▸ Finance & Write-Off · UK Network
cardamagecheck.com takes the forensic route through UK vehicle data. Where a basic check reports a flag, this one reports the flag, the source, the surrounding record and what a careful buyer should do about it next. Find out if a car has damage history before you buy. Insurance write-off records plus AI visual scanning. What follows is the detail behind the lookup — sources, limits and the questions worth asking the seller.
Data sourced from DVLA, MIAFTR, contracted stolen-vehicle data and the UK lender register at lookup time.
Typical lookup completes in under one second from the UK.
Built and supported in the UK as part of the consumer side of the network.
A vehicle can be a 'total loss' to the insurer (the claim was settled as a write-off) without being structurally compromised — typically this happens when the cost to repair exceeds the insured value at the time of the claim. The check returns both the category marker and, where the insurer shared it, the recorded damage type.
Work top-down: outstanding finance first, because it is the only finding that can cost you the car and the money. Then theft and write-off markers, which decide whether the vehicle is legally and commercially what the advert claims. Mileage, plate history and MOT advisories come next — they rarely end a purchase on their own, but together they tell you how honestly the car has been described.
Hire purchase ends with ownership once the final payment clears. PCP leaves a balloon payment that must be settled or refinanced before title passes. Lease and contract hire never confer ownership at all, so a private seller offering a leased vehicle cannot pass good title under any circumstances.
/ Brand consolidation
cardamagecheck.com is now part of Expert Car Check — the consolidated UK vehicle-data platform that several of these older brands have joined. The data sources are unchanged: DVLA's vehicle record, DVSA's MOT history, MIAFTR for write-offs, contracted UK data providers for stolen-vehicle markers and the UK lender register for outstanding finance. The team and the support contact are the same. What's changed is that the work that was previously spread across several smaller brands now sits in one place, which keeps response times tight and the underlying registers maintained against current DVLA schemas. Bookmarks and historic links to cardamagecheck.com continue to resolve here. If you were referred to cardamagecheck.com by a previous report, broker or print listing, this is the right page — there is no further redirect to chase.
Visit expertcarcheck.com →/ Common questions
Bank transfer from your own account to an account in the registered keeper's name, at the address on the V5C. Cash handovers away from the registered address and seller-suggested escrow services are recurring features of vehicle fraud.
V5C doesn't match the DVLA-recorded keeper postcode; seller can't show photo ID matching the V5C name; V5C serial doesn't verify with DVLA; asking price meaningfully below market; insistence on cash and a quick handover off the registered address.
Yes. Cat S and N vehicles typically attract a 20-40% premium loading. The category marker is permanent and declaration is mandatory at every renewal.
Only narrowly, and trade buyers are not protected at all. The statutory protection around hire-purchase title is limited, so it should never be relied on as a substitute for checking before payment.
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One field. A typical lookup completes in under a second, using the same UK vehicle records relied on by trade buyers and insurers.