How to buy the best personalised number plate.

The decision to buy a personalised number plate can be affected by many factors. Most people buy whatever they fancy, but with a bit of knowledge and forethought it is possible to purchase a personal registration number which will increase in value while it is enjoyed on the car.

There follows some general rules to follow when thinking about what to buy, obviously there are exceptions to very rule but generally these rules should keep you on the right track.

1. The less numbers and letters the better – not only does a short registration number look better on the physical number plates but there will be less similar combinations available, for example for a one number one letter there were only ever a few hundred issued and even less have survived to the present day.

2.The older the better , obviously the less numbers there are available with a certain combination of letters the more rare and consequently more expensive.

Be aware though that meant letter combinations were issued again more recently with the numbers first.

3. Letters first – we read from right to left so once you read the letters the number becomes insignificant whereas if the number come first they need to be attractive such as 123 or 777 to make up for it , letters first is always worth more.

4. Pick a rare combination – registrations which were issued long ago when there weren’t many cars in that area usually cost more , just imagine how few cars there were in some parts of Scotland in the 20’s and 30’s and how many of those cars survived long enough to have there numbers removed.

5. Pick popular letters if we ignore the obvious ones such as SUE or JOE etc and concentrate on initials we find that there are many many more people who have the initials JB than say HJ this is why a JB number will cost you 4 to 5 times what a HJ registration will. All of the above rules apply to ageless number plates i.e. registration numbers with no year identifier but the can also apply to prefix and suffix type personalised number plates.

Some of the exceptions to these rules can be where you need a certain number of letters and numbers to spell what you want for example BAD 80Y for BAD BOY or you would need a current style registration to spell something like SUBARU. Some previously unissued combinations are sold at auction so although you may have a nice old number with letters first , the fact that there will be several similar registrations offerred at auction every year with numbers first is going to devalue your number.

I have tried to cover the main points there are many others.