How long does DVLA take to send a retention cert?

SB118 · 3 May 2018 at 16:02

We're in the middle of buying another car, the wife wants to move her private plate from our current wagon to the new one.

Is is still a paper document or do they email it to you now? I know it happens the moment i process it on the DVLA website, so i need to pay the insurance company an adjustment charge because of the different reg.

Then i have to pay another insurance charge to change the policy to the new van, changing back to the private reg at the same time.

In a perfect world it would be an email and i could do it all at the dealer when i collect the new van and only pay one insurance charge, but it's not going to be that easy is it....

Glanza · 3 May 2018 at 16:06

Less than a week last year when I took mine off.

Hyburnate · 3 May 2018 at 16:14

Pretty sure you can do it all online now?

SB118 · 3 May 2018 at 16:21

Glanza said:
Less than a week last year when I took mine off.

Ideal, cheers.

Hyburnate said:
Pretty sure you can do it all online now?

I can put the plate on retention online, but do they provide an online cert to put the plate on the next vehicle?

azibux1 · 3 May 2018 at 16:43

SB118 said:
Ideal, cheers.

I can put the plate on retention online, but do they provide an online cert to put the plate on the next vehicle?

From memory, I believe they provide a certificate number instantly which is all that you need

SB118 · 3 May 2018 at 17:31

azibux1 said:
From memory, I believe they provide a certificate number instantly which is all that you need

That's good news. Thanks.

IAmATeaf · 3 May 2018 at 18:37

When I swapped out my car the dealer put my plate on retention for me there and then, printed out a confirmation letter and gave it to me, a few days later the certificate arrived through the post. Also if paying an admin fee to change details ask if it can be done as a single change, I told my insurance that I would be swapping to a new car and then I’d be putting my plate back on the new car once I had all the paperwork through and they agreed to only charge me a single admin fee.

SB118 · 4 May 2018 at 09:52

Our insurance company (Admiral) weren't that helpful. £20 now, £20 in a few days, as well as the extra £30 policy cost.

But it's done (and it turns out you DO get the retention code instantly), now we just need for the dealer to ring and we can get rid of this van and get our new one.

Hyburnate · 8 May 2018 at 10:17

SB118 said:
Our insurance company (Admiral) weren't that helpful. £20 now, £20 in a few days, as well as the extra £30 policy cost.

But it's done (and it turns out you DO get the retention code instantly), now we just need for the dealer to ring and we can get rid of this van and get our new one.

Weird Admiral didn't charge me a thing...

SB118 · 9 May 2018 at 12:34

Hyburnate said:
Weird Admiral didn't charge me a thing...

Maybe a different underwriter? Just took another £20 this morning to change the vehicle again.

BigT · 9 May 2018 at 12:40

Done online you can print off instantly a certificate to let you get a plate made up and change the record to/from car and retention certificate. If putting it on a vehicle then you'll get a new V5 in less than a week in the post. I find that it takes up to a month for places using the database to reflect the change (e.g. autotrader, ECP, insurance companies, Dart Charge etc.) I guess they subscribe to periodic updates rather than some sort of live feed.

Hyburnate · 9 May 2018 at 16:08

SB118 said:
Maybe a different underwriter? Just took another £20 this morning to change the vehicle again.

Perhaps. I'm also going back a fair bit

Will Gill · 9 May 2018 at 17:16

SB118 said:
That's good news. Thanks.

Can confirm, it's instant