Find finance, stolen and write-off risk before you pay

The three things that cost you money after you've paid

Everything in the free and Basic reports tells you about the car. The Comprehensive report tells you about the claims other people have on it, and that's a different kind of risk: it doesn't show up on a test drive, and it doesn't go away when you get the keys.

Outstanding finance. If a car is still on a finance agreement, the finance company has an interest in it that the seller can't simply transfer to you. The law is kinder to private buyers than most pages suggest — Part III of the Hire Purchase Act 1964 can protect a private buyer who bought in good faith — but protection you have to argue for is not the same as a problem you never had. A trade buyer gets no such protection at all.

Stolen markers. You can't query the Police National Computer yourself. If a car is recorded as stolen, the outcome isn't a negotiation: it goes back to its owner, and your recourse is against a seller who is unlikely to be findable.

Write-off history. A category marker doesn't automatically mean a bad car — plenty of Cat N vehicles are repaired properly and driven for years. It does mean the price should reflect it, and that you should know before you agree a number rather than after. This is also the detail most likely to be missing from a private advert.

Use Comprehensive at the point where being wrong gets expensive: before a deposit, with a private seller, on anything high-value, or on any car whose history you can't account for.

• Outstanding finance on a car
• How to check if a car is stolen
• Insurance write-off categories explained