Don't give away £££'s to a dealer in commission!
Join thousands of savvy sellers who sell privately with the UK's leading number plate marketplace

 

Free 7 day risk-free trial!

You have nothing to lose by advertising your plate on our site today. Simply choose a plan below and get your first 7 days of advertising completely free. As you can see from our Trustpilot reviews below, in many cases our sellers have actually sold plates whilst within a free trial period, so it hasn’t cost them a penny!

If for any reason though, you decide you want to cancel your ad, you can do so at any time, in just a couple of clicks, and if you do this whilst still in a trial period, you won’t be be charged a penny.

 


Each plan allows you to advertise one plate. Have multiple plates to sell? View our dealer advertising plans

 

Rated 'Excellent' on

Helping our customers value, advertise and sell their number plates



Trusted by leading companies & celebrities

duncan 1.png

“Very impressed with Plate Trader, they've helped me sell two reg plates now and were very efficient and professional on both occasions. I would definitely recommend them. For an easy, quick sale these are the guys to use. Thank you very much.”

Duncan Bannatyne OBE D.Sc. DBA
Chairman - The Bannatyne Group

Frequently Asked Questions

Most commonly asked questions

Can you help me to sell my number plate?

Yes, we'd love to help you sell your number plate. 

We're a classifieds site/marketplace, allowing buyers and sellers to contact each other directly with no middleman and no commission. This means you are in full control of the sale and get to keep 100% of your plates selling price, rather than a percentage being taken as commission as it would be with a traditional number plate dealer.

When you advertise your plate with us, your advert will display an enquiry form which buyers will be able to complete, and these enquiries will be delivered to you directly. You'll receive an SMS and an email alert to inform you, and will have the option to respond and manage your enquiries within the Message Centre in your account.

When it comes to completing the sale, we are pleased to offer an escrow service, which provides peace of mind and protection to both parties. The buyer makes their payment into a secure account, the seller is then notified that the payment has been made and can transfer the registration, the buyer then confirms receipt and funds are released. In the unlikely event of any problems, our disputes team will protect you.

We offer a 7 day free trial on our adverts, so you can try us out at no cost and you could even sell it within the trial period, so it won't cost you a penny!

If this sounds good to you, take a look at our selling page to see the benefits of advertising with us :) 

Will you buy my number plate? Do you buy number plates into stock?

No, we don't buy plates for stock. We're a classifieds site/marketplace, not a number plate dealer. Our focus is on creating the best experience for both our buyers and sellers and changing the face of the number plate market, and we feel that holding stock and selling our own plates would distract us from this goal.

If you would like to sell your plate, why not consider advertising it on our site? We offer a 7 day free trial on our adverts, so you can try us out at no cost and you could even sell it within the trial period, so it won't cost you a penny!

Why is there a monthly/annual fee to advertise and sell with you?

There is a small monthly/annual fee for all of our adverts because we believe that this is the fairest way to charge for our service.

Every single month we invest literally thousands of pounds into paid advertising across social networks and search engines, as well as on search engine optimisation (SEO). Chances are you've probably seen one of our ads somewhere, or perhaps you even found us through an ad. 

By advertising your plate with us and paying a small monthly/annual fee, you are effectively 'bulk-buying' into this promotion for your number plate on a pay-as-you-go basis at a fraction of what it would cost you to do it yourself.

The other benefit of this type of pricing is that it keeps our site up to date. When we initially created our website, we started by offering advertisements for a one-time fee, however, what we found was that many advertisers forgot to let us know when their plate was sold and as a result we ended up with a site advertising a lot of plates that were no longer available. Pay-as-you-go pricing allows us to ensure we are only advertising registration plates that are actually available. 

You are always in full control of your advertisement and the costs. As soon as your plate sells, simply let us know and the advertising fees stop immediately. If for any reason you're not happy with our service and want to cancel or remove your advert, again, just let us know and the fees stop immediately.

Do you offer a free trial on adverts?

Yes, most of our adverts come with a 7-day free trial, and we extend this to 30 days for customers who have purchased a valuation from us.

The free trial is designed to allow you to create an advert and see how our site works for a limited time without paying anything. During the trial you get full functionality, so it is possible to receive enquiries and even sell your plate whilst within your trial period, and we've had numerous sellers who have done just this!

The only time we do not offer a trial is if your account or registration plate has already had a free trial before. In this case, any mentions of a trial will be removed and your subscription will begin as soon as you create an advert. This process is in place to prevent a small number of people from abusing our system by advertising a plate with us, removing the advert before the trial ends, then advertising again with another trial, removing it again, advertising again and so on.

How do I know what price to put on my advert if it don't know what my number plate is worth?

If you're not sure what price to enter when listing your plate you can tick the box that says 'Allow Buyers To Make Offers'.

This will allow you to proceed with creating an advert without needing to add a price, and will instead display a price of 'Make An Offer'. 

We send a free valuation within 48 hours with all Premium Adverts, and you can edit your advert at any time, so once you have received your valuation you can then amend the advert if you want to.  

