Short answer: HPI, AA, RAC, Green Flag, MyCarCheck, and CarCostCheck all pull vehicle provenance data from the same source: Experian's national vehicle database. The "HPI Check" is not a unique product. It is Experian data sold under a premium brand name at a premium price. You can get identical information for a fraction of the cost.
This is the single most important thing to understand about the UK car check industry. Once you know it, the pricing differences between providers stop making sense, and you can make a much more informed decision about where to spend your money.
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How the UK Vehicle Check Industry Actually Works
Experian is one of the UK's three major credit reference agencies. Most people know them for credit scores, but they also operate the largest vehicle data platform in the country. This platform aggregates information from multiple sources:
- Police National Computer (PNC): Stolen vehicle records from every UK police force.
- MIAFTR (Motor Insurance Anti-Fraud and Theft Register): Insurance write-off records, including Category A, B, N, and S classifications.
- Finance companies: Outstanding hire purchase, PCP, and lease agreements registered against vehicles.
- DVLA: Registration details, keeper history, plate changes, and colour changes.
- VCAR (Vehicle Condition Alert Register): Condition alerts from salvage companies.
When you buy a "car check" from any provider, what actually happens is this: the provider sends your registration plate to Experian's API, Experian queries their database, and the results are returned. The provider then formats these results into a report and charges you whatever they think the market will bear.
The data is identical. The queries are identical. The only things that differ are price, presentation, and any additional analysis layered on top.
The HPI Brand Premium
HPI (Hire Purchase Information) was founded in 1938 and has been checking vehicles for longer than most other providers have existed. That history has created enormous brand recognition. "HPI check" has become a generic term, like "Hoover" for vacuum cleaners. When someone says "has it been HPI checked?", they usually mean "has it had any vehicle check at all?"
HPI leverages this brand dominance to charge £19.99 for a check that queries the same Experian database everyone else uses. Their report includes stolen status, finance, write-off history, mileage, keeper count, and a "HPI Clear" certificate. The certificate is their key differentiator: it comes with a £30,000 guarantee if the data turns out to be wrong.
That guarantee sounds impressive, but read the terms carefully. It only covers errors in the data Experian provided, which is extremely rare. It does not cover situations where finance was not registered with Experian, or where a car was stolen after the check was run. In practice, claims against this guarantee are vanishingly uncommon.
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What Every Provider Actually Charges for the Same Data
| Provider | Data Source | Price | Additional Features |
|---|---|---|---|
| HPI | Experian | £19.99 | £30,000 guarantee, HPI Clear certificate |
| AA Car Check | Experian | £9.99-19.99 | AA branding, bundled with membership offers |
| RAC Car Passport | Experian | £9.99-14.99 | RAC branding, valuation estimate |
| Green Flag | Experian | £9.99 | Green Flag branding |
| MyCarCheck | Experian | £4.99 | Basic report formatting |
| CheckCarDetails | Experian | £10.99 (full) | Tiered pricing, basic tier £3.99 |
| CarCostCheck | Experian + DVLA + MOT | £4.99 | Full MOT history, reliability score, running costs, repair predictions, vehicle lifespan |
Look at that table. Every single provider in the left column queries the same Experian database. The price difference between the cheapest (£4.99) and most expensive (£19.99) is 300%. The underlying data is identical.
CarCostCheck is the only provider on this list that adds genuinely different data on top of the Experian check. By combining Experian provenance data with DVLA registration data and the full MOT testing history from DVSA, CarCostCheck can calculate reliability scores, predict repair costs, estimate running costs, and assess vehicle lifespan. None of the other providers do this, regardless of price.
Why This Matters When Buying a Used Car
Understanding that the data is the same empowers you to make a rational decision about where to spend your money. The question is not "which provider has the best data?" because they all have the same data. The question is "which provider gives me the most useful output for the lowest price?"
A provenance check tells you whether a car is safe to buy. That is table stakes. What it does not tell you is whether the car is a good buy. For that, you need running cost analysis, reliability data, and repair predictions. That is where the real value lies, and it is where CarCostCheck differentiates itself.
Next time someone tells you a car has been "HPI checked", remember: that means it has been checked against Experian's database. The same database you can query for £4.99. The HPI name on the report does not make the data more accurate, more complete, or more trustworthy. It just makes it more expensive.
The Bottom Line
The UK car check industry has operated on brand premium pricing for decades. HPI built a monopoly on trust, and other providers positioned themselves as slightly cheaper alternatives. But the fundamental economics have not changed: everyone queries the same database, and the data costs the same to access.
CarCostCheck passes that cost saving directly to buyers. £4.99 for the full Experian provenance check, plus a suite of analytics that go beyond what any other provider offers. The free tier alone, which includes full MOT history, mileage verification, reliability scoring, and running cost projections, delivers more actionable information than most paid services.
Now you know the industry's biggest open secret. Use that knowledge wisely.
What Makes CarCostCheck Different
CarCostCheck is not just a cheaper alternative. It is a fundamentally better product that costs 75% less. Here is what you get that HPI and most other services do not offer at any price:
- Real-time market valuation from £2.99, powered by over 650,000 live UK dealer listings. See what this car is actually worth in your area, how quickly similar cars sell, and how the price compares nationally.
- Estimated vehicle lifespan: AI analysis of over 100 million data points predicts how many years the car has left and the probability of it being on the road in 12 months.
- Insurance costs by age: Estimated annual premiums for drivers aged 20, 30, 40, and 50.
- Running cost breakdown: Annual fuel, road tax, MOT, predicted repairs, and total cost per month for this specific car.
- Health score (0-100): A single number summarising overall vehicle condition based on MOT history, advisory patterns, and mileage consistency.
- 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 anything.
The premium check (£4.99) uses the same Experian database as HPI, AA, and RAC for identical stolen, finance, and write-off data. The complete bundle (history + valuation) is £6.99, still 65% cheaper than HPI alone.
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