To think that personalised number plates should be banned?!!

[principalitygirl]

They are, in my view, ostentatious, utterly pointless and a pure waste of money that could be much better used other ways, even 'selfish' ones like a nice meal out or a mini break. Or non-foodselfish things like charity donations.

If I ruled the world [:)], I'd ban them, or make people buying them have to pay an equal amount in a stupidity and arrogance and tax.

Anyone disagree?!

[SoupDragon]

[yawn]

Really? Is it that time again?

In my view, if it bothers you, i's your problem and yours alone and you probably need to get a grip. Also, people who think they have the right to say how others spend their money really need to either post a blow-by-blow account of their expenditure so we can all criticise it or shut up

[SeptemberFlowers]

I have one (on a 4x4 ) but can't see the problem with it ?

Baby on board etc I think is pointless, I did see one sign once that made me "Who cares who's on board"

[TisTheSeasonToBeUnreasonable]

Just bought a car with one :/
Hadn't really given it much thought till now apart from "oooh how handy - ex owners initials same as ours"

[Bowlersarm]

Soupdragon-perfectly put.

Really, who cares?

(Apart from OP obvs)

[Runningtrainers]

Oh gosh never come across threads similar to this before.

Bought mine when I was 17 for £325 sold for over 15k 4 years later...deposit of my house paid!

I now have another and already up x5 in value. I also have one ready for DD and DS!

[Runningtrainers]

I also now someone who has a private number plate that a very famous singer tried to buy from him. He refused!

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Can you buy them and not have them on cars then? So you could take a punt on the value going up without having actually have it on your car?

[HemlockStarglimmer]

Yes you can own one and not use it. However you have to pay an annual fee to the government and if you fail to pay the fee you lose it.

It's only registered as long as you pay the registration fee.

(According to my husband who I just asked).

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Knowing my luck it would lose value though! Will bear it in mind. I did used to glance through the ones listed in the paper to look for my initials and see how much they were worth, one of those small things that has disappeared with reading online versions of newspapers.

[HemlockStarglimmer]

More info - You can only keep it unused for up to three years.

1. Retaining a registration number

You can apply to remove a registration number from a vehicle and hold it on a retention document (V778) for 1, 2 or 3 years if you’re the registered keeper of the vehicle.

You can retain the registration number in your name or someone else’s name. This costs:

£105 for 1 year
£130 for 2 years
£155 for 3 years

From here www.gov.uk/personalised-vehicle-registration-numbers/retaining-a-registration-number

[Ponyphysio]

PEN 15 is owned by a motorcycle racing commentator. It suits him lol

[wobblyweebles]

Runningtrainers I'm sure the OP will be along in a minute to tell you that you are stupid, arrogant, ostentatious, wasting your money and selfish to boot :-)

In the meantime, lend us a tenner...?

[PestoStormissimos]

Yes
YABU

[sapphirestar]

My mum's just treated herself to one, but it's in the same format as a regular number plate so only those of us 'in the know' can tell it's personalised. I still agree they're naff and a waste of money but at least this way it's not obvious to all and sundry!

[ComposHat]

My favourite one was an old Rolls Royce parkrd om the drive in a down at heel area with the number plate R 0 13 B E R

I haven't got a problem with personalised plates, but the police/MOT inspectors should clamp down on the ones which are illegally spaced, use non-standard fonts or backgrounds.

[Runningtrainers]

wobbly I'm certainly not rich. Wish I was though!

[AnUnearthlyChild]

I just changed my name by deed poll to AA51 BYG.

Saved me a fortune rather than buying a plate with my name on.

[pantshavenames]

You can keep a personal number on retention as long as you want so long as you renew every year for £25.
I used to work a lot with people with personalised numbers, some lovely, some not so much... But I agree, some of the misspaced ones make it incredibly hard to know what the actual number is which is wrong.

[Chottie]

A mum locally drives a BMW with the plates 10 5EXY, a local man drives a RR with JAM1E. There is a black guy locally who drives a black BMW with the plates B1ACK.

[Sadoldbear]

I kept the plate from a much loved car when I had to get rid of it, so it's not a personal plate, just a normal plate that's personal to me! With regard to the "baby/child on board" stickers I read somewhere that they are much disliked because if a car involved in an accident has one, and there's no sign of a child is there a chance it's been thrown out of the car? Lots of time spent looking for a missing child that wasn't

[WheresTheHoneyMummy]

There's a jag near us that has the reg no GSP0T.

[monkeysox]

Re the New school Mum and her new car showing this year's reg first before putting the personal plate on that is because you cant register a new car on an existing personal reg (which has been on another car). I could as I bought my reg just before my Car so I could have its first registration on my New personal plate.

What I'm trying to say is she won't have done it on purpose

[ComposHat]

The emergency services pay no heed to the baby on board signs. According to a fire fighter I know they always search in the following order:

1. Driver (because there's always a driver)
2. Back seat passengers
3. Front seat passanger.

[mrspremise]

I wanted KN08 HED, but the DVLA have withdrawn it 'for reasons of public decency'. How unfair

[hoobypickypicky]

"I saw one once that said PEN 15. I wasn't sure if the driver was being ironic or not... "

For years that was owned by Steve Parrish, the motorbike racer, Scarlet. I think he knew.