Cheap HPI Check for Cars

So glad I found this thread, bid and won a car on ebay due to collect/pay tomorrow but someone told me to do a check first.

Thanks to this site found ebay the cheapest and done a check, turns out theres outstanding finance on the car so phew a lucky escape.

I wish I had found this thread last year. Bought a car from Fazakerley car sales, it was between a choice of 2 cars and the salesman was gently nudging me into one car over the other one. Didnt help that the missus loved the car he was pushing me into.

As an ex-used car salesman, I should have seen the signs but he was good lol

Anyway, I used the MOT checker and it seems that every year the car has had an MOT, it has had a different Advisory warning attached to it!

Things came to a head last month when it failed the MOT and I decided that it was time to change my car. This MOT site has solidified the fact that I have lost confidence in the car and rarely drive it now!

If I had known about its past, I would have walked away saving myself a LOT of grief.

MAKE SURE YOU DO YOUR HPI AND MOT CHECKS!

Hi,

I was intending on buying a vehicle on sat and I was going to carry out a basic car text check.

The seller has advised that they made they final hpi baloon payment yesterday and it now has no outstanding finance and they can provide a statement confirming this, however the finance company cannot provide this for another 3 working days.

As I have made transport arrangements for Sat, can you please advise me what I can do to ensure that the car is fully clear of finance?

I was thinking of ringing up the finance company and viewing their finance statement?

Is there any kind of declaration I can get the seller to sign to ensure there are no issues afterwards?

I dont see the point in doing say the eBay hpi check at £8.99 as this would show the vehicle has outstanding finance - as I can't imagine that even if the last payment has been made on Thursday the data would be updated so soon?

Thanks in advance

With Autocheck, you can get £6 cashback if you go through TopCashBack. Not sure if there are similar deals for the others.

Thanks for an excellent analysis which has been very helpful-YoungLes
QUOTE=itspirit666;42085166]Here I'm posting a few links I found while browsing the Internet and looking through moneys:beer:avingexpert forum:

1. Firstly, even before buying a car we need to perform a vehicle check. Straight away I need to tell you that there is no such thing as free vehicle check (at least I haven't found one). This services provided online range from a basic text/message report with no guarantee for £4 to all-included report with £30,000 guarantee including cloning cloning for £20.50. Of course, it is possible to pay more for the check, but I have explored only reasonable offers.

To perform a basic check you only need to know vehicle registration number (Reg No), but for the complete you would have to provide vehicle registration number (Reg No), Vehicle Identification Number (VIN/Chassis/Frame No), V5 serial number and issue date (Log Book serial number), Engine Number (Engine No) and mileage.

Firstly, here are two websites with the comparison tables of the most important factors we need to consider when determining the right "HPI vehicle check service" (carcheckdirect .co.uk/ and comparecarchecks .co.uk/). The first one includes sample reports, but both websites are already out-of-date. Although all factors are important, I want to stress the most important differences offered by major companies in their products:
a) Vehicle information Not all companies provide a full report on VIN, engine number, mileage to check `clocking`, colour change, and full history populated with dates when owners sold vehicle. Some reports include full spec of the checked vehicle (CO2, mpg and so on - everything you may find free on the Internet).
b) Finance/lease check This is one of the most important features. It checks if the car is registered to the finance company as the owner might have bought vehicle on finance/lease and there is still outstanding balance. Therefore, finance company could repossess your vehicle if you do not pay outstanding balance which might be £500-£20,000).
c) Police and police interest check Very important! Your vehicle might have been reported as stolen. By the law you cannot buy stolen property even for a genuine reason. Eventually it will be seized by the police and you wouldn't recover a penny.
d) Insurance theft, write-off, accident and scrap check. Also is a very important aspect as in this case vehicle could be recovered by the insurance company should you have bought it without prior check. The report might show that your vehicle could have been write-off, stolen, full-loss or damaged in an accident.
e) Security watch - This register typically records vehicles at high risk of fraud or theft (e.g. hire cars, demonstrator vehicles and garage forecourt stock). The Security Watch register is primarily used by the Police, finance companies and the motor trade, to ensure that these vehicles can be traced if someone steals them or attempts to sell them fraudulently (for example - perhaps without first settling an outstanding agreement). The registering party will be alerted.
f) Guarantee offered by "HPI check" is optional but a must if you want to protect yourself from check errors which might affect your vehicle`s value. For example, if the vehicle is actually stolen or is financed, but report states it not by an error or mistake, the insurance would cover the cost up to £5,000 with RAC and up to £30,000 with HPIcheck, AA and Autotrader for claims made within the next 24 months. If your vehicle is only reduced in value due to an error (say due to not being reported as total loss C or D categories), the insurance would cover 50% of the purchase price or up to £1,000 with RAC whichever is lowest. And 50% or £15,000 with RAC, AA, AutoTrader/vehiclecheck .co.uk. If you want a cover against `cloning` (a "cloned" vehicle being a vehicle that has been stolen and given a false identity, normally that of an identical vehicle), you would have to sign up with hpicheck .co.uk (RAC, AA, AutoTrader/vehiclecheck .co.uk exclude `cloning` from their covers) You would have to pay for vehicle by BACS/cheque even buying from private seller if the vehicle's value is over £3,000 to validate cover!
To validate guarantee (insurance check cover) you would have to input all above information online and cross-check it with the vehicle you intend to buy prior to the vehicle purchase! It is only afterwards you would try to arrange meeting the seller at the registered address. You also would have to obtain a written statement form the private seller which would contain seller`s name and address, basic vehicle information, mileage and price to keep it as a proof of purchase. You will have to submit it later to the vehicle check company when making a claim.
g) And other VIN and engine check, mileage check, number and dates of sales by previous owners, dates of the number plate change, colour change and import/export check, V5 issue date and serial number (to avoid signing fraudulent V5).

