Can someone explain private car reg plates to me?

[Hellocatshome]

So Google has left me more confused than when I started.

DS is 16 and landed himself a very well paying apprenticeship. He is saving money each month and will have enough to buy his 1st second hand car when he is 17. We are going are going car shopping on his 17th birthday.

He will be paying for his car and insurance himself so DH and I are going to buy him a private plate for his birthday (he has wanted one since he was about 4) we want to buy it before so we can give him the plates on his birthday.

Do I have to buy them in his name as he will be registered keeper of the car? How do we assign the plates to the car? (I'm assuming more complicated then just sticking them on the car?)

I was bought a plate by DH, so I’m going to say yes, you can buy one for him. You apply to change the plates when you’ve got the car

I bought DH a plate so it’s no problem you buying one for him. You pay £80 to change a plate though the old plate officially stays with the car so when you sell it you can put it back on and swop your private plate to your new car (for another £80). I bought DHs from the official dvla website. You can search for which ones are available and price to buy it now or see which are coming up in the next auction.

Forgot to say that you can’t use a private number that makes a vehicle look newer than it is - for example, an '07' registration number on a 2003 registered vehicle

This page gives you all the info you need

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

Great thanks all 👍