Evening all,

Just read an interesting post on here about fitting private plates on cars financed on Skoda UK Finance (PCP in my case). I understand Skoda finance charge £50 for the privilege although most folks dont tell them. I have the usual two free services as part of the PCP which has a different agreement ref number to the main finance agreement.  Can a call to the dealer change the registration  on there records or do I need to go direct to Skoda finance?  Don't want to loose the free servicing but dont want to pay £50 for a few finger presses on a keyboard!

I have Cosmetic Insurance (was supposedly free?) And they want £35 to update details. Absolute rip off.

Any comments?

Chris

Hmmm.....I’m waiting on a Karoq, ordered in Mid December, and intend to use the finance offer to gain the service vouchers and discount.....I did mention to the sales at my dealer that I’d be transferring my plate, there was no mention of a £50 charge. However, since then, i’ve had a think about it and changed my plan. I intend to let the dealer register the vehicle with its 19 plate using the Skoda Drive Away Insurance and then pay off the loan and fill the transfer form online at home myself. That way I don’t bother my insurance company with the change (though Aviva don’t charge for plate changes) and I get the new 19 plates* which I’ll need when I do the same again a few years down the line. As for the service vouchers being valid with a plate change, I can’t see that being a problem. As for the cosmetic insurance, yes, £35 is a rip off.......I agreed to wheel insurance so i’ll have to check that before I sign.

 

*I wish I’d saved the original plates from my present vehicle, could have saved me £20 and a bit of hassle. 

Edited 21 February, 20197 yr by Berisford

Maybe they charge £50 to change your details if you change to a private plate after the cars has already been registered. My plate was transferred to my Kodiaq when first registered and I wasn’t charged £50 for the privilege and all my paperwork has my registration details.

I wasn't charged £50 either for registering my new Karoq with my private plate. I transferred my reg from my Octavia which had the old reg re instated. The dealer Mitchell's. even supplied new plates too F.O.C. too rather than put the 2 year old ones back on.

We transferred our private plates from our trade in car to the new car via the dealer and it was first registered with the private plates on PCP no extra charges for us, we did it this way so that we didn't pay for an admin fee by our insurance company, like Keith we were given new plates, 2 sets actually because the first set weren't the European type which we wanted and when they changed them they gave us the other set.

You guys that had the dealer do the changeover, did they still add on the DVLA £80 fee?

yes;  but what they made us do wasn't a straight transfer, it is all online so we applied to take our plate off our old car and then received the new v5 for the old car that we were trading in with the original registration on and DVLA then issued paperwork for our private plate that the dealer then used to register it and buy the tax with.  It took a few days to happen.

My dealer searched through the available registration numbers and found one with close to my initials so I have a personalised 68 plate with no hassle.  Happy Days

Thats what you call a good dealer!

45 minutes ago, womanofkent said:

yes;  but what they made us do wasn't a straight transfer, it is all online so we applied to take our plate off our old car and then received the new v5 for the old car that we were trading in with the original registration on and DVLA then issued paperwork for our private plate that the dealer then used to register it and buy the tax with.  It took a few days to happen.

 

Exactly what I did womanofkent, seemed pretty easy to do tbh 

1 hour ago, Doogle69 said:

My dealer searched through the available registration numbers and found one with close to my initials so I have a personalised 68 plate with no hassle.  Happy Days

Thats what you call a good dealer!

 

I had noticed your plate was similar to your name like you say great dealer, although we had a follow up from our salesman this week as we'd had the car a year and he wanted to check we were still happy with it and had no issues 

I think if the car has already been registered and the finance etc is allotted to that reg number, finance companies can get quite shirty if you don't inform them.

Once had some threatening letters from a finance company when I used their 0% interest offer to buy a car and changed the reg from the one the dealer registered it as. I think they see it as someone trying to pull a fast one.

Our PCP car resulted in a V5 with our name and address so the attaching of a private plate from a retention certificate was pretty straightforward.

 

However, our PCH car is registered to VWFS so we don’t have the V5. I got away with giving the dealer the new private plate on a retention certificate before delivery, but I had to “take it back” and do an online transaction with DVLA to re-assign the reg. to VWFS.

 

I got away without paying extra, but VWFS paperwork that followed clearly shows that VWFS will charge £50 for plate changes.

 

All a bit of a hassle every 3 years, but that’s life.

 

The trick is to ensure you play the game properly so as not to “lose” your cherished plate.

 

Those of us with rented cars must be careful.

 

Long ago I wrote a car off and had to ensure I rescued the private reg. before I gave any documents to the insurance company.

 

ps - today I noticed a car in my street has just returned to a 16 plate ready for trade in for a new 19 plate car.

Thanks for the replies folks.

The process of putting the plate on should be instantaneous from DVLA on line (not forgetting to change the insurance, which doesn't cost me, at the same time). My main concern is  not losing the two free services due to not registering the plate change with Skoda finance. I notice the agreement number for the servicing differs to that for the finance.

I'll ring the dealers service dept on Monday and see what they say. Salesman wasn't very helpful really. May have to bite the bullet and pay the £50?

I've done both PCP (no charge for private plate registration) & PCH (where VWFS DO charge £50 ). The process is quick & straightforward, just a pain having to pay the £50 when on a PCH deal.