If you’re searching on how to get a free vehicle history report, it’s because you understand the importance of knowing the history of a used vehicle before purchasing it. Many deceitful dealerships or private sellers often sell cars without informing buyers of hidden damages from past collisions.
Also, deceitful sellers often don’t disclose issues like the vehicle getting flooded in the past. Another deceitful practice committed by shady sellers is odometer fraud. Odometer fraud is the act of lowering the miles on the vehicle’s odometer in order to increase the vehicle’s value. You can easily avoid problems like these by simply checking the vehicle’s past history before buying it.
Unfortunately, most websites that provide VIN check services such as CarFax and AutoCheck are very expensive.
Don’t worry. You do not have to use those expensive sites. There are plenty of ways of getting a free carfax report, and here are the best ways/websites that will get you a free vehicle history report.
Absolutely free car history report
Getting a completely free VIN check is not that easy, or even possible. This is because gathering and compiling data from multiple sources takes an enormous amount of money, time, and resources.
For example, CARFAX gathers vehicle information from more than 139,000 different sources. These sources range from government agencies such as DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) and local police departments to private companies from all types of sectors involved in the sales or repair of automobiles.
Because of this, it’s not possible or feasible for a company to offer an absolutely free car history report. Some loopholes are discovered once in a while but they get fixed very quickly by the companies who provide those data, so loophole methods aren’t reliable.
Cheap vehicle history report / Car fax discount
For just one report, Carmax charges $40 while Autocheck charges $25. Paying that amount of money for a report of a vehicle that you aren’t even sure you are going to buy does not make any economic sense.
Luckily, it’s not impossible or difficult to obtain a cheap vehicle report from Carfax or other reliable sources. There are plenty of car history report resellers that will give you the same expensive report for an extremely cheaper price.
To obtain this cheap Carfax report, just go to fiverr.com or your Facebook Marketplace and type “Carfax report” and you’ll be able to buy a full report for as low as $2 depending on the seller.
These are the identical report you’d get for $40 from Carfax or Autocheck.
Free car history report
These are some sites that do truly offer free car history reports. Although they are not as good as the paid ones or cheaper ones above, they’ll provide good and important information about any vehicle.
National Insurance Crime Bureau VINCheck
The National Insurance Crime Bureau has a tool that allows users to check if a vehicle has a theft claim to an insurance company and has not been recovered or if the vehicle has a salvaged title. Since most (if not all) insurance companies are members of this organization, they have very accurate data on theft claims and salvaged titles.
Although they don’t provide more data, it doesn’t hurt to freely run your VIN on their page. Visit NICB’s VINCheck at nicb.org/vincheck. The portal only allows you to check five VINs per day.
Vehiclehistory.com
If you need an extensive and detailed report but don’t want to shell out a few pennies for it, then vehiclehistory.com is one of the top websites to use as a free Carfax/Autocheck alternative. This site is independently owned and was established in 2015. The site provides nearly as much information as a paid site. With vehiclehistory.com, you can obtain the following information about a vehicle:
- Detailed Vehicle History – Historical records of the vehicle starting from when it was manufactured.
- Auctions & Incidents – Information from places where the vehicle has been auctioned or data from accidents.
- Historical Sales Listings – Records of vehicle listings for sale along with the number of owners the vehicle has had.
- NHTSA Recalls & Complaints – Govemernts recalls and complains about the vehicle.
- Vehicle Specifications – Information about the vehicle engine and body specifications.
iSeeCars
Another great site to double-check your car’s VIN history is iSeeCars.com. The site has a “Free VIN Check and VIN Decoder” portal that provides historical data for millions of vehicles. The portal checks for important information such as theft, recalls, and last reported mileage. Through the site, you can also check the number of owners and accidents the vehicle has had in the past. It also informs whether the vehicle was ever used for personal or commercial purposes, along with any problems with the title.
CARFAX Car Care
Although it does not provide important data such as an accident or theft reports, Carfax has a free service called Car Care which provides users with the service history of any vehicle. The app/website gives users the location of where the vehicle has been serviced along with its mileage. You can also find out what type of repair the car received from specific shops at a specific time. This app comes in handy for knowing whether previous owners were doing regular maintenance or not on the vehicle. If you have Geico, this service is already integrated with the Geico mobile app.
Is free VIN check info legit?
Paid services are usually more trustable, but if you decide to use the free services instead, make sure to double-check all the information through all the free service sites. Do not just use one. This is because some sites might have some information that the other does not have. Those mentioned above are the best places/methods of getting a free or cheap car report. Other free VIN check sites often have invalid information or require you to give sign up to get a VIN report from them.