| Provider | Price | Stolen | Finance | Write-off | MOT History | Running Costs | Reliability Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CarVertical | £33.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| HPI | £19.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AA Car Check | £9.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| RAC Car Passport | £9.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Total Car Check (Gold) | £9.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| MyCarCheck | £4.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| CarCostCheck | £4.99 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Total Car Check (Basic) | £1.99 | ✗ | ✗ | Limited | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| CarCostCheck (Free) | Free | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Car Checks
Cheapest HPI Check UK 2026: Every Provider Compared
CarCostCheck at £4.99 is the cheapest comprehensive HPI-style check in the UK: full finance, stolen and write-off data plus MOT history, running costs and reliability scoring. We compare it against HPI, AA, RAC, CarVertical, MyCarCheck and Total Car Check with verified 2026 pricing.
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Last updated June 2026. All prices verified against each provider's live pricing in June 2026.
Short answer: You do not need to spend £19.99 on a car history check. In 2026, multiple providers offer the same core stolen, finance, and write-off data for a fraction of the price. CarCostCheck at £4.99 offers the best overall value, combining Experian-sourced provenance checks with free MOT analysis, running costs, and reliability scoring that most competitors charge extra for or do not include at all. Ignore the new wave of "sub-£1" checkers that appeared in 2026 (more on those below): at that price they cannot include the finance, stolen, and write-off data that actually protects you.
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The Full Price Comparison
Here is what every major UK car check provider charges in 2026, along with what you actually get at each price point:
The pattern is clear. Most providers charge between £9.99 and £33.99 for essentially the same Experian data: stolen, finance, and write-off checks. None of them include MOT history analysis, running cost breakdowns, or reliability scoring. CarCostCheck is the only service at £4.99 that bundles provenance checks with practical ownership data.
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Data from DVSA and DVLA. Used by thousands of UK car buyers.
What the Budget Options Actually Include
Let's be specific about what you get at each tier, because the marketing can be misleading.
Total Car Check at £1.99: This is their "Basic" report. It includes vehicle details (make, model, colour, engine size), keeper count, scrapped status, and a basic MOT due date. It does not check for outstanding finance, stolen status, or detailed write-off categories. If you are buying a used car from a private seller, this level of check is not sufficient.
MyCarCheck at £4.99: A solid mid-range option. It covers stolen, finance, write-off (with category detail), mileage anomaly flagging, and plate changes. It does not analyse MOT history or provide running cost estimates. Good for provenance, but you will need to check MOT history separately on the DVSA website yourself.
CarCostCheck at £4.99: The premium report matches MyCarCheck on provenance (stolen, finance, write-off, VIN, keepers) and then adds everything from the free tier: full MOT analysis, repair cost predictions, reliability scoring, fuel and tax costs, insurance group data, DVSA recall checks, and common faults. It is the only service at this price that gives you both the "is this car safe to buy?" checks and the "will this car cost me a fortune to run?" analysis in one report.
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What About the New "Sub-£1" Credit Checkers?
In 2026 a cluster of new sites started advertising car checks for as little as 20p to 30p per lookup, usually sold as bundles of "credits." On price alone they look unbeatable. The catch is what that money actually buys.
The finance, stolen, and write-off data that matters when you are buying a used car comes from Experian, and providers pay a real per-lookup fee to access it. No one can sell you that data for 30p. So the sub-£1 checkers are almost always pulling free or near-free DVLA and DVSA data only: make and model, colour, tax status, basic MOT dates. That is information you can already get for nothing on the official GOV.UK vehicle enquiry service.
In other words, a 30p check is not a cheaper version of a £4.99 provenance check. It is a different, much thinner product that skips exactly the checks you are paying to get. If a car has outstanding finance or has been written off and rebuilt, a sub-£1 checker will not tell you. CarCostCheck at £4.99 remains the cheapest report that includes the full Experian provenance set plus MOT, running cost, and reliability analysis in one place.
Why Are Some Providers So Much More Expensive?
The honest answer is brand positioning. HPI at £19.99 and CarVertical at £33.99 are not accessing better data than providers charging £4.99. They all query the same Experian databases for UK vehicle history. The price difference comes down to marketing spend, brand recognition, and what the market will bear.
CarVertical does have one genuine differentiator: European vehicle history for imported cars. If you are looking at a car that was originally registered in Germany, France, or another EU country, CarVertical can sometimes pull cross-border history that UK-only providers cannot. For a standard UK-registered car, that feature is irrelevant, making it hard to justify the £33.99 price tag.
