What are the New Number Plates for March 2023?

Black sports car driving on road

From March 1st 2023, all new vehicle registrations will feature the number ‘23’ on their number plates, replacing the previous ‘72’ plate which had arrived in September 2022.

These numbers are referred to as ‘age identifiers’, and are updated every six months. March marks the beginning of a new six-month period for the motoring industry, during which time new registration plates will be identified with the number ‘23’. From September 2023, these will update to ‘73’.

What do number plates mean?

As mentioned, new number plates are introduced every six months. They’re designed to indicate a vehicle’s age, as well as the location where the vehicle was registered.

The first two letters of a number plate indicate the region of the car’s registration.

The following two numbers represent exactly when the car was registered. Vehicles registered from March 2023 to September 2023 will have the number ’23’ at this point in their new plates. This age identifier updates every six months.

The final three letters in the number plate are randomly generated.

Why do you need a number plate?

Number plates indicate the age of a vehicle, as well as its first region of registration – as such, they are unique to each vehicle.

Beyond that, number plates are legally required by the DVLA. There are also specific rules around the font, font size, colour, and letter placement on number plates. Failure to follow these rules, or to display a numberplate in the first instance, can result in a hefty fine (up to £1000) – and the vehicle will fail its MOT.

Finance your new vehicle with My Car Credit

If you’re looking for a way to finance a car with new number plates, car finance can make the process more affordable – get a car loan quote today.

Rates from 9.9% APR. Representative APR 12.4%

Evolution Funding Ltd T/A My Car Credit

Return to Finding a Car
Return to search

Related articles

How Quickly Can You Buy a Car?

Read More

5 Best Car Picks for Elderly Drivers

Read More

What’s the Best Month to Buy a Car?

Read More
My Credit Rating

Excellent

  • You are a home owner
  • You have been on the electoral role for a long period of time
  • You have current credit arrangements and mortgage with no defaults
  • You have no CCJs, credit arrears or missed payments
  • You rarely apply for credit
  • You are employed or self-employed

Good

  • You are on the electoral role
  • You are a home owner or long standing tenant
  • You have a stable employment history
  • You have current credit arrangements with occasional missed payments
  • You have no CCJs

Fair

  • You are or have recently been on the electoral role
  • You may have recently changed address
  • You may have occasional missed payments
  • You may have an old CCJ
  • You may have regularly applied for credit

Poor

  • You may have had frequent changes in address
  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • You may have exceeded credit card limits
  • You may have missed payments on current agreements
  • You may have had a CCJ in the past

Bad

  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • Your credit cards are over their limits
  • You have recent CCJs
  • You may have been refused credit elsewhere
  • You may be in a debt management plan
£

X monthly repayments of
£X

Typical rate

Loan amount

Total payable

X% APR*

£X

£X

*for illustration purposes only

No impact on your credit score*

Representative Example

Borrowing £7,500 at a representative APR of 12.4%, annual interest rate (fixed) 12.36%, 47 monthly payments of £196.44 followed by 1 payment of £206.44 (incl. estimated £10 option to purchase fee), a deposit of £0.00, total cost of credit is £1,939.12, total amount payable is £9,439.12.

Evolution Funding Limited, trading as My Car Credit, is a credit broker and not a lender.

Please ensure you can afford the repayments for the duration of the loan before entering into a credit agreement.

*Initial application is a soft search. Should you progress, some lenders may perform a hard search on your credit file.
Reviews icon
TrustPilot icon

Require more help?

Got a question you can’t find the answer to, or need some advice and guidance around taking out car finance? Our Car Credit Specialists are friendly, experienced, and here to help so get in touch today!

Email
or call 01246 458 810

How to transfer a private registration number to a different car

Volvo 4X4 with My Car Credit private registration plate

If you’re anything like us, picking your car will be a very personal choice. The brand, model, colour and specification are all big questions that the discerning buyer must consider. The pinnacle of car personalisation though has to be the personalised registration plate. For statement-making drivers, getting a customised plate for their beloved set of wheels is simply a must. But what happens when you get a new vehicle? Find out more about transferring the plate to your new set of wheels here.

With prices from the DVLA starting at £250 (plus VAT and an £80 transfer fee), it’s no wonder that hundreds of thousands of British drivers have bought into the affordable, yet luxurious choice of making their number plate personal. Some independent number plate traders can offer even cheaper deals!

However, once you’ve got a personalised registration plate it can be difficult to imagine driving without it. Luckily, the answer for anyone out there looking to transfer their customised plate is a yes – it’s very much do-able! However, there’s a few steps involved – so read on.

