Private plates, answered

From under £250 for current-style and Northern Irish plates, up to six figures for rare dateless combinations. RegBolt shows all-in pricing — the number you see always includes VAT and the £80 DVLA assignment fee.

Not exactly — you can only buy registrations that exist in the DVLA system. But with 75M+ combinations plus leetspeak variants (J4M13 = JAMIE), there's almost always a way to spell what you want. Our search finds them.

Nothing — they're the same thing. 'Cherished' usually means older, pre-owned registrations; 'private' and 'personalised' are used interchangeably.

No. Registrations can be held on a DVLA certificate (V750 or V778) for up to 10 years, renewable. That's how gifts and future purchases work.

Rarity, length, readability and demand. Short dateless plates, single letters/numbers, and strong name matches command the highest prices. RegBolt benchmarks every plate against 129,000+ real sales so you can see what's fair.

A mandatory government charge on every transfer or retention, set by the DVLA. At RegBolt it's always included in our headline prices — no checkout surprises.

Almost — the one rule is that a plate cannot make your vehicle appear newer than it is. Dateless and Northern Irish plates are exempt and fit any vehicle. We check age eligibility automatically at checkout.

DVLA online transfers are typically completed within a few working days once documents are in order. RegBolt starts every transfer within one working day — guaranteed, or your transfer fee back.

V750 (Certificate of Entitlement) is issued for unissued registrations; V778 (Retention Document) is for plates previously on a vehicle. Both are valid for 10 years and renewable.

When a private plate is assigned, your previous registration is usually held by the DVLA and can be reassigned to the vehicle later if the private plate is removed.

Yes — and it's one of the best uses of a plate. It arrives on a certificate so nothing touches the recipient's vehicle until they choose. RegBolt adds a cinematic digital reveal, group gifting (chip-in links), and 12 months of RegVault for the recipient.

Create the gift, share your chip-in link, and everyone contributes what they like. When it's fully funded, the reveal unlocks and every contributor is credited in the message.

We're in the application process. Until approval, RegBolt sells private and brokered registrations only. DVLA is a registered trade mark of the Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency; RegBolt is not affiliated to the DVLA.

Our sister platform — a vault for your plates with live valuations (129k+ sale records), market alerts and one-click resale. Every RegBolt purchase includes free membership: 12 months during the launch window.