Car License Number

[nctan]

Hi,
I am thinking of changing my car license number. I already saw a number on the "Strait Time Classified" which I like but does anyone know the procedure for transfer?
I called the guy who is selling the number, but he is unsure about the transfer procedure. Thus I hope someone here who might have done it before could give me some advise.
Any idea about the cost too?
Greatly appreicate.

N C

 

[foxfrc5]

Re: Car License Number

Both cars have to be registered under the same name so most people do a double transfer i.e. usually they transfer the seller's car to the buyer's name, swap the number over to the buyer's car, then transfer the seller's car back to the seller's name, usually all in a day. The seller gets a new number on his car. Transfer fees for the seller's car are applicable both ways so you need to check what that will be. The LTA fee for the number swap is S$1,300.

With a seller's car has a high transfer fee, an alternative is to find a car dealer who has a car on hand with a cheap transfer fee e.g. a 1980s Charade or some such. The dealer would transfer the Charade to the seller's name, do the number swap, then transfer the Charade to the buyer's name and do the number swap to the buyer's car. The fees to the LTA are then S$2,600 since the swap is done twice, but you get to avoid the high transfer fees and the jump in the number of transfers on the seller's car. Bear in mind that the Charade ends up registered to the buyer unless you specify that the dealer has to transfer it back to himself after the number swapping is done. I think most dealers will charge circa S$4,000 for this service since it's quite a hassle.

Of course, in some instances, the plates have already been retained by dealers and can be transferred to you fairly easily (total cost is one LTA fee of S$1,300 plus the cost of the plate). This seems to be mainly for plates where the car has been deregistered or exported, though I could be wrong.

Good luck.