Does anyone know if its possible to simply give up an NI reg plate and replace it with a mainland one free of charge ? I'm sure I looked into this years ago and if you had purchased a car in Northern Ireland and brought it back to England, you could have the NI registration replaced by DVLA with an age related mainland registration and it was FOC.

I've searched recently and all I can find are reg transfer companies charging £80 to do it (and I believe they retain the NI reg) or I can apply to put my NI plate on retention (£80) and I'll be issued with a mainland one. But I do not want to retain the NI plate, just replace it with a mainland one

Thanks

Possibly...........You could put the NI plate on retention, then give it up, and the £80 would be returned to you.

Might be worth calling the DVLA and ask them

I had a plate on retention (before the recent changes) after several years of paying £25 to update the retention cert, I retuned it to the DVLA and they returned the transfer fee.

New retention certs are valid for 10 years now Regards
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As above - I'd call the DVLA and ask

So the car is a GB car & has had a NI number assigned ? I think worst case, put that number on retention and it will revert to it's original GB registration number. You can probably sell even the most obscure ageless plate for more than £80 anyway and recover your costs.

Or was it originally a NI registered vehicle ?

Thanks for the replies gents. It was originally an NI registered car.

I think you are right, probably best to give DVLA a call - I just hate trying to navigate the "interactive phone system"

Worst case scenario, buy a £250 plate off the DVLA website, assign it to the car online as soon as you have the paperwork through the door. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Depending on what the reg is you could maybe just flog it onto ebay and make a bit more than the retention fee  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
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can't sell it KP, if it is the first reg on the car its the one that it defaults to if you put a private plate on it then put it back on retention IIRC. There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Not the case I found.
Once it goes on retention and your assigned another plate thanone on retention can be moved to another vehicle easily enough  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
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Ah,

I think what happens is that if you have a car which has had a cherished plate on it, and the original plate has been put on retention or another car, then when the cherished plate is taken off the DVLA issue another plate relative to the age of the car. This plate is non transferable. If that makes sense.

its to prevent profiteering.

eg. Say you have an old car - a car from the 50's say - which had the original dateless plate on it, you can retain that original plate and transfer it to another car, the DVLA will then issue a random old plate for the car, as this will also be a dateless plate and have a value you could then put this one on retention and sell it......and so on over again, so the DVLA make the second age relative plate issued fixed to the car until it is scrapped when it goes back into the system IIRC.

so it depends if the plate on the OPs car was its original registration. It will say on the V5 if it is transferable or not. Simples.  There is nothing that can't be fixed with a hammer😜😜
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Yes and no. Even when it says it can't be transferred it says non transferrebalr on the V5c

This is generally on older cars before the 51 plates came out and much more common on muhnolder ones.

There was a big scam that was going on and the loophole was cut. Some ni plates were in the scam but it's all been sorted out with the marker system now  FFRR MY06 facelift With TDV8 Alloys Zeros/ATR's
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out of interest whats the letters on your plate ? 2007 tdv8 se ,stornaway grey