These terms apply when you use the Great Plates website, place a listing, or buy a plate sold by Great Plates. By using the site you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use the site. Great Plates is part of GreatGroup ("we", "us").

1. What Great Plates is

Great Plates is an advertising site for existing personalised plates in New Zealand and Australia. Owners pay a fee to list their plates, and buyers contact them directly. We are not a party to sales between buyers and owners, we don't act as anyone's agent, and we never hold or pass on payment for plates listed by owners.

Some plates are sold by Great Plates itself. Those are marked "Sold by Great Plates" and can be bought with Buy now or by an offer to us. Section 5 covers them.

We don't create new plate combinations or make replacement plates. For a brand-new combination, go to KiwiPlates in New Zealand or your state's plate agency in Australia.

2. Listing a plate

• The listing fee is NZ$29 (including GST, if any) for one plate, shown until you mark it as sold. Extra plates paid for in the same checkout are NZ$19 each. Premium is an extra NZ$20 per plate and features it at the top of the site for 60 days. Featured until sold is an extra NZ$49 per plate and keeps it at the top of the site until it's marked as sold or removed. A show or novelty plate (an old, cancelled or replica plate that isn't registered and can't legally be used on the road) lists for NZ$14.50 and must include at least one photo of the actual plate. Your listing is published automatically once the fee is paid. The fee isn't refundable once the listing is published, except where the law requires.
• When you list a plate, you confirm that you own it, or are authorised by the owner to sell it, that you can transfer it, and that your listing is accurate.
• We don't check listings before they're published. We may edit or remove any listing that breaks these terms, or that we're told is inaccurate or unlawful, without a refund. We may also remove listings that look abandoned.
• When your plate sells, mark it as sold with the private link we give you after you pay. Sold listings stay up, marked as sold, until we take them down. The sale price and answers you give when you mark it sold are kept private.
• Your listing shows the name, email, phone and region you give us, so buyers can contact you. You're responsible for your dealings with buyers, including the price, payment and transfer.

2A. Show and novelty plates

• A show or novelty plate is an old, cancelled or replica plate that isn't registered and can't legally be fitted to a vehicle on the road. It's sold as a collectable only, for NZ$14.50, and the listing must include at least one photo of the actual plate.
• A plate that is a current personalised or registered plate can't be listed as a show plate. That includes any plate you describe as personalised, registered, road legal, transferable or ready to go on a vehicle. List it as a personalised plate instead. Our site checks show plate descriptions for this and won't publish one that looks like a registered plate.
• If you think our check got it wrong, send your listing to us for review from the Sell page. We'll look at it and reply by email. We may still decline it.
• If you list a show plate, you confirm it's the plate shown in your photos and that you won't describe it as registered or road legal. If you buy one, you agree not to fit it to a vehicle used on the road. Great Plates doesn't check whether any plate is road legal, and we may remove a show plate listing without a refund if it turns out to be a registered plate.

3. Buying from an owner

• Any sale of a listed plate is between you and the owner. Great Plates doesn't guarantee any listing, owner or plate.
• Before you pay, check that the seller is the registered owner of the plate, and agree how the transfer will happen. Our transfer guide and checklist explain the steps.
• Use a payment method that protects you, and be wary of anyone who asks for payment by gift card, crypto or a money transfer app.

4. Plate images and descriptions

Plate images on the site are illustrations, not photos of the physical plate. Styles, colours and fonts may differ from the real plate. Meanings ("reads as") and keywords are suggestions only. Plate rules, such as the number of characters allowed on a motorbike or trailer, are set by the registering authority, and we recommend you check them before you buy.

5. Plates sold by Great Plates

• For plates marked "Sold by Great Plates", we are the seller. You can buy online in New Zealand dollars, or make an offer.
• When you pay, we transfer the plate's entitlement into your name using NZTA's transfer process (or the relevant state's process in Australia). If the transfer can't be completed, you're refunded in full.
• The Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986 apply to these sales as they would to any seller.

6. Seller Studio, plate finder and guides

Seller Studio, the plate finder and our guides are free tools for general information. Plate ideas from the finder may not be available or allowed. Guides are general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Fees and rules change, so check them with the official agency before you rely on them.

You can use the listing copy and graphics Seller Studio makes for your plate to promote it.

7. Plate stories

We only publish a plate story after checking with the person who sent it.

8. Meeting, paying and transferring

• Our Trade safely guide, checklists, meeting-place links, receipts and transfer guides are general information to help you. They aren't legal, financial or professional advice, and they don't make us part of your sale.
• You choose where to meet, how to pay and how to transfer, and you do so at your own risk. We aren't responsible for anything that happens at a meeting, with a payment, or with a transfer between owners.
• Links to other businesses and agencies (such as maps, banks, LicenSys or NZTA) are for convenience. We don't endorse them and aren't responsible for them.
• We don't offer finance, buy now pay later, escrow or payment protection for sales between users.

9. Using the site

Please don't misuse the site. That includes placing false or misleading listings, using listing contact details to send spam, or copying our content or tools for commercial use without permission. To report a listing, contact us.

10. No warranties

We provide the site "as is". To the extent the law allows, we make no promises that owner listings are accurate, that sellers own or can transfer the plates they list, or that the site will always be available or error-free.

11. Limits on our liability

• To the extent the law allows, we aren't liable to anyone for any loss or damage (direct, indirect or consequential, including lost money, profit or opportunity) arising from an owner listing, a sale or attempted sale between users, a meeting, a payment, a transfer, or anything a buyer or owner does or doesn't do.
• If we are found liable to you for anything about an owner listing, our total liability is limited to the listing fees you've paid us in the 12 months before the claim.
• If you use the site in trade (for example as a dealer), you agree that the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 doesn't apply to our listing services to you, and that this is fair and reasonable, as allowed by section 43 of that Act.

12. Your promise to cover us

You agree to indemnify GreatGroup, Great Plates and our people against any claim, loss, cost (including reasonable legal costs) or liability that arises from your listing, your dealings with another user, your breach of these terms or your breach of the law.

13. Disputes between users

If something goes wrong with a sale between users, sort it out directly with the other person, your bank, LicenSys or the police (105, or 111 in an emergency). You release us from claims arising from those disputes. We'll help where we reasonably can, for example by removing a listing.

14. Your consumer rights

Nothing in these terms limits any rights you have that can't be excluded, including under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 and the Fair Trading Act 1986 in New Zealand (for example when you buy a plate sold by Great Plates), or the Australian Consumer Law.

15. Changes and governing law

We may update these terms. The version on this page applies from the date shown above. These terms are governed by the laws of New Zealand, and New Zealand courts have jurisdiction.

16. Contact

Questions about these terms? Contact us.