How can I transfer my private registration to my new car?
Moving a private registration from one car to another is two applications, not one. You apply to take it off the old vehicle, which costs £80, and you apply to put it on the new one, which is free. Both can be done online in minutes, and the registration comes off the old car immediately unless the DVLA wants to inspect it. The part that takes time is the paperwork that follows, and the plates themselves.
What you need before you start
The V5C log book for each vehicle, and the £80 for the first application. Both vehicles have to be registered with the DVLA in the UK, taxed or on a SORN, of a type that needs an MOT, able to move under their own power, and available for inspection if the DVLA asks. If either vehicle is not in your name you have to apply by post rather than online.
One rule decides whether the move is possible at all: a registration can never make a vehicle appear newer than it is. An older registration can go on a newer car, but not the other way round, so check the new vehicle can legally wear it before you pay anything.
Step one: take it off the old car
The DVLA's online service is open Monday to Friday from 7am to 9pm, and Saturday and Sunday from 7am to 8pm. By post it is form V317, with the V5C and the £80 fee made payable to DVLA Swansea. Either way the vehicle gets its original registration back, usually straight away, and you get a V778 retention document plus a new V5C through the post. Putting a registration on retention covers that application in full.
You do not have to wait for the documents to arrive before moving the registration on: you can assign it to the new vehicle using the reference number from the application. You do have to wait if you are selling or scrapping the old car, because parting with it before the V778 and the new V5C arrive loses the registration altogether.
Step two: put it on the new car
Assigning a registration you already hold is free, online or by post, and you need the new vehicle's V5C along with the V750 or V778. The assignment is usually instant online. Applying a private registration goes through that half in detail, including what to do when the online service refuses the application, which it does more often than people expect.
New car day, and getting the timing right
If the new car is coming from a dealer, the registration cannot go on it until the vehicle is registered to you, which is usually the day you collect it. The usual order is: take the registration off the old car in the days before you hand it over, let the dealer register the new one to you, then assign the registration and have the plates made. Tell the dealer what you are doing, because the car will arrive on its issued registration and change afterwards.
If the old car is going in part exchange, take the registration off before the dealer takes the vehicle, not after. Once it is registered to someone else the entitlement is gone, and that is not something the DVLA reverses.
Then the plates
The vehicle needs plates showing whatever registration it is legally carrying, before it is driven. That means two sets in a transfer: replacements for the old car when the private registration comes off, and the private plates for the new one. A registered number plate supplier has to see proof of who you are and proof of your entitlement before making either, and the documents we accept sets out what counts.
Order before 2pm on a working day with your documents approved and we make them the same day. You can see your registration on any style in the plate builder first.
If you would rather not do the paperwork
Our Done-For-You Paperwork Service handles the assignment for you: you send us what we need and our team completes the application and deals with the DVLA. It covers putting a registration on a vehicle rather than taking one off, so on a transfer it is the second step it takes off your hands.
Common questions
Do I pay £80 twice when I move a plate between my own cars? No. Taking it off costs £80 and putting it on is free, so a transfer is one fee.
What happens to the old car? It goes back to the registration it was issued with, usually automatically and usually straight away, and it needs plates showing that number before it is driven. Changing number plates back to the original covers what that involves.
How long is the V778 valid? Ten years, and you renew it in the 28 days before it expires, free of charge. Miss that date and the right to the registration is gone permanently. The V750 and V778 explained covers both documents.
Can I transfer a registration to someone else? Yes, but that is a sale rather than a transfer between your own vehicles: the buyer needs the V750 or V778 to assign it, and private registrations sets out how that works.
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