CarCostCheck vs Total Car Check (2026): Full Comparison

Total Car Check and CarCostCheck take very different approaches to pricing. Total Car Check sells three tiers at £1.99, £4.99 and £9.99, each with different coverage. CarCostCheck sells one tier at £4.99 with everything included. For private buyers who want a full car history check, CarCostCheck delivers everything Total Car Check's £9.99 Gold tier includes at half the price, plus analysis extras Total Car Check does not offer at any tier.

At £4.99, CarCostCheck is the only tier in this list that includes both full provenance coverage and analysis extras. Total Car Check Silver at the same £4.99 price does not include the finance or stolen checks; those sit in the £9.99 Gold tier.

What the £1.99 Basic Tier Covers

Total Car Check Basic is the cheapest paid check on the UK market. It is worth understanding exactly what it does and does not include:

Included:

• Make, model, year, fuel type, engine size, colour
• Plate change history
• Colour change history
• Keeper count
• MOT expiry date and tax status

Not included:

• Stolen register check
• Outstanding finance check
• Full write-off category breakdown (Cat A, B, S, N)
• Mileage discrepancy check
• MOT history analysis
• Reliability or running cost data

For the private buyer's main use case — verifying a used car is not stolen, not financed and not a write-off — the £1.99 tier does not do the job. The DVLA's free vehicle enquiry tool covers most of what the £1.99 tier provides, without charging anything.

Gold vs CarCostCheck: The £9.99 vs £4.99 Comparison

The fair head-to-head is Total Car Check Gold at £9.99 vs CarCostCheck at £4.99. Here is how they line up:

Feature	TCC Gold £9.99	CarCostCheck £4.99
Stolen register	✓	✓
Outstanding finance	✓	✓
Write-off Cat A/B/S/N	✓	✓
Mileage discrepancy check	✓	✓
MOT history list	✓	✓
MOT failure categorisation	Not included	✓
Reliability score	Not included	✓
Running cost estimate	Not included	✓
Predicted repair costs	Not included	✓
Free tier with MOT analysis	Not included	✓

For half the price, CarCostCheck matches every core provenance check and includes four additional analysis features Total Car Check does not offer at Gold or any other tier.

Free Tiers

Both providers offer a free option with very different contents:

Total Car Check Free: Basic vehicle details, MOT expiry and tax status. Roughly equivalent to the DVLA's public vehicle enquiry tool. No MOT history analysis, no reliability data, no running costs.

CarCostCheck Free: Full MOT history with failure categorisation, reliability score, insurance group, running cost estimate and predicted repair costs. All without payment. The only things held behind the paywall are the Experian-sourced stolen, finance and write-off checks.

For a buyer evaluating whether a specific car is worth pursuing before paying for a provenance check, CarCostCheck's free tier alone is considerably more useful than anything Total Car Check offers at the free level.

When Total Car Check Suits You

There are narrow situations where Total Car Check may fit:

• You are a high-volume dealer running dozens of checks a month and the bulk subscription pricing brings per-check costs down.
• You genuinely only want a basic details lookup and do not need stolen, finance or write-off data.

For private buyers doing one-off checks on used cars, neither of those situations applies.

Which to Choose

For private buyers wanting a real car history check, CarCostCheck at £4.99 is the stronger choice on every dimension: half the price of Total Car Check Gold, the same core provenance data, plus four analysis features Total Car Check does not offer at any tier. The £1.99 Total Car Check Basic tier is not a serious provenance check — it excludes the stolen, finance and write-off data most private buyers need. The £4.99 Silver tier has the same gap.

The only realistic case for choosing Total Car Check over CarCostCheck is running bulk dealer volumes where the subscription tier economics change the calculation. For every other buyer, CarCostCheck delivers more at less cost.