Have you ever wondered what are your vehicle registration numbers? If that is the case, then you are at the right place because we are going to cover everything you need to know when it comes to these vehicle registration numbers.
- What Is Registration?
- Types Of Registration
- Registration Numbers
- Are They Important?
- What If You Lost Them?
- Conclusion
Knowing this stuff is important because there are a number of reasons why you are going to need these numbers in your life. So, learning them is key if you want to avoid some situations and have good input on what are these numbers and also where to look for them if you can’t recall them at the moment.
Imagine that you are pulled over by the police and you don’t have your registration papers. Knowing the numbers is going to help you out if you don’t want to get fined in some cases. But even if you don’t have them you can get fined. So, always carry this information with you.
That’s why in this article, we are going to learn what is vehicle registration and what are types of plates that you can get. Then we are going to learn the vehicle registration numbers and see where they are located and how to retrieve them. We will also see why are they important and if you should learn them by heart.
Lastly, we are going to cover what you can do if you lost or forgot your registration numbers and how to get them. So, let’s get into it.
What Is A Vehicle Registration?
Vehicle registration is a mandatory duty for car owners that has to be done to your vehicle every year. In order to put the car on the road, you will need to register it and pay a small fee.
For this purpose, you will need to take your car to the local DMV for inspection. This means that the vehicle has to be thoroughly inspected in order to get a new registration. Without registration, you will not be eligible to drive the car on the roads.
And if you drive a car that hasn’t been registered, you are facing a ton of obstacles. Let’s say that you get pulled over by the police on the highway.
Without registration and insurance on that vehicle, the police officer can fine you and also tow your car to the impound depot. Then in order to get the car back, you will have to pay the fines and also get insurance if you want to get it and make it road legal once again.
Overall, these adventures are probably going to cost you more than a grand for sure. And considering that the vehicle registration is only a small fee. It doesn’t make sense to drive with a car that has expired vehicle registration numbers.
If you have a car like this, go to your local DMV and get a sticker for a year and make your car fully legal. And avoid being fined by the police.
After you register it for the first time, you get new plates. But have you wondered what kind of plates you can get? In the following chapter, we are going to cover precisely that, and that are the types of vehicle registration plates.
Types Of Vehicle Registration Plates?
Before we dive deeper into vehicle registration numbers. Let’s see what are the different types of vehicle registration plates. Knowing these types of plates can often be useful if you want to have something more unique than your standard license plate. Since nobody wants boring stuff and everyone wants to own something more unique for their car.
1. Standard License Plates
The standard license plates as the name implies are standard plates for vehicles. These plates do not have any special marks except the design and the sticker.
They come as standard when you register the vehicle for the first time. They don’t need to be replaced unless there is legislation by the state that will make you replace them with a newer design.
The design of the license plates varies from state to state. Usually, there are designs that are closely connected with the state. For example in Texas you will see a star sign, in Florida license plates you will notice oranges. In California license plates you are going to notice the sun and palms.
There are also slogans that some of the states are using. Let’s say if you drive a Texas-registered car, you will have the slogan “The Lone Star State” since Texas is the only state that has one star on the flag. In New Hampshire, you will notice the slogan “Live Free Or Die”. Which tells quite a lot about the spirit of freedom. Some states do not have these slogans, like California.
But what about the vehicle registration numbers? More on that in a bit after we cover the types of license plates.
2. Temporary Plates
Temporary license plates as their name implies are license plates that last for a limited time. Mostly for about 30 days or less. These plates are made out of paper or cardboard.
They are designed to last for a limited amount of time. And that is until you get your set standard license plates. As we know, standard license plates are not given at the same moment as you register the car for the first time and you need to wait for a limited time to get the regular license plates that your car will have. Along with the sticker that you have to add for the whole year.
But what about vehicle registration numbers? More on that in a bit, let’s first discuss the vanity license plates. There is a lot to cover about these plates.
3. Vanity License Plates
Now let’s discuss vanity plates. So, what are vanity plates? Vanity plates are the most interesting out of the bunch of different types of license plates. Namely, because they give you the ability to customize them any way your want to.
You can change your vehicle registration numbers with a custom phrase of your liking. It’s something similar to choosing a nickname on a public forum. You can basically call your car any way you want. But you need to make sure that this doesn’t overlap with another car in your state.
Usually, about 10% of the license plates in the US are vanity plates. For example, in Virginia, about 16% of the vehicles are running vanity plates. Which is the highest percentage across the country. New Hampshire and Illinois follow with 13% and Nevada and Montana follow them with about 10%. But what is the price for vanity plates?