Alternatively, if you'd prefer to receive a valuation before advertising, you can purchase one of our standalone Number Plate Valuations for just £9.99 (per plate) and our team with over a decade of experience in the number plate market, will provide a completely unbiased and impartial valuation within 48 hours.

If you have purchased a valuation from us, this will entitle you to a free 30 day trial on any of our adverts.

Can I space my registration plate however I want on my advert?

Unfortunately not. We display all registration plates with their correct and legal spacing on our site as we comply with DVLA guidelines and do not wish to mislead potential buyers looking for a plate. Any adverts placed with incorrect or illegal spacing will be amended by our team.

If you feel that your plate really should be spaced differently, then please feel free to upload an image along with your advert showing this, however, please do be aware that this is not road legal and you should make sure that buyers are aware of this before they purchase your plate.

What are search keywords and how do they work?

We allow our sellers to add keywords to their adverts. These are just the keywords that you want your plate to appear in searches for. For example, if you're selling the plate J4 MES, you'll want it to show up when someone searches for James. Similarly, if you're selling P3 TER, you'll want people looking for a Peter number plate to find it.

Generally speaking, the more keywords sellers include, the better. For example, if you were selling the plate M666 UTD, then we'd suggest setting keywords such as BMW M6, Manchester United, MUFC, Devil, Satan etc., however, it's important not to enter general terms like name, cool, best, private plate etc. as these won't help adverts be found by people looking for them.

How many plates can I list in each plan & do you offer discounts for advertising multiple plates?

Each plan covers the cost of advertising one number plate, however, if you have multiple plates (3 or more) to sell then it may be worth taking a look at our dealer plans, which allow multiple adverts within one plan at a discounted rate. You don't need to be a large dealer to benefit from these, in fact we have numerous number plate collectors, traders and smaller dealers who advertise their plates via these plans.

How do I edit/change my asking price or anything else on my advert?

You can edit anything about your advert, at any time, by simply logging in to your account scrolling to 'My Adverts' and clicking the pencil icon next to your registration. The only thing you will be unable to edit, is the registration itself. If you have made an error with the registration, please contact us and we can amend this for you.

How do I cancel/remove my advert?

You can cancel your advert at any time by simply logging in to your account and heading to 'My Adverts', then clicking the cross icon next to your registration. You'll be given the option to remove your advert immediately, or to remove it at the end of the current billing period that you may have already paid for.

If you offer a free trial, why do you need my card details to place an advert?

We ask you to enter your card details to ensure that we can keep your advert up and running if you haven’t removed it or marked your plate as sold before the end of the free trial. There is no charge during the trial period and you can cancel or remove your advert at any time, in just a couple of clicks.

A buyer has contacted me and we have agreed a price, how do I complete the sale?

Payment

When selling a registration privately (i.e. directly to the buyer and not through a middleman), some people choose to complete the transaction in person to ensure all goes smoothly, however, this isn't always practical and often deals are done remotely.

For this reason, we are pleased to offer an escrow service, which, for a small fee, provides peace of mind and protection to both parties. The buyer makes their payment into a secure account, you as the seller are then notified that the payment has been made and you can transfer the registration, the registration is then transferred and the buyer confirms receipt, then the funds are released to you. In the unlikely event of any problems, our disputes team will protect you.

If you wish to proceed without using escrow, then the buyer will likely want to see proof of ownership before exchanging funds. For peace of mind, they may want to ask for a copy of the Logbook (V5C)Certificate of Entitlement (V750) or Retention Document (V778) or to prove that you own the rights to the registration, along with photo identification, before they send you any funds. 

When providing these documents, make sure you conceal the certificate number/reference numbers as it's possible for someone to instantly transfer your private plate to their car using these numbers. It’s worth noting that these number appear in multiple places on the documents, so make sure you conceal every instance of it (see this guide for details of where the numbers appear).

If the registration is currently on a vehicle and you sending a copy of a V5C, make sure you to conceal the VIN number as well, as it’s possible for scammers to apply for a new log book if they have this.

In terms of them making the actual payment, if proceeding without using our escrow service then we would suggest using another secure service such as PayPal which provides some protection to both parties. If using PayPal, they should send the payment under the category of 'Goods and Services' to ensure both parties are protected. 

Transferring ownership of the registration

With payment completed, you now need to transfer the registration. If it's currently on a vehicle then you should take it off and put it onto a retention certificate. You can do this using the DVLA's online 'retain a number plate' service or if you prefer the old fashioned route, you can complete a V317 application form. It costs £80 to do but this includes the Assignment Fee, meaning that the buyer doesn't have to pay any more fees to put the plate onto their vehicle.

Once the number plate is off the vehicle and 'on retention' you can transfer it to your buyer. The easiest way to do this is to give your buyer the Certificate Number, and direct them to the DVLA's online 'assign a number plate' service. This will allow them to assign the registration to their vehicle instantly online and in doing so, will transfer rights/ownership of the registration to them.

Alternatively, if they'd prefer the postal method, then you just need to sign & date in Sections 1 & 6 or your Retention Document and post it to the buyer using a trackable postal service. This also allows them to assign the registration to their vehicle and transfers rights/ownership of the registration to them.

View more questions

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