Car number plate

[Superlambaanana]

I'm thinking of buying a dateless 6 digit registration/ personalised number plate.

I just want a nice neat 6 digit plate that I can keep and move from car to car. The actual digits don't need to have any specific relevance other than looking nice together.

There's one on offer which has my 2 digit house number within the 6 digits which I quite like.

I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have an idea this would be a bad idea - can anyone tell me why? Can't see that anyone could work out where I live from a number plate, but maybe I'm missing something as my instinct says avoid the house number one.

YABU - to buy a number plate with your house number in.

YANBU - there's no reason not to have your house number in your number plate.

Thanks!

What country are you in? Presumably not the UK having a six digit plate?

If you are parked outside your house people will probably notice, but what happens if you move?

Well, I think the whole idea is bonkers, but I can’t think of a reason why that particular plate is more bonkers than any other.

Plenty of six digit number plates around, they just pre-date age related plates and are quite legal to put on a more modern vehicle.
Our family has had several of these but in our case they were still attached to the original (classic) vehicle they were originally allocated to. I do know that in at least one case, when the vehicle was sold ,the plate was transferred by the new owner to a modern car.

That said, I can see no reason to link a number plate to a house number, unlikely anyone would ever notice but as PP said, what happens if you move?

If you park outside your house it will be obvious to anyone passing, but it's usually obvious anyway who's car belongs to which address. I suppose it's possible someone could steal keys from your car and know which house to get into if they saw it parked in town, it might be more memorable than a standard plate.

The usual downside is the number plate is easily identified if you are involved in something, like an accident where you don't stop, or don't pay for fuel. But I'm sure you wouldn't do anything like that!

It will be fine, mine has got my age when I was 23 some years ago, and two of the letters are adjacent to letters that appear in my cat's name.
So far neither of these coincidences have caused any problems.

I’ve never liked the idea but couldn’t really say why. There’s a few round the local area that tea very recognisable and I started to see them around and although I don’t know any of the people, I realised I gradually started to know quite a bit about their business, seeing them parked up in various places. And yes, easy to then notice where they live when they’re parked up on their driveways. I thought then that that was off putting and why I wouldn’t want one. I wouldn’t have managed to memorise all of their numbers plates if they’d been regular ones.
Actually, a friend of mine has just got rid of their, very recognisable, plates for this reason.

I guess, but they're not that usual. I can count on the thumbs of one hand the amount I've seen in the last decade.

I would imagine that they'd also be expensive to buy at that age.

I think you're overthinking this. The chances of a number plate coincidentally having the two numbers of a house number in are quite high, considering each digit can only be one of ten digits.

Bear in mind that if you change your car and want to keep the plate, you have to put it on retention, which costs money every time. I think it was about £80, but could be more now.

They are very common, as are 3,4 and 5 digit plates. I see loads around, multiple each day. 3x3 plates start at around £1k for less desirable combinations, so pretty cheap.

If someone was determined to find where you live I doubt they would think of checking out all the houses with the same number as two numbers on your car number plate. How would they even know which two numbers to pick out of the six digits? What if your house number had 3 digits?

I sometimes see cars that are from my neighbourhood when I am out and about, some have personalised number plates, some don't. Maybe they see me too. I don't think anything of it.

I think some folk are giving everyday people far more credit than they deserve for their observation skills. I send out email updates as part of a small organisation (to people who have specifically requested them) and I still get plenty saying that they 'didn't know' about things that were clearly detailed in the email that was actually sent to them!!

I'm not sure many people take the slightest notice of personalised plates. Maybe if they are very distinctive indeed, making up a word or name - although, as PP said, make sure you are squeaky clean at all times, as a memorable plate can help people to dob you in or bear a grudge for any peccadillo!

I really don't think anybody (except maybe particularly perceptive close family members/friends) will see 319532 and even twig that you live at house number 53, as also seen in your number plate. Some friends won't even know your house number, even if they've been there regularly - it'll just be 'the one with the blue door near the corner, with the pillar box outside'!

When I've looked in the past, there seem to be loads of plates available that originate from NI, with three letters (usually including a 'Z') and then four numbers afterwards.

If you happen to be called Daz or Caz, you can probably get that with your whole birthday after it for not that much money!

if you have a car that’s highly nickable your just adding a layer of pointing out where you live.
doesn’t even have to be a particularly flash sports car these days evoques, Kia’s/ Hyundai electrics have all been targeted.
the dvla auctions often have some nice plates for reasonable amounts.

I really don't think anybody (except maybe particularly perceptive close family members/friends) will see 319532 and even twig that you live at house number 53

It won’t look like that anyway, it’ll be ABC 123 or similar. Your point still stands though.

No one is going to see it parked in tescos and think “they must live at 52”
If you don’t have a driveway you don’t have to be a genius if you want the keys
that said most of these cars are stolen with chip readers now.

i am paranoid though as i have been stalked and I am in hiding from an abusive ex.

My 6 digit plate has my daughters birthday on it, (the format is X00 XXX, it cost £250 so not at all expensive). I wouldn't think that people look at it and think that I live at that number.

My 6 digit plate has my daughter’s birthday on it, (the format is X00 XXX, it cost £250 so not at all expensive). I wouldn't think that people look at it and think that I live at that number.

The OP’s talking about dateless plates though which are generally more expensive than prefix plates unless they spell something.

Yes, quite probably - although you do see quite a variety of legacy options if you go back far enough. I was just going on OP saying 6 digits, but I suppose that could have been a catch-all way to refer to any characters.

I loved the fact that, back in 2007, registration issuers in Edinburgh got permission to use the (otherwise unallocated) prefix 'T' as an alternative to the standard 'S', so as to avoid having to use any plates that started 'SN07' and obviously would look like 'snot'.

However, I never saw the follow-up report that I expected a decade later, mentioning that Glasgow would again be allowed to use 'T' to avoid registrations beginning with 'SH17' - which is surely potentially much more offensive than 'snot'?!

Maybe it indeed happened, but was by then considered 'old news' and so nobody (at least south of the border) bothered to comment on it; or maybe the Weegies are just made of much stronger stuff?!

Out of curiosity, what part of the country are you in? Most of the ones I see are the two letters, two digits, three letters, and occasionally the old one letter, three digits, three letters. Even more occasionally the three letters, three digits, one letter. I haven't seen only digits for ages.

In registration terms that’s not what a prefix refers to though. They were able to use the regional identifier TN rather than the usual SN.

Literally nobody is going to make the connection. Nobody walks along a street paying attention to house numbers AND the licence plate numbers of cars parked outside, and even if they do... so what?

Apologies if I didn't use the exact official technical terms, but I'm sure you knew what I meant!

'S' is the signifier for cars registered in Scotland, then the following letter refers to the city/area/region of Scotland - 'N' is of the letters used for Edinburgh and 'H' is used for Glasgow (amongst others). Therefore, when it was the period to use the 07 year identifier, 'SN' as a prefix could have been a problem; then when it was the 17 period, 'SH' could have been even trickier.

No need to clutch at pedantic straws!

Pedantry does matter though sometimes, a T prefix means a registration that was issued between March and July 1999.