost you £80 to take the number of the car, and get it on a retention certificate.

I think that if your car does not have an MOT then you can't transfer the plate, so if it is really worthless, you need to get the plate off the car while the MOT is still valid, as presumably you won't want to pay to get it MOT'ed

lozenger · 07/02/15 - 22:46

I don't have any useful advice, however I'm interested in this too - my old car is just about ready for the scrap heap but it has an Irish number plate that lots of people are interested in - I was offered £600 for it from speedyreg but thinking I might transfer it to my new car.

If you google, there are numerous companies offering this service & you can get an online valuation - maybe google the company's customer reviews & see if you can find a reputable one.

Or you could always do it yourself on eBay /other selling sites & follow DVLA instructions to avoid paying commission. One of the companies I found was based in Swansea so seems to have a good relationship with DVLA as they are constantly back and forward from there (sorry I can't remember their name...)

Puterkid · 07/02/15 - 23:01

Thanks for advice. I've looked up what it would cost to buy a similar number plate to mine from DVLA, and it was nearly £500. Unfortunately though, I don't have an MOT for the car, and it is sorned. It was trying to get an MOT that showed up so many faults that it isn't worth getting it all sorted - rather old car really. Also had a dent in it, so all in all, not worth salvaging. I think I shall have to give up on getting anything for the number plate.

gemma-the-husky · 07/02/15 - 23:19

In the light of your last, I just checked, and the MOT position does not seem to be as rigorous as I thought. So depending on when you SORN'ed it you may be able to get the number off the car.

https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registration-numbers/transferring-a-registration-number

Call DVLA. They will be helpful, I expect.

It would be a shame to lose the number if it's a good one.

Supratad · 07/02/15 - 23:42

All these companies that purport to sell your plate are a real waste of time. They just want your monthly DD.
My advice is to get it on retention ASAP then sell it on eBay or similar, and account for the transfer fees in your price/reserve.

Puterkid · 08/02/15 - 09:25

gemma-the-husky wrote: »

In the light of your last, I just checked, and the MOT position does not seem to be as rigorous as I thought. So depending on when you SORN'ed it you may be able to get the number off the car.

https://www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registration-numbers/transferring-a-registration-number

Call DVLA. They will be helpful, I expect.

It would be a shame to lose the number if it's a good one.

Thanks for that. Someone has offered £100 for the car, I wonder if I should try to do a deal with this guy. He's in the business, so I suspect he may be aware of the value of the number plate.

Puterkid · 08/02/15 - 09:26

Supratad wrote: »

All these companies that purport to sell your plate are a real waste of time. They just want your monthly DD.
My advice is to get it on retention ASAP then sell it on eBay or similar, and account for the transfer fees in your price/reserve.

I thought this would be the case, thanks.

maxsi · 08/02/15 - 09:40

If you you havent got an MOT as it's not cost effective it still may be worth advertising the car in the specific area of London, someone with loads of money may want to mot the car for the number plate ( the dent wouldn't need sorting for example as not part of mot)

DEmmerson · 08/02/15 - 10:26

http://www.numberplates.com/stories/protecting-rights-numberplate.asp

seems reasonable advice.

Yosemite · 08/02/15 - 13:02

Puterkid wrote: »

Any advice re. a reputable company that could help without all this giving away of my personal info?

You appear to have a problem because your car has no MOT. The DVLA would be able to clarify the position but you might lose the will to live while you wait in the telephone holding system.

Alternatively, any of the following members of the RMI (Retail Motor Industry Federation) Cherished Numbers Dealers Association should be able to advise you : http://www.cnda.co.uk/

If you then choose employ them, they will need some personal information in order to provide the service.

Supratad wrote: »

All these companies that purport to sell your plate are a real waste of time.

They provide a marketplace which brings potential buyers and sellers together, will help to negotiate an acceptable price, and then deal with most of the paperwork to effect the transfer.

For many people, this is a useful service.

Supratad wrote: »

They just want your monthly DD.

What DD might that be?

To the best of my knowledge (and I have communicated and/or dealt with quite a few of them), none of the dealers above require any advance payment whatsoever - they simply deduct their commission charge from the sale proceeds when the deal is concluded and pay the balance to the seller.

Supratad · 09/02/15 - 00:56

All the ones I looked at and rejected, required a direct debit monthly payment. They did not buy the plate from the owner, they merely promised to sell it for them, at a monthly cost.
Online reviews were all poor.

Yosemite · 09/02/15 - 10:47

Supratad wrote: »

All the ones I looked at and rejected, required a direct debit monthly payment. They did not buy the plate from the owner, they merely promised to sell it for them, at a monthly cost.
Online reviews were all poor.

No surprise there! You were clearly looking at a new breed of wannabe dealers looking to make a fast buck.

Established dealers are rarely interested in buying a plate outright - their business model is to act as middlemen and charge commision on completed sales. There really should be no need for a monthly fee as their overheads are pretty minimal - maintaining a database on their website, a handful of admin staff, some phone calls and postage.

Philip Wales · 09/02/15 - 15:50

I'd go back to the person and see if they'll up the offer to around the £250 mark, that way if they really want the number and are willing to MOT the car to get that number, they my still be quids in. Otherwise you stuck with nothing, unless you can MOT the car for less than £250 or so.

DVLA obviously impose this rather silly MOT needed rule, for cases just like yours. If you scrap the car, the number plate will go back to the DVLA, who'll make a nice profit on it. It seems they don't need an MOT to sell the plate, so to speak. I was in a similar position like yours about 20 years ago when I had a decent number plate and lost it through no MOT.

lozenger · 10/02/15 - 00:36

Just an update for anyone interested in a similar position, I just had 2 valuations for the Irish plate on my old car that is about to go to scrappers - one at £250 & another one at £600 - this was post commission (no DD) - however I have decided to transfer it to my new car which I hope will add value to it later down the line.

Hey there!

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