Free checks cover more than the paid-check industry likes to admit: MOT history, mileage readings, tax status and unfixed safety recalls are all on gov.uk, free, no account needed. What no free check can show is outstanding finance, an insurance write-off or a stolen marker: those live on industry databases that cost money to query. Here's exactly where the free layer stops, and what each tier of paid check actually adds.
What can you actually check for free?
The official record, more or less. The government's MOT history service shows every test since 2005: passes, fails, advisories and the mileage recorded at each one. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) vehicle enquiry service confirms tax and SORN status, MOT expiry, first registration date, engine size and CO₂. And the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) runs a free recall checker for safety recalls that were never fixed. Our own free tools pull the same official data with less form-filling. Most bad cars die right here, for nothing; knowing how to read an MOT history properly does the heavy lifting.
What does a paid check show that free ones don't?
Three flags, and all of them live on private industry databases. Outstanding finance is reported by lenders to a small number of licensed data providers; there's no public register, which is why a seller's unpaid finance can follow the car into your ownership. Insurance write-offs sit on the industry's anti-fraud and theft register, MIAFTR (held since late 2025 on the Navigate data platform run by the Motor Insurers' Bureau), and you can't search it yourself. Stolen markers come from the Police National Computer, which isn't public either; without them, checking a car isn't stolen means verifying its identity the hard way. Querying those databases costs money, so the flags are never genuinely free, whatever a banner ad promises.
What's the logbook-loan trap?
A logbook loan is cash borrowed against a car the borrower already owns, secured with a bill of sale, so the lender owns the car until the final repayment, whatever the V5C says. Sold mid-loan, the debt stays bolted to the car, and the lender can repossess it from the new keeper's driveway. Nothing about the car, the seller or the paperwork gives it away, and no free check will ever surface it: it exists only on the finance databases. It's the single strongest argument for paying for a finance check before serious money changes hands with a private seller.
How do free, £5 and £14.99 checks compare?
Line by line, including where our own product stops:
| What's checked | Free (gov.uk + our tools) | Our £5 report | Our £14.99 full check | £20 premium brands |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MOT history | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tax status | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Outstanding recalls | ✓ (DVSA) | ✗ | ✗ | Varies |
| Full spec | Partial | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mileage record | ✓ raw readings | ✓ plotted, dips flagged | ✓ plus the national register | ✓ |
| Outstanding finance | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Insurance write-off | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ with damage location | ✓ |
| Stolen marker | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Plate changes | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Data guarantee | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
The bottom five rows are the entire case for paying anyone anything. Note the last one, because it is the real difference between our full check and a premium brand, and nobody else will point it out to you.
What a premium check has that we don't
A guarantee. The big names back their data with a payout, often tens of thousands of pounds, if a flag they missed later costs you the car. We query the same finance, write-off and theft registers they do, live, at the moment you run the search, and we pass on exactly what comes back. What we cannot do is insure you against those registers being wrong.
So if you are buying a car worth more than you could stand to lose, the guarantee is worth paying for and we will tell you so. Our full check is for the far more common case: you want the three flags, you want them now, and you would rather pay £14.99 than about £20 for the same registers.
So what should you actually pay for?
Pay in the order the risk arrives. Free checks on everything, because they kill most bad cars in minutes. A £5 report when you are down to a shortlist, because it puts the whole official record on one page: every MOT and advisory, the mileage timeline with dips flagged, tax, full spec, previous keepers, plate and colour changes. Then the £14.99 full check on the car you are actually buying, for the finance, write-off and theft flags that nothing free will ever show you.