That depends much on the state that you live in. Some states in the south are pretty liberal when it comes to customizing your license plate. These usually don’t cost more than $50 extra. While some states, often require more money. For the detailed amount how much you have to pay for a vanity plate is best to consult your local DMV. They will give you the right information.
Not to forget that you are not allowed to introduce some phrases. Offensive words are not allowed. Even though there are some loopholes around this, such as if the officials aren’t keenly aware of internet slang and some might get away with it.
4. Specialty License Plates
Specialty plates are another type of license plates that are well available for customizing. These license plates are also great for customizing. There are a ton of different designs that you can choose from.
They will set you far ahead of anything on the road. But what is different from the vanity plates is that you cannot customize the vehicle registration numbers. You are basically limited to the numbers that the licensing agency will give to you.
There are a ton of different logos and designs to choose from. And what is good about these plates is that some of the money that you pay for them goes for a good cause. That is to help the people in need and basically do a good thing.
So, this is the type that you want to get if you want something special and you don’t want a vanity plate. These plates also cost more than regular plates. But still, they are pretty much worth it.
Other Types Of Vehicle Registration Plates
There are other types of license plate numbers that we are going to cover right now in the following chapters. Some of them will interest you since you can add to your classic vehicle if you have one. So, which are these other types of license plates? Let’s see.
5. Dealer Vehicle Registration Plates
Dealer vehicle registration plates are also another cool type of license plates that are worth covering. These registration plates have superpowers.
You can basically slap them to a NASCAR and make the car road legal. Then drive it across the country. But there is a catch, cause in order to drive a car with dealer plates. You have to be a car dealer or an employee in that dealership.
These license plates are usually used by car dealers for moving cars from one place to another without needing a regular registration. A cool type of plates, to be honest. But you will have to be a dealer to have one of these plates.
6. Historic Vehicle Registration Plates
Another cool type of license plates are the historic license plates. But what does historic mean in the first place? Historic license plates are intended for vehicles that are more than 25 years old.
Every vehicle that reaches this age and is not driven a lot can be equipped with these types of license plates. Or else if you still drive the car quite a bit, you will have to equip it with the standard license plates.
I’m saying this because these historic license plates, although quite cheap to purchase. Have some limitations when it comes to the mileage that you can drive. In most cases, you will be limited to 1,000 miles per year. So, if you don’t want these limitations. Going for the standard license plates might be a good idea. But what about the license registration numbers? More on that in a bit.
Other types of license plates might include, diplomatic license plates, government agency license plates, truck license plates, bus license plates, agricultural license plates. There is basically a ton of them. But what about vehicle registration numbers? Well, that’s what we are going to cover next.
What Are Vehicle Registration Numbers?
So, what are the vehicle registration numbers? These numbers are basically your vehicle’s unique identifiers. But wait a minute, what about the VIN number?
The VIN number is also an identifier for your vehicle and a chassis number. There are no two VIN numbers across the world. But what is bad about the VIN numbers is their lack of ability to adapt to different markets and to be used for this purpose.
They are extremely long and not well suited to be used on a license plate. So, countries have to make their own license plates for each of the vehicles that are roaming on the streets.
Registration numbers also are more convenient for the authorities to have a registry of numbers that they understand better and it is far more convenient for them to look for a license plate that has 6 characters than a license plate that will possibly have 15 characters if VIN numbers are used for example.
This greatly aids in identifying different vehicles. There are cars that are participating in crimes. So, it’s much easier for the authorities to get the number of the plates this way.
When it comes to the vehicle registration numbers. They are not actually numbers alone. They are usually a mix of letters and numbers for example A443 – A454. This means that a lot more combinations can be produced this way than going for 123456 numberings. With letters and numbers, the combinations are pretty much infinite and there will basically be no two same license plates.
These vehicle registration numbers are located on the license plate at the rear end of your vehicle. Also, you have them in your registration papers. But more on that in a bit.
Are These Registration Numbers Important?
Yes, they are important quite a bit. These numbers are basically your vehicle identification numbers. Without these numbers, your vehicle would be a ghost car.
If you don’t have vehicle registration numbers on your car, you will get pulled over and fined by the police for not having your vehicle registration numbers on your car.
Also, make sure that you have the front and the rear license plates and registration numbers. Some states do not require them. But some of them do and if you don’t have them. There is a big chance that you will get fined for not having one of the license plates.
