Vehicle Registration Plates of New Zealand - Personalised Plates

Personalised Plates

Rights to unique combinations of up to six characters can be purchased from a private company licensed by the New Zealand Transport Agency. The purchaser may acquire any unique combination that falls outside the standard numbering sequences (apart from derogatory, obscene, or intentionally confusing combinations) or standard numbers that have fallen into disuse. New Zealand does not require associating the plate with a vehicle, and allows outright sale rather than just a periodic lease.

Although plate character/number combinations can contain "spaces", they do not form part of the unique identification and are typically not stored (for example, in Police computer-systems). Therefore if a personalised plate such as "I A I" exists an owner cannot purchase a combination such as "IAI", and vice versa.

The most sought-after combinations available as personalised plates (such as "A1" or "AAAAAA") became special "collector plates", with lettering in blue on white. These plates are often offered for sale at a significant premium to standard plates.

As of 2010 prospective buyers can order a personalised set of plates as:

• normal black-and-white plates
• "Fashion" plates (red or blue lettering, blue or black silver fern, flame, flower, rugby or New Zealand logos)
• "Graphic" plates (with a picture either top or bottom)
• Euro-style plates (European style and 520 x 112 mm size, with a graphic either side)
• mini Euro-style plates (440mm x 112mm with a graphic on either the left or right)
• message plates (with a small message above and/or below the license number)
• branded plates (with a car marque such as Audi, VW or Jaguar)