How to get a free carVertical report

Checking a car's history online is a proven way to avoid vehicles with fake mileage and hidden damage. It's no secret that a carVertical history report costs money, but there are ways to get it for free.

In this article, we'll explain how to get a free carVertical report and mitigate the risk of getting a bad deal.

What is a carVertical car history report?

A carVertical car history report is a collection of historical records about a used car, helping you decide if it's a good deal. All you need is the vehicle registration mark or VIN to generate a carVertical vehicle history report, which can reveal mileage discrepancies, previous accidents, theft markers, ownership changes, and other valuable information.

Whether you get a free carVertical vehicle history report from the private seller (or dealership) or buy it yourself, a carVertical check gives you an overview of the vehicle's past, drawing on 1,000+ data sources across 45 countries. Reports typically generate in about 40 seconds and present findings with visual timelines and plain-language explanations, so you don't need to be a car expert to make sense of them.

Check out our sample report for more details.

How to get a free car history report from carVertical

There are three realistic routes to a free carVertical check, and each one depends on someone else paying for the report first. Here's how to spot them when you're hunting for a free carVertical report.

1. Get a free carVertical report from the seller

Since car history reports have become increasingly popular in the last decade, many sellers provide free carVertical reports to prove their honesty. This may be mentioned in the ad to create a sense of trust and attract more potential buyers. However, even if a report isn't provided, you can ask the seller for it directly.

A word of caution, though: if a "seller" insists you pay for a "carVertical" report through a link they send you, treat it as a red flag. Criminals build copycat sites to harvest payment details. Legitimate reports come from carvertical.com directly, so generate the check yourself rather than following an unfamiliar link.

2. Buy from our partner dealerships to get a free carVertical report

carVertical partner dealerships take the quality of their cars seriously and provide buyers with a free carVertical report to enhance transparency.

These dealers typically have carVertical flags or other brand material on their premises, signifying a partnership with our company. All the cars they sell are accompanied by a free car history report, so you can effortlessly check the history of multiple cars.

3. Look for carVertical badges and integrations in online marketplaces and classified ad websites

When browsing online car marketplaces and classified ad portals, look for the carVertical logo in the ad because it indicates our partners. When buying a car from these dealers, you'll get a free carVertical report beforehand to see its historical records.

What if none of these options work?

In most cases, you won't get a free report: the seller doesn't offer one, the dealership isn't a partner, and the listing doesn't have a carVertical badge. That's the reality for most buyers.

Your best free starting point in the UK is the GOV.UK MOT history checker. It's free, needs no registration, and a number plate is all you need to pull up every MOT result, the mileage recorded at each test, and any advisories. That alone can tell you if the car matches its basic listing description.

But the MOT checker has clear blind spots. It won't show outstanding finance, insurance write-offs (Cat A, B, S or N), theft markers, clocking likelihood, or cross-border history. That's what a paid report is for – revealing the history that doesn't show up in a free check.

How does a carVertical vehicle history report help when buying a used car?

A carVertical report can help you decide if the car is worth the asking price. Classified ad websites are full of vehicles with questionable history records, making it hard to find a model in good condition.

Instead of wasting time and meeting every seller in person, you can check the vehicle registration mark or VIN number of all the cars you're interested in and decide whether they meet your criteria. If a vehicle has a clean history, you can arrange a test drive with the seller and see the car in person.

In a carVertical history report, you can discover:

• Mileage discrepancies
• Previous damages
• Theft records
• Changes of ownership
• Photos
• Technical specifications
• Commercial-use history (taxi, rental, or fleet use)
• Estimated market price, and more

A history report can also help you verify the information in a car ad. If the seller claims that the car has 100,000 miles on the odometer, but the report says that the mileage was clocked, you can walk away or negotiate a lower price.

It's normal for a car to suffer damage every few years. However, knowing the damage value the vehicle has experienced can help you make a decision. Nobody wants a car that has been in a severe accident, which may also be unsafe to drive and require extensive repairs in the long run.

Even if you can't get a vehicle history report for free, its price is only a fraction of the potential financial losses you may suffer after buying a lemon. Nobody wants to overpay for a vehicle with fake mileage or visit a mechanic to fix hidden damages that may have been exposed by a simple VIN number check or registration mark check.

Is there a free alternative to carVertical?

Is carVertical free, or perhaps an alternative that does the same job? Honestly, no. Free checks give you part of the picture, but they can never give you all the information.

The carVertical free VIN decoder returns a basic run through the facts, including make, model, year, engine details, and a VIN breakdown. The GOV.UK MOT history checker (also free) can show pass/fail results, mileage at each test and any advisories. While both are useful starting points, neither covers mileage-fraud analysis, outstanding finance, write-off categories, theft markers or cross-border history.

There's no carVertical free trial of the report, either, because the data behind it costs money to access. A paid report is the only way to see the complete background of a used car.

Among the options often pitched as a carVertical free alternative, none have replicated the same depth of data. carVertical pulls from 1,000+ international sources across 45 countries, which can be extremely useful for imported vehicles with European or Japanese history. Reports are laid out with clear, visual timelines and colour-coded alerts, with findings are explained in plain language, so you don't need a mechanic's vocabulary to make sense of them.