Usually, the front ones in some states are not mandatory. While the rear license plates are mandatory in every state across the country.
Usually, the southern states are looser when it comes to having both license plates on your car. Some of them allow only the rear license plate on the vehicle.
So, if you decide to travel across the country and go through different states. Make sure that you have both plates on your car. For a good measure. You don’t know what kind of police officers you will come across.
Some of them will not mind at all while some of them can write you a ticket. To be on the safe side, get both of their plates attached to your car. So, the authorities can inspect the vehicle if you get pulled over and see that you are complying with the law.
Also, not to forget during the night you need to have your rear license plate lights working. This is by law required. If you don’t have your rear end light up, you can also get fined and get a ticket.
Do You Need To Memorize Them?
But do you need to memorize the vehicle registration numbers? It is useful to remember the numbers but it is not required. Some license plates can just be too complex to remember and if you don’t have any need to remember them. You don’t have to.
Depending on where you live, some parking uses the function to pay by phone. So, knowing the vehicle registration numbers can be extra handy and you will be able to type it in a few seconds instead of getting through the documents.
Also, sometimes at the DMV, you might be asked for the numbers of the vehicle registration numbers. So, without checking the information in the documents, you can just write it down.
What If You Lost Your Vehicle Registration Numbers?
Now let’s see what you can do if you have lost the vehicle registration numbers. Let’s say you got stopped by the police. How will you explain to them what is going on? Where to look this time in order to find the vehicle registration numbers and explain the situation?
As we know vehicles’ license plates can fall off or get stolen. You have to be always prepared to explain to the police what is going on. The best way would be to carry the important information with you. And that are the registration papers in order for them to check if this car really belongs to you.
Either way, not a great situation, and a lot of headaches along the way. You will have a lot of explaining to do if you are caught without plates and you haven’t reported them missing to the authorities. Since when these things get missing, you will basically allow someone else to impersonate you and use your license plates while you are left without plates.
In this case, you need to go to your local DMV and report that the plates of your car are missing and based on your registration papers. They will issue you a new set of license plates with different registration numbers. They can’t give you the same numbers since there are already license plates with these vehicle registration numbers and who knows where are they.
Knowing this will make your life easier and you will learn what to do in this specific situation. Also, avoid some other bad situations along the way.
Ways To Get A Vehicle Registration Renewal
There are three different ways that you can use to register a vehicle. You should choose the one that is most convenient to you as an owner. So, what are these ways? Let’s say that you live in Texas. According to their DMV, you have three options. Going in person, registering the vehicle online or via mail.
If you are doing this by mail or online, make sure that you make the request a month prior to the registration period is ended. This will help you not to be left with an unregistered vehicle. Nobody wants that.
That’s why going there in person might be your best bet. Why I’m saying this? This is the case because you will be done in a day and you will get your new registration sticker right away. No waiting is needed. So, if you are that type of person that doesn’t want to wait, this might be the way to go. If else, try the other two methods.
Facts: What is a Vehicle Registration Number and How to Find it
- All states require drivers to register their vehicles to drive legally on the road.
- The government issues a registration certificate to drivers upon registering their vehicles, which includes a vehicle registration number.
- The vehicle registration number is usually the same as the license plate number.
- The vehicle registration number can include a combination of numbers and letters and can be customized in some states.
- The vehicle registration number is not the same as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which is a fixed combination of 17 digits and letters that cannot be changed.
- The Certificate of Title is a document that identifies the vehicle owner and includes the VIN and license plate/vehicle registration number.
- The vehicle registration number can change if you move to another state and apply for new registration.
- To find the vehicle registration number, look for terms like “Registration number,” “Licence plate number,” or “Plate number” in your vehicle documentation.
- It’s important to keep a copy of your registration certificate in case it gets lost or locked in your car.
- Your insurance certificate or card only includes the VIN and not the vehicle registration number.
Conclusion To Vehicle Registration Numbers
In this article, we have covered a lot when it comes to registration numbers. We learned what is a vehicle registration and what are the different types of license plates. As we can recall, there were a couple of types. Standard license plates, temporary license plates, vanity plates and specialty plates. There are also different plates based on the vehicle’s purpose, like dealer plates, historic, etc.
After, we have covered what are vehicle registration numbers. And why they are important. Also if you need to memorize them as well as what to do if you lost the vehicle registration numbers. Lastly, we have covered the ways in which you can renew your license. There are three ways, in person, online, or via mail. And I think in person is the most convenient when it comes to this type of task.
