• Submit your bid by indicating your reserve price i.e. the maximum amount that you would be willing to pay for your COE. The minimum reserve price is $1 and subsequent revisions to your bid must be in multiples of $1.
• Your bid cannot be withdrawn or revised downwards once you have made a submission.
• A deposit – $200 for category D (motorcycles) and $10,000 for other categories – will be debited from your bank account once you submit your bid.
• In addition, a $2 administration fee will be charged for the initial bid and for every subsequent revision.
• Unless you’re bidding on behalf of a company or organisation, each applicant is entitled to only one bid per exercise.
• During the interim period following a successful bid but before vehicle registration, your COE is known as a temporary COE (TCOE).
• You cannot hold on to a TCOE for a prolonged period without registering a vehicle. For those who have secured COEs under Categories A, B and D, you’ll have to register a vehicle within 6 months, whereas those who obtained COEs under Categories C and E will need to register a vehicle within 3 months. Otherwise, the TCOE will be cancelled and your bid deposit forfeited.
• Companies are not allowed to transfer their TCOEs, but the option is however available to individuals depending on which category they have bid under. TCOEs in Categories A, B and D are non-transferable, while COEs in Categories C and E can be transferred from the bidder to another individual or a company.
• Except for Category E COEs (i.e. the Open category), prospective car owners may only register vehicles that come under the category of the COE for which they have bid. For example, if you bid for a Category A COE, you may only register a car with an engine capacity of 1,600cc and below.
• Category E COEs may be used to register any type of vehicle. However, at deregistration, the COE rebate amount will be computed based on the QP of either Category E or the category corresponding to your vehicle type depending on whichever is lower. For example, let’s say you obtained a Category E COE for $28,339 during the 1st bidding exercise of April, 2004. For that exercise, the QP for Category A was $26,689. If you had registered a 1,600cc car (i.e. Category A), your COE rebate will be computed based on $26,689 rather than $28,339. (Read more about COE and PARF rebates in the Deregistering Your Car Section.)
• At the point of registration, you’ll need to top up the difference between the QP and your deposit. If your deposit is higher than the QP, the difference will be used to offset the registration fee (RF) and additional registration fee (ARF).
• If you were not successful in your bid, the deposit will be automatically credited back into your bank account one working day after the announcement of the bidding results.

More information and demonstration kits are available on the LTA Website and the ONE.MOTORING Portal.

Keep yourself posted on the current COE Quota Premium during the exercise. During bidding exercises, live COE information is available on the ONE.MOTORING Portal and Teletext.

When the current QP exceeds your reserve price (meaning that you’re out of the running), you might want to consider raising your reserve price. Or you could wait till the next exercise to bid again.

After a bidding exercise ends, you’d naturally be keen to get a confirmation on whether you have secured a COE. You can check for the results via the following channels:

• LTA Open Bidding Website (http://ocoe.lta.gov.sg)
• LTA Open Bidding Phone System (Tel: 6362 1465)
• Citibank Internet Banking (www.citibank.com.sg)
• Citibank Phone Banking (Tel: 1800 – 883 1118)
• OCBC Phone Banking (Tel: 1800 – 363 3333)
• UOB Internet Banking (www.uobgroup.com)

Successful bidders can expect to receive notification letters from the LTA within the week. For those who were unsuccessful, their initial deposits ($200 for motorcycles and $10,000 for others) will be credited back into their accounts.

Do remember to register a vehicle within 6 months if you bid under Categories A, B and D, and within 3 months if you bid under Categories C and D.