First steps

The first thing you need to do when you are transferring a personalised registration plate to another car is place the registration number on retention. This allows you to either keep the number for a vehicle in the future or transfer it over to another car.

In addition, you must also be the owner/registered driver of the car that you are going to transfer the plate over to. The car must also be:

  • Registered with the DVLA
  • Have been taxed for the last five years or declared off the road with a SORN certification (Statutory Off-Road Notification)

Making it happen

When you’re sure you have taken the first steps in the process, you can visit the DVLA’s online portal. You will be asked to enter the registration number you want to place on retention and the 11-digit document reference from the current car’s log book (also known as a V5C). It usually costs around £80 to make this happen, which must be paid in one transaction with a debit or credit card.

Depending on whether you have chosen to retain the personalised number for a later date or transfer it immediately, you will be issued with either:

  • A reference number to immediately transfer the number to another vehicle.
  • A V778 retention document which gives you the right to use the personalised registration number for the next 10 years.

So, if you’re looking to transfer your personalised registration plate – what are you waiting for? It’s a very efficient process, as long as you follow every step. Here’s a few key details to keep in mind:

  • If there is an interim period between your current number plate and the transfer of your personalised number plate, you will be given a replacement number to use.
  • You must have your personalised number plates (or your replacement plates) on your vehicle before you drive it.
  • You must inform your insurance company of your new personalised registration number.
  • You cannot transfer a personalised number that starts with ‘Q’ or ‘NIQ’.
  • Your plates must be made from a reflective material, which is white with black characters on the front of the car and yellow with black characters on the rear. No patterned backgrounds are allowed, and the character size and font must be within regulation.

Personalised number plates are a fantastic way to make your car extra special. Whether you go for the classic name plate or some hilarious wordplay, they’ll show everyone else on the road a bit of your personality. It’s for these reasons that many people like to keep their personalised number plate and transfer it on to another vehicle, and we hope that this article has made the process as smooth as possible.

For more information why not visit the GOV website here.

Return to Motoring Advice
Return to search

Related articles

Driving in the Rain: 10 Tips for Road Safety

Read More

How to Remove Ice from Your Windshield Safely

Read More

How to Keep Your Car Warm in Winter

Read More
My Credit Rating

Excellent

  • You are a home owner
  • You have been on the electoral role for a long period of time
  • You have current credit arrangements and mortgage with no defaults
  • You have no CCJs, credit arrears or missed payments
  • You rarely apply for credit
  • You are employed or self-employed

Good

  • You are on the electoral role
  • You are a home owner or long standing tenant
  • You have a stable employment history
  • You have current credit arrangements with occasional missed payments
  • You have no CCJs

Fair

  • You are or have recently been on the electoral role
  • You may have recently changed address
  • You may have occasional missed payments
  • You may have an old CCJ
  • You may have regularly applied for credit

Poor

  • You may have had frequent changes in address
  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • You may have exceeded credit card limits
  • You may have missed payments on current agreements
  • You may have had a CCJ in the past

Bad

  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • Your credit cards are over their limits
  • You have recent CCJs
  • You may have been refused credit elsewhere
  • You may be in a debt management plan
£

X monthly repayments of
£X

Typical rate

Loan amount

Total payable

X% APR*

£X

£X

*for illustration purposes only

No impact on your credit score*

Representative Example

Borrowing £7,500 at a representative APR of 12.4%, annual interest rate (fixed) 12.36%, 47 monthly payments of £196.44 followed by 1 payment of £206.44 (incl. estimated £10 option to purchase fee), a deposit of £0.00, total cost of credit is £1,939.12, total amount payable is £9,439.12.

Evolution Funding Limited, trading as My Car Credit, is a credit broker and not a lender.

Please ensure you can afford the repayments for the duration of the loan before entering into a credit agreement.

*Initial application is a soft search. Should you progress, some lenders may perform a hard search on your credit file.
Reviews icon
TrustPilot icon

Require more help?

Got a question you can’t find the answer to, or need some advice and guidance around taking out car finance? Our Car Credit Specialists are friendly, experienced, and here to help so get in touch today!

Email
or call 01246 458 810

The History of the Licensed Number Plate!

Retro style green car with old fashioned number plate

Nowadays it’s almost impossible to imagine a car without a licensed number plate fastened onto the front and back of it. However, there was a time when we drove around anonymously – there were blank cars roaming the country without so much as a tyre mark and a dust cloud to know where they’d been. It was perhaps for this reason that the government brought in licensed plates, over a century ago.

