The only way to pay DVLA For trade plates is by cheque.
Didn’t know that. I had a set issued to me when I was plating for BCA, which I had to return when agency drivers were dropped, then when I started working for SFS in Westbury, because we often had to take cars onto public roads for various reasons, we logistics drivers were each given a pair of plates: after four years, I was the only driver who still had his own matched pair*. People had a habit of accidentally leaving a plate in a car then a car might be sent to auction with a plate still inside. The site officially closed last Friday; I think there were still half a dozen odd plates left behind by delivery drivers that nobody ever came back for. We did get several new sets of plates, but I had no idea a cheque was required, that explains why it took so long to get new ones.
*I used to put them in my bag and take them home, otherwise people on the opposite shift who mislaid there’s would help themselves to someone else’s, then lose one of those. A source of perpetual frustration.
Oh, and the last time I wrote a cheque has to be over twenty years ago, if not longer – I think I’ve still got a part-used chequebook in a drawer upstairs somewhere.