HPI check alternatives: cheaper history checks, and what they don’t tell you

Why people look for an HPI alternative

Three reasons come up, and they’re all fair:

• Price. £19.99 for the full check, and HPI’s £9.99 Basic leaves out mileage discrepancies and write-off detail and isn’t covered by the guarantee.
• Experience. HPI’s Trustpilot score is 1.4 from 1,297 reviews (26 Aug 2026), with recent complaints about payment problems and support. Its own app hasn’t been updated since 2020.
• The name is the category. “HPI check” is what people call any history check, the way “Hoover” means a vacuum. Plenty of buyers searching for an HPI alternative just want a history check and don’t know there are five.

What to look for in a history check

Every UK history check draws on the same handful of sources: the finance houses’ register, the insurers’ write-off register, the police stolen database, DVLA keeper and plate data, and the DVSA MOT record. What differs is:

• Whether finance is included. It’s the expensive data, so the cheapest tiers often leave it out (Total Car Check’s £3.99 Silver, HPI’s Basic).
• What the guarantee actually covers. Every “£30,000 guarantee” is a schedule with exclusions. Read it.
• Whether you get MOT history, and whether it’s just listed or explained.
• Whether it tells you anything beyond the register — known faults, condition, price.

The alternatives

Side by side

Prices seen 26 Aug 2026 on hpicheck.com, totalcarcheck.co.uk, autotrader.co.uk and rac.co.uk.

What the £30,000 guarantee actually is

Four of the five products above advertise one, and it’s a real thing: if the check said “no finance” and there was finance, you can claim. But read the schedule before you treat it as insurance:

• It is a guarantee of the data, not of the car. Condition, faults and mileage are excluded or capped low (AutoTrader pays £250 for a wrong mileage).
• Cloned cars — a stolen car wearing the identity of a clean one — are excluded by HPI and effectively by all of them, because the register genuinely says the clean car is clean.
• You usually have to register the VIN before purchase, buy from the V5C keeper at the V5C address, and keep a signed receipt.
• Total Car Check’s own guarantee is a fraction of the headline figure; the £30,000 is Experian’s and applies to finance data only.

None of this makes the guarantee worthless. It makes it a narrow thing, and it means “which one has the guarantee” is a weaker way to choose than “which one answers the question I’ve actually got”.

The question none of them answer

Every product above ends the same way. Total Car Check’s sample report finishes with “Your Manual Checks” and tells you to inspect the car yourself. HPI’s buyer’s guide recommends “calling in the experts” at £100–£300. AutoTrader’s report tells you the advert is accurate. None of them says anything like this, which is from the example Decision Report on a diesel Golf:

That’s the gap the Decision Report is for. The history check is in it because you need it. It isn’t the point of it.

Which should you buy?

• Car is on AutoTrader, you just want the register answer: AutoTrader, £5.95.
• Viewing several cars, want the cheapest guaranteed finance check: Total Car Check five-pack.
• Want a big-name guarantee for less than HPI: RAC Full, £14.99.
• Want the HPI name specifically: HPI Full, £19.99. Skip the Basic.
• Deciding whether to buy this car, and what to pay: AutoSpect, £29.99 — or start with the free check and see whether the MOT history alone settles it.

Frequently asked

What is the cheapest alternative to an HPI check?

AutoTrader’s Vehicle Check at £5.95 for cars listed there; otherwise Total Car Check Gold at £9.99, or less each in a five-pack. Both include an outstanding-finance check and a £30,000 data guarantee (prices seen 26 Aug 2026).

Is a Total Car Check as good as an HPI check?

For the register data it draws on the same class of sources, and its Gold tier carries Experian’s £30,000 finance guarantee. Total Car Check’s own guarantee for stolen and write-off data has lower caps than HPI’s. Auto Express has named it best car check five years running, by Total Car Check’s account.

Is there an HPI check alternative that also covers the car’s condition?

AutoSpect’s Decision Report, £29.99 for one car. It includes the finance, write-off, stolen and mileage check, then adds what a history check leaves out: every MOT advisory translated and costed, the faults that engine is known for, a guided walkaround at the car, a Purchase Score and a price to offer. There is no £30,000 data guarantee; there is a full refund if the report is wrong.

How much does AutoSpect cost compared with an HPI check?

AutoSpect is £29.99, against £19.99 for an HPI Full check and £9.99 for the Basic (prices seen 26 Aug 2026). The difference buys the parts of the decision a history check doesn’t cover — condition, known faults and a price — and the free check reads the MOT and DVLA record back before you pay anything.

Does an HPI check tell you if a car is reliable?

No. An HPI check reports what the registers hold — finance, write-off, stolen, mileage, keepers — plus a valuation. It doesn’t cover the car’s condition or the faults its model is known for. HPI’s own buyer’s guide recommends a separate inspection.

Do I need an HPI check if the AutoTrader advert already shows one?

The free five-point flag on every AutoTrader advert covers stolen, scrapped, write-off, import and export but not finance. The £5.95 AutoTrader check adds finance and MOT history with a guarantee, so a separate HPI check is usually unnecessary for a listed car.