It was the Motor Act of 1903 that stated every car must display a licensed number plate, and by the following year 1904, almost every car in the UK had abided by the new law. They were used to keep an official vehicle register of cars, in case of accidents (or more scandalously) to catch criminals. The number plates at this time consisted of a simple format – a one/two-letter code followed by a number between 1 and 9999. The letter code was used to identify the area the owner was registered, for example, if you lived in London your code was ‘A’, if you lived in Lancashire your code was ‘B’, Yorkshire was identified as ‘C’ and Hampshire as ‘AA’. The following number was personal to your address.

However, this system soon began to run out of combinations as the number of cars increased, and by 1932 a new system was introduced. Instead of two letters and four following numbers, three letters and three numbers were used. As you might imagine, this updated and improved system didn’t last long either and a new version was added in the 1950s to expand the options once more. However, it is the license plates from the earlier eras which gain most interest from car collectors and enthusiasts, becoming the most expensive plates to be bought in the UK. The original formatted license number, ‘25 O’, is the most expensive, coming in at a hefty price of £518,480 – it was bought by a car collector who wanted to place the plate on his classic Ferrari 250 GT.

The personalised number plate industry has sky-rocketed in recent years, with lots of car owners opting for the personal touch that your own number plate design can bring your vehicle. For those that this doesn’t appeal to, don’t worry – the number plate system that we currently have in place means that your number plate is truly an original. The system should provide entirely unique number plates until 2099. It’s surprising that not many people know how it works, so here’s a breakdown of the number plate: BD51SMR.

The beginning two letters are your area code, which indicate where the car was originally registered to. BD, for example, means the car was originally registered in an area in Birmingham.

The following two letters indicate the year the car was issued. If the car was issued between March and August in the year, the two digits are the year itself (i.e. ‘12’ would indicate a car issued between March and August 2012). If the car was issued between September and February, 50 is added to the two digits (i.e. our example above was issued between September and February 2001).

The final three letters are randomised – simple.

So, there you have it, a history of the licensed number plate. We’ve come a long way from the simple structures we had over a century ago, creating more complex ways of making sure that we know who’s driving what car. We’ve even taken it one step further when it comes to designing our own unique numbers for our car plates. The future of the licensed number plate is unclear, but what is for sure is that the people devising the first system back in 1903 would never have imagined it would have come so far.

Return to Fun Stuff & News
Return to search

Related articles

New Cars in 2024 – 8 Top Picks

Read More

London to Scotland Road Trip: Drive Between the Capitals

Read More

Planning the Ultimate Snowdonia Road Trip

Read More
My Credit Rating

Excellent

  • You are a home owner
  • You have been on the electoral role for a long period of time
  • You have current credit arrangements and mortgage with no defaults
  • You have no CCJs, credit arrears or missed payments
  • You rarely apply for credit
  • You are employed or self-employed

Good

  • You are on the electoral role
  • You are a home owner or long standing tenant
  • You have a stable employment history
  • You have current credit arrangements with occasional missed payments
  • You have no CCJs

Fair

  • You are or have recently been on the electoral role
  • You may have recently changed address
  • You may have occasional missed payments
  • You may have an old CCJ
  • You may have regularly applied for credit

Poor

  • You may have had frequent changes in address
  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • You may have exceeded credit card limits
  • You may have missed payments on current agreements
  • You may have had a CCJ in the past

Bad

  • You may not be traceable on the voters roll
  • Your credit cards are over their limits
  • You have recent CCJs
  • You may have been refused credit elsewhere
  • You may be in a debt management plan
£

X monthly repayments of
£X

Typical rate

Loan amount

Total payable

X% APR*

£X

£X

*for illustration purposes only

No impact on your credit score*

Representative Example

Borrowing £7,500 at a representative APR of 12.4%, annual interest rate (fixed) 12.36%, 47 monthly payments of £196.44 followed by 1 payment of £206.44 (incl. estimated £10 option to purchase fee), a deposit of £0.00, total cost of credit is £1,939.12, total amount payable is £9,439.12.

Evolution Funding Limited, trading as My Car Credit, is a credit broker and not a lender.

Please ensure you can afford the repayments for the duration of the loan before entering into a credit agreement.

*Initial application is a soft search. Should you progress, some lenders may perform a hard search on your credit file.
Reviews icon
TrustPilot icon

Require more help?

Got a question you can’t find the answer to, or need some advice and guidance around taking out car finance? Our Car Credit Specialists are friendly, experienced, and here to help so get in touch today!

Email
or call 01246 458 810