General comparison site on most popular HPI services with samples of actual reports:

carcheckdirect .co.uk/ AND comparecarchecks .co.uk/- although both websites are out-of-date.

1. carwebit .com/ = icarcheck .net/ - £5.00 for a check, but no finance infromation is provided nor guarantee.
Sample Report: icarcheck .net/products/sample-reports/sample-report-screen

2. mycarcheck .co.uk/ - £5.00 for a check, but no finance infromation nor guarantee. Even a package for £15.00 doesn't offer finance check.

3. vehiclecheck .co.uk/ = motordatacheck .co.uk = autotrader .co.uk/ - £20.00 for 1 check or £25.00 for 5 checks.
Advantages: finance, police, insurance, export/import, security alert checks, full mileage list and VIN, Engine No, colour, full previous owners history, guarantee cover for £30,000, import/export cover, plus mileage, number of owners cover (not provided by other companies).
Drawbacks: No documentation check (V5 serial number and issue date check against fraud); no cover from `cloning` expensive for 1 purchase.
Sample Report: vehiclecheck .co.uk/VehicleCheck/sample-reports-index.html?persist_affiliateid=101
Data insurance cover: vehiclecheck .co.uk/VehicleCheck2/images/insurance.pdf?popup&persist_affiliateid=132&persist_SubscriberID=101716&AutoLocateID=DEF988544C1D4DD0019F02B0

4. carstatuscheck .com/ = hpicheck .co.uk/ - all-in cover for a price of £20.50 OR 3 for £31.00.
Advantages: `all inclusive` guarantee £30,000 and £15,000 for value reduction cases (for writen-off) plus 7-day car insurance, all checks, security register, write-off, theft, mileage plus 7-day free insurance. The only company that provides cover from `cloning` (RAC, AA, AutoTrader/vehiclecheck .co.uk exclude `cloning` from their covers) You would have to pay for vehicle by BACS/cheque even buying from private seller if the vehicle's value is over £3,000 to validate cover.
Drawback: the most expensive; provides same information as RAC, but has more comprehensive guarantee.
Guarantee terms: carstatuscheck .com/furniture/guarantee.html

5. autocheck .co.uk/ = aacheck .co.uk/ - managed by well-established Experian Ltd £20.00 for single check and £25.00 for 5 checks. Gorie found a discount code to get 5 Checks for £19.99 (instead of £24.99) the code is "S2KUK". (I haven`t checked it). Report layout and guarantee terms&conditions are identical to Autotrader`s package. (Unless I haven`t noticed something)

6. rac .co.uk/products-services/car-data-checks/ - RAC £15.50 for single check or £26.00 for 3 checks. Report lyout is identical to hpicheck .co.uk, but offers less guarantee (£5,000 unlike £30,000 by HPIcheck) and doesn't offer 7-day insurance cover.
Advantages: comprehensive checks , security, insurance, police, salvage, V5 information
Disadvantages: £5,000 guarantee and up to £1,000 `reduction in value cover`.
Guarantee Terms: raccheck .com/consumer/RACtermsSummary.do

7. carwatch-uk .com/ - £3.00 for a text message. Very basic service with no finance check and no guarantee offered.

8. ebay .co.uk/

Ebay offers its own exclusie check underwritten by HPI Ltd with £10,000 guarantee for £6.99 per report or £13.99 for a 3-reports package.
Ebay Sample Report: vehiclestatusreport .co.uk/check/sampleResults.do


To summarise:
1. The most secured one-off check is with HPIckeck, but also is the most expensive £20.50. If you don't think your vehicle is f any interest to criminals (cloning) and car value up to £5,000, go with RAC £15.50. It offers the same report, but with lower guarantee value.
2. autocheck .co.uk/ with code "S2KUK" vs RAC: Autocheck and autotrader offer full mileage list, guarantee similar to HPIcheck £30,000, no cloning cover, no documentation checks (V5 reference check), but the only company offering extended cover against errors in the number of owners, import/export and overclocking and you could perform up to 5 checks for £20.00.
3. Cheap services offer no guarantee and no finance check for £3.00 per check. They are the most useful for mass checks although I would preffer to use autocheck .co.uk/ for £4.00 as it at least offer certain guarantee against errors and mistakes.

Next step is you could check MOT detailed report history available since 2005 to find out what maintenance repairs were carried out.

motinfo .gov.uk/

This is a free website to check any MOT
MOT Status Check Request </span>his service enables you to
1. Confirm that an MOT Certificate is a genuine record of that stored on the MOT Computerisation database
2. Check the status of a vehicle that has undergone a recent MOT Test
3. View the MOT Test history of a vehicle since year 2005.
4. Before you can access the information from the MOT Computerisation database you will need the following:
a) The vehicle registration mark from the number plate
b.1) The MOT test number from the VT20 MOT Test Certificate or VT30 Refusal of an MOT Certificate OR
b.2) The document reference number from the V5C Registration Certificate issued by the DVLA (dvla .gov.uk)

Thank you for reading. All comments would be appreciated.[/QUOTE]