Day & short-term insurance
Cover sized to the trip, not the year.
Just bought a car, borrowing one, or moving a vehicle home? Enter the reg and we’ll introduce you to named UK short-term providers. Eligibility, price, duration and cover are decided by the provider and its policy terms — not by us.
- Cover durations from 1 to 28 days, where a provider offers them
- Cover level is set by the provider’s policy wording
Introducer only. Expert Car Check is not the insurer or the broker. A third-party provider decides eligibility, price, duration and cover, and arranges any policy. About day insurance.
Evidence inventory
What a report can show
Coverage varies by record type and by vehicle. Anything sourced from a paid register is labelled as such — we never show an unqueried record as clear.
- Outstanding finance
Active hire-purchase or lease agreements recorded against the vehicle.
Paid report - Insurance write-off
Category A, B, S or N entries recorded on MIAFTR by an insurer.
Paid report - Stolen marker
Theft markers held by our contracted UK stolen-vehicle data provider.
Paid report - Mileage anomalies
Every recorded odometer reading plotted for decreases and improbable jumps.
Free summary, full timeline on paid - MOT history
DVSA test results, advisories and failure items with test dates.
Free - Salvage imagery
Auction and salvage photographs where a record exists for the vehicle.
Paid report, where available
Precision lab
See how ExpertCarCheck works
A short walkthrough of the record check and the eight-angle guided camera inspection. The footage is staged to explain the steps — it is not a live scan and not a result for any particular car.
Step 1 of 4Enter the registration
We pull the free DVLA and DVSA identity summary where a record is available, so you start from what is officially recorded rather than the advert.
Step 2 of 4Capture eight guided angles
Front, front-left, left, rear-left, rear, rear-right, right and front-right. A fixed order means two cars can be compared on the same terms.
Step 3 of 4Quality checked before upload
Blur, glare, low resolution and duplicate or incorrect angles trigger a recapture prompt on your device. A weak frame is re-shot, never scored.
Step 4 of 4Review evidence-linked findings
Every finding stays tied to the image and angle it came from. Weak or missing evidence is labelled unassessed, and a saved report is offered only where the product supports it.
Read the transcript
01. Enter the registration. We pull the free DVLA and DVSA identity summary where a record is available, so you start from what is officially recorded rather than the advert.
02. Capture eight guided angles. Front, front-left, left, rear-left, rear, rear-right, right and front-right. A fixed order means two cars can be compared on the same terms.
03. Quality checked before upload. Blur, glare, low resolution and duplicate or incorrect angles trigger a recapture prompt on your device. A weak frame is re-shot, never scored.
04. Review evidence-linked findings. Every finding stays tied to the image and angle it came from. Weak or missing evidence is labelled unassessed, and a saved report is offered only where the product supports it.
Step 1 of 4: Enter the registration. No defect markers on screen.
Chapter and defect summary
A text equivalent of the markers drawn on the film. Choose a finding to highlight it on the film and in the report. Illustrative only — no grade, measurement or repair figure is produced.
Current step
1 of 4 · Enter the registration
The report as it builds
Example only — not a real vehicle result
Each part appears at the point the walkthrough reaches it, so you can see what a finished check contains without starting the film again.
Where a record is available.
Captured 8 / 8
- 1. Front
- 2. Front left
- 3. Left
- 4. Rear left
- 5. Rear
- 6. Rear right
- 7. Right
- 8. Front right
A weak frame prompts a recapture on your device rather than being scored.
Select a finding to light up the same panel on the film above. Each finding stays tied to the image and angle it came from.
Written from the findings shown above. Example only, not a real vehicle result.
The journey
How Expert Car Check works
Find the car, enter the registration, read what the records actually say. The film is staged to explain the steps — it is not a live lookup and not a result for any particular vehicle.
Registration read from the number plate
- 01Find the car and read the plate
Type the registration exactly as it appears on the number plate. Where a record is available, the free DVLA and DVSA identity summary is shown first.
- 02Choose the level of check
A free summary, or a paid report drawing on our contracted UK data provider for outstanding finance, write-off entries, stolen markers and mileage records where those are returned.
- 03Read the report
Each section states what was checked and what was not. Where a source did not respond, the report says so rather than showing it as clear.
DVLA and DVSA summary, where a record is available.
What the paid records check covers, and what it does not.
A worked example built from fictional data.
Illustrative sample layout
See the layout before you pay.
An anonymised illustration of the report layout — not a real vehicle and no registers have been queried. Finance, write-off, mileage and theft fields sit up front, with results shown only where a record exists.
Verdict
Summary of every field checked
Anonymised example · no vehicle queried
- Make
- Sample
- Model
- Sample
- Year
- Sample
- MOT
- Sample
- Outstanding financeContracted UK finance providerShown in report
- Insurance write-offMIAFTR insurer entriesShown in report
- Stolen markerContracted UK stolen-vehicle providerShown in report
- Mileage recordDVSA MOT readingsShown in report
Illustrative layout only · values are placeholders
View the full sample reportOutstanding finance
Checked against records from our contracted data providers. Where a lender holds a marker, the paid report shows it.
Write-off category
A / B / S / N status where an insurer entry exists, with the recorded date shown alongside it.
Mileage anomaly
Recorded MOT readings are plotted. Any decrease or unexplained gap is highlighted with the year it appeared.
Pricing
Pay once. No subscription.
Every tier is a single payment for one vehicle. No subscription, no auto-renewal. Coverage varies by record type.
- Make, model, year, fuel
- Performance, tyres, battery
- Provenance clear/flag summary
- Full DVSA MOT timeline
- Advisory & failure notes
- Stolen-marker check (via contracted UK data provider)
- Taxi & private-hire history check
- Write-off category (A/B/S/N)
- Damage history
- Salvage record
- Everything in Gold
- Estimated trade & retail valuation ranges
- Priority verification
FAQ
Questions people actually ask.
Identity and provenance, outstanding finance, insurance write-off category (A/B/S/N), stolen status against the contracted stolen-vehicle register, mileage anomalies, full MOT history and current market valuation. Data is pulled from DVLA, DVSA, MIAFTR and contracted stolen/finance registers where available.
All four current UK categories — A (scrap only), B (body shell destroyed), S (structurally damaged, repairable) and N (non-structural). We surface the insurer entry date and, where available, the category revision history.
Every recorded odometer reading — MOT test entries and, where available, service records — is plotted against date. Any decrease, unexplained plateau or statistically improbable jump is flagged with the specific year it appeared.
If a report fails to return or is materially incomplete, we refund in full. One-off payments only — there is no subscription to cancel and no card kept on file.
DVLA (identity, tax and MOT status), DVSA (full MOT history), MIAFTR (insurance write-off entries), the contracted stolen-vehicle register (stolen markers) and the major UK finance houses (outstanding finance). Coverage varies by record type — see /data-sources.
Check it before the money moves.
One registration. A free DVLA and DVSA summary, with paid records available where they exist.
Coverage varies by record type. Records are reported as held by the source on the day of the check.