Hi all,

I've been searching here and found plenty of info on how inter-changable plates work (to save tax and insurance).

However, I'm looking for a bit more info for our specific case.

We're married, we have one car at the moment, looking at buying another. We plan to keep both for the time-being and potentially sell old one (if we don't need both), or get another set of plates (if we go back to the office and both need to commute).

- Our car at the moment is in my wife's name. If we wanted to use inter-changable plates, does the new car also need to be in her name?

- Can cars be registered to a married couple, or only in one name?

- For the inter-changable plates, must the cars be very similar? Our car is a 1.3L petrol hatchback, we're looking to buy a 2.0L diesel SUV.

Thankyou for any help!

The cars don’t need to be similar. You will pay the tax and insurance for the most expensive of the two cars.

I believe the cars need to be registered by the same person in order to have the interchangeable plates.

Thankyou!

With that -- does anyone know if cars can be registered to two people or only one?

Not financial advise but.....women pay lower insurance rates

If you are writing about liability against others, for which you have obligatory insurance, anyone can drive a car, it is a car that is insured.

Just to be clear: interchangable plates mean you can only drive one car at the time... the cars dont sound like terribly expensive to insure and you are two people... doesnt it make sense to register both? The interchangeable plates are mostly used by people for the third car - say a cabriolet for the weekends...

Clear - the intention at the moment is to only use one, as we're fine at the moment with one, will just be an issue if we both need to go to the office (up until now, no need since March 2020).

Collective plates cost a (small, non refundable) yearly surcharge. Changing registration requires new Fahrzeugausweis (grey card), new insurance policy. Each vehicle is on an individual MFK schedule. New registration likely to trigger “invitation” – my summary, not necessarily a valid short term, cheap solution.

Yes.

But registered to != owned by.

Tom

Not in my experience, but I live in Ticino.

Did my last MFK on one of my bikes with shared plates two years ago, five years after the last!

Tom

Only one.

BTW "registered to" does not mean "owned by".

Tom

I've seen you say that several times in the past; not disagreeing with it. So what is the method of demonstrating ownership of a vehicle here? Or is there none? I am used to the system like in California where you register the car but you also have a Title for the vehicle which denotes ownership (might be the bank if you are still paying it off).

None other than a sales receipt, most of which I no longer have.

All our cars, and most of the motorcycles are registered in my name, but all the cars and one motorcycle (normally used by my daughter) are owned and registered in my wife's name.

Tom

Used to be similar around here but since a few years the MFK is as regular as clockwork
No idea about NE but doubt they're as civilized as TI

NE is pretty laid back and civilised, they’re not anal about things like the timing of the expertise.

Glad you corrected that.

Is it me or you who is confused today?

I was as confused as you appear to be by that one.

Just the one motorcycle is registered in her name, sorry, but she owns the cars.

My daughter pays the road taxes and insurance on it, however, as well as on the other one that IS registered and insured in her name.

Tom

P.S. Going away aperativo today, so many glasses of wine later...

I see so you're dizzy out of sheer anticipation which is basically the counterpart of the hangover after.

No, it was at noon, so now I'm coming down before I drive home.

Tom