Buying Irish Number Plates

Over the last few years, personalised number plates have proven increasingly popular. Once a status symbol of the wealthy, personalised plates now give virtually all drivers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd and reflect their passions and personality. Personalised number plates provide people with a flexible and affordable way of displaying their individuality.

In particular, Irish plates are currently one of the most popular types of private number plates on the market. A great alternative to DVLA number plates, Irish plates can often prove to be a cheap option and add a range of plate alternatives not available with standard UK registrations. In contrast to standard DVLA registrations, Irish car number plates can display the letters I and Z. This contributes to many innovative and popular combinations such as BIG, WIL, BIL, CAZ and OIL. Some examples of Irish number plates include BIG 46, GIL 3782 and HAZ 434.

Irish number plates are considered dateless (no age identifier) and can be assigned to any car, whatever its age. Often people buy Irish number plates as cheap cover plates to hide their vehicle's age.

The DVA (Northern Ireland's equivalent to the DVLA) based in Coleraine divides Northern Ireland into eight different administrative areas: Belfast, Enniskillen, Downpatrick, Ballymena, Coleraine, Londonderry, Omagh and Armagh. Each area is assigned two letters (e.g. AZ). These two letters are preceded by a letter, starting at A and moving on once every 9999 registrations in the series have been exhausted. For example, the registrations AAZ 1-9999 were released then the series moved to BAZ 1-9999 then CAZ 1-9999, DAZ and so on. The first letter in three letter combinations indicates the year of manufacture, the combination of letters as a whole indicates the year of manufacture, the combination of letters as a whole indicate the area of issue.

As with other car number plates, the lower or "neater" the numbers, the more value the registration,

The main attraction of Irish number plates in addition to the creative possibilities of the letters and the ability to conceal the year of manufacture on DVLA registered vehicles is the simple fact that they are cheaper than most DVLA issued plates. Three-letter, four-number plates can sell for as little as fifty pounds.

To transfer an Irish number plate, it must be transferred vehicle to vehicle. Both the donor and recipient must complete and sign a V317 form and applications for the transfer sent to the DVLA with the relevant documents including the V5 logbooks and MOT certificates if applicable. Plate transfer is currently charged at £80. Unfortunately Irish number plates cannot go directly onto a V778 retention certificate. However, they can be transferred once on a DVLA registered vehicle, subject to the £105 DVLA retention fee.

DVLA V750 certificate holders who wish the registration to be assigned to a vehicle in Northern Ireland must first be assigned it to a DVLA registered vehicle and then transfer car to car into Northern Ireland. However, this can be problematic. Certain number plate dealers now specialize in Northern Ireland to UK transfers or visa versa. These companies offer a donor car to use in the first stage of the transfer and handle the paperwork. These two stage transfers involve two fees.