JPJeBid – how to bid on your favorite license plate online, Do it yourself and ignore the runner and his marker

Imagine if you could have exactly what you want and pay half or even a third of the market price for it, it would take you a while to get it, right? Whether you’re going to take a detour on vacation to visit a watch shop or football club store, or even drive to the high end boutiques for that handbag, you’ll do it. Me too.

That’s almost the case when it comes to securing the ideal number plate for your new car. Almost, because unlike the examples above, you don’t even have to leave your couch. License plate bidding is no longer the defense of racers with JPJ eBid, the online bidding platform that anyone can participate in.

JPJ eBid started in April 2019 as a pilot project and the first series of license plates to go online were Putrajaya’s FC. After FC, JPJ eBid was used by the ministry for KL . plates starting with VDN series in June 2019. Now available nationwide.

So, how to bid on a number on JPJ eBid? Hafriz and I have successfully purchased discs using this platform, so join us as we walk you through the steps. The screenshot you see here is Hafriz’s actual bidding process – you’ll see one failed bid and one winning bid.

Register and pay

First, you need to register for JPJ eBid as an individual or a company. Note that the winning bid is not transferable and is tied to the name of the individual or company, so if the new vehicle will be in your name, you should also bid using your own JPJ eBid account – no tumpang but you your friend.

Once your account is up and running, log in (user ID is your IC number or company registration number) and you will be able to see the range of license plates currently available for bidding. These numbers come from all states; with the online system, KL residents can have Perlis license plates, vice versa.

There is no limit to the number of bids you can submit, and if there are two or three concurrent bid series open for bidding, you can enter all of them if you wish. Note that there will be a RM10 non-refundable service fee for each number you are bidding on – think of this as a premium. Once you’re in, you can bid as many times as you want.

Eg. Earlier this month, both VHW and JVG chains have been bid widely at JPJ eBid at the same time. I want to try number 25 and I entered both auctions. I paid RM10 per “room” and it was RM20 in total. Then I can bid my heart’s content for VWH 25 and JVG 25. Win or lose, RM20 is theirs.

While you can bid for any number you want, an individual can only win up to three numbers per series, and each company can win up to five numbers per series. Presumably, this restriction is to prevent license plate resellers and businesses from dominating the auction, giving privates like you and me the opportunity to do it.

A frequently asked question about JPJ eBid is “how to pay”. Of course, you will need a credit or debit card, but it must be a Malaysian-issued card. The RM10 “entrance fee” is a fee directly to the card, while your bid payments are pre-authorization of the full bid amount for each bid. An example of a genuine transaction is when you pay a deposit at a hotel upon check-in – think of it as holding your money, as opposed to taking it for good.

When you increase your bid, another pre-validation transaction (with deposit amount) will be executed. If you win your bid, all trades (initial bid plus all deposits) will be charged to your card. Otherwise, the transactions will be reversed and you won’t see them on your statement. Note that the reversal is not immediate and may take a few days to clear.

Bidding process

So, how much does it cost? There is no limit to how much bids can be raised, but there is a minimum price for each quantity category. JPJ divides numbers into four categories, roughly translated as Gold (Nombor Bernilai Utama), Attractive (Nombor Menarik), Popular (um, Popular) and Common (Biasa).

Base price for top tier Golden numbers (1-10) is RM20,000 and each bid increment is RM1,000, For hot numbers (10-19; 22, 33, 66; 222, 333 , 666; 2222, 3333, 6666) the minimum bid is RM3,000 and each bid increment is RM150.

Popular 2- and 3-digit numbers that aren’t in Hot, 1000/2000/7000 and “nombor kahwin”, such as 3030, 4242, 3003, 4224 – min bid RM800, increments RM40. All other numbers start at RM300 in RM15 increments.

Those bid increments are 5% of the respective base price, but for the last 30 minutes before the bidding period ends – when the actual action takes place – the increments are 10%. This means minimum bid increments of up to RM2,000, RM300, RM80 and RM30 respectively.

For each bid you make, you will receive a confirmation message in your JPJ eBid website/app inbox. Don’t focus on this, though, as it will take your eyes off the ball, so to speak. The last minutes before the bell rang were extremely tense.

Monitor your bid position

While JPJ’s eBid platform gives people the opportunity to buy in person, getting your preferred phone number still takes a bit of dedication, especially if it’s a sought-after number. This is not for the inactive; unless you’re going to gawk everyone with over the norm, you can’t just bid in your own time and pass it. There is some surveillance and combat that must be done.

Normally, the bidding period lasts more than five days, but the “auction room” is fairly quiet until the final hours before closing time on the last day, which is usually at 10pm.

You can bid early, just to see how it’s done. If this bid is defeated, you will be notified via the website/app inbox. Unfortunately, there are no email notifications, so you’ll have to sign in to track your current location. The top three current bids are displayed on your dashboard, so you know how much you need to deposit to beat them.

It was all very simple and orderly, but that was before the fighting began. In the last 30 minutes, as bids roll in, there’s a chance the site will slow down or even crash and the leaderboard update might not catch up.

For a better chance of success, you can place a higher bid that you believe won’t be beaten, but this also means you won’t get the “best value.” Can’t have it all, right?

In the end it depends on how much you want, and also has an element of chance, whether you have good access to the system / pay out in your dying minutes or not. The system isn’t perfect – email notifications are helpful, and those last “blackout” minutes on the site can be frustrating when you’re in a race.

Remember that if it’s a popular number, you’re not the only one with your eyes on it, so go race, but be prepared to lose. Also, while the limit on the number of winning numbers and the non-transferable provision gave us a chance, we were still up against resellers with a lot of knowledge of the inner workings. Maybe they there is jalanmaybe not, but their inventory is huge.

Anyway, win or lose, you will receive an email from JPJ the next day. If your letter begins with sukacitaCongratulations, you are now the owner of the number plate you want.

if you tak puas hati (Okay, out of curiosity), you can check the winning amount. However, the check is only for the numbers you have bid on. You can use this winnings as a personal reference or rough gauge for a particular type of number, for future use, although it is not an exact science and is highly variable. . Hafriz liked his 3118, and out of the three series he was in, the winning bids were RM330 (him), RM560 and RM1,100.

I won, now what?

You won’t know if you won until the next day, when an email will be available gagal in the title or beginning with sukacita dimaklumkan. Attached is a dispatch empowering you with your favorite number, which you need to be registered on a vehicle for 12 months. If there is no subscription during the year, the quantity will be forfeited and no refunds will be issued.

In general, numbers are not transferable, but the JPJ makes an exception for immediate family members – father, mother, husband, wife, siblings, and children. If you want to transfer a number to a family member, you will need to provide proof of your relationship when you register your vehicle. This can be a birth certificate or a marriage certificate. No assignment is allowed to companies, societies and partnerships.

If it is not allowed to transfer, why are there so many people selling license plates around? One method is for them to apply for a bid on a new motorcycle, usually the cheapest kapchai available. Buy a license plate from them and they will do a (legal) license plate exchange between your registered bike and your unregistered refurbished/new vehicle. The license plate you purchase from the reseller will be delivered to your vehicle from their bike, then will receive a new running number.

If you’re buying a new car, simply notify the sales consultant that you’ve got a number plate waiting and give you the winning letter – they’ll do the rest.

That’s it. Not too difficult right? We hope that this simple guide will be helpful. If we missed anything, ask us in the comments section below and we’ll do our best to answer. Good luck and happy bidding!