HPI trades on its guarantee and its name. The HPI brand has been around since 1938, and many buyers still assume "HPI check" is a specific product rather than a generic term. Dealers and sellers sometimes specify an "HPI check" without realising that other providers offer the same data.
The Best Strategy for Used Car Buyers
Here is what we recommend if you are buying a used car in 2026:
- Start with a free check. Enter the reg plate on CarCostCheck and review the MOT history, reliability score, and running costs. This alone will tell you whether the car is worth pursuing further.
- Run the premium check before committing. If the free check looks good, the £4.99 premium report will confirm whether the car has finance, has been stolen, or has been written off. Combined with the free data, this gives you a more complete picture than any single competitor report.
- Check for recalls. The free CarCostCheck report includes DVSA recall data. Make sure any outstanding recalls have been addressed.
- Use the running cost data to negotiate. If the car has a history of expensive advisories or sits in a high insurance group, that is leverage in a price negotiation. Paid services that only show provenance data do not give you this.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Makes CarCostCheck Different
CarCostCheck is not just a cheaper version of HPI. It is a fundamentally better product that happens to cost 75% less. Here is what you get that HPI does not offer at any price:
- Real-time market valuation from £2.99, powered by over 650,000 live UK dealer listings. See what your car is actually worth in your local area, how quickly similar cars sell, and how the price compares nationally.
- Estimated vehicle lifespan: Our AI model analyses over 100 million data points to predict how many years the car has left and the probability of it being on the road in 12 months.
- Insurance costs by age: See estimated annual premiums for drivers aged 20, 30, 40, and 50. Budget before you buy.
- Running cost breakdown: Annual fuel, road tax, MOT, predicted repairs, and total cost per month. All calculated for this specific car.
- Health score (0-100): A single number that tells you the overall condition of the vehicle based on MOT history, advisory patterns, mileage consistency, and maintenance trends.
- Common faults: Known issues for this exact make and model, drawn from real MOT failure data across thousands of vehicles.
- 12 free checks: Full MOT history, mileage verification, reliability score, running costs, fuel costs, insurance group, red flag alerts, common faults, recall check, ULEZ compliance, and more. All before you pay a penny.
The premium history check (£4.99) uses the same Experian database as HPI, AA, and RAC. You get identical stolen, finance, and write-off data. The complete bundle (history + valuation) is £6.99, still 65% cheaper than HPI's basic check.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest HPI-style check in the UK?
The cheapest comprehensive car history check in the UK is CarCostCheck at £4.99 for the premium tier. This includes stolen, finance, and write-off checks plus MOT history analysis, running costs, and reliability scoring. For basic checks only, Total Car Check offers a limited report from £1.99, but this excludes finance and write-off data.
Do all car check providers use the same data?
Most UK car check providers pull from the same core databases: Experian (for stolen, finance, and write-off data), DVSA (for MOT history), and DVLA (for vehicle details). The main differences are how much they charge, how they present the data, and what additional analysis or features they include on top of the raw database results.
Is a £1.99 car check worth it?
Budget checks at the £1.99 price point typically only include basic vehicle details, keeper count, and possibly a scrapped marker. They do not include the checks most buyers actually need: outstanding finance, stolen status, and insurance write-off history. For those, expect to pay at least £3.99 to £4.99 depending on the provider.
Should I pay more for HPI specifically?
There is no data advantage to paying £19.99 for an HPI-branded check. The stolen, finance, and write-off data comes from the same Experian database used by providers charging £4.99 to £9.99. HPI's main selling point is brand recognition and its guarantee, but cheaper services offer similar or broader data coverage.
Are the new sub-£1 car check sites any good?
The 20p to 30p checks that appeared in 2026 are almost always DVLA and DVSA data only: make, model, colour, tax status, and basic MOT dates, which you can already get free on GOV.UK. They do not include the Experian finance, stolen, and write-off checks, because no provider can supply that data at sub-£1 prices. For a genuine provenance check, CarCostCheck at £4.99 is the cheapest report that includes the full finance, stolen, and write-off data plus MOT, running cost, and reliability analysis.
Explore Car Data by Make
Find your car's true running costs
Enter any reg plate for a free MOT history, mileage check, health score, and running costs. No signup needed.
Used by thousands of UK car buyers. Data from DVSA and DVLA.
Example report preview
2019 Ford Fiesta
1.0 EcoBoost, Petrol, Manual
82
Grade A
£2,450
per year
Pass
MOT status
42k
Mileage
Fuel£1,180Tax£165Insurance£680Repairs£425
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