Checks & reports

1. Enter the car's Irish registration or its VIN, and your email address.
2. Check that the vehicle we show you is the right one before you pay. If its details can't be loaded in time, check the VIN against your vehicle documents instead.
3. Pay by card. Your card is authorised for €12.99, not charged.
4. We ask the manufacturer's dealer network for the car's service records.
5. If records are found, we take the payment, and your report opens on screen and is emailed to you. If none are found, we cancel the authorisation and you pay nothing.

Most reports are ready within one or two minutes. Keep the page open and the report opens by itself when it's ready. We also email you a link to it.

Now and then a manufacturer's system is slow to answer and it takes longer. You can close the page: the email arrives either way.

• Look in your spam or junk folder for an email from hello@findservicehistory.com.
• Check the address you typed at checkout. A small typo there is the most common reason a report goes missing.
• Sign in with the email address you used. Every report you've bought is listed there.

If the page told you something went wrong, nothing has been charged: your card is only authorised until the check finishes. We're alerted automatically, and we'll either finish the check and email your report or cancel the authorisation.

Still nothing after an hour? Contact us with the registration or VIN and the email address you used.

The service records the manufacturer's dealer network holds for the car. Each record shows the date, the odometer reading, the dealer that did the work and what was done.

We don't include NCT results or any other inspection history.

You can also add the factory build sheet for €3.99: the exact paint name and code, interior trim, gearbox and every option the car was built with.

You aren't charged. Your card was only authorised, and we cancel the authorisation as soon as we know there are no records. We email you to confirm.

No records doesn't mean the car was never serviced. It means no main dealer recorded a service with the manufacturer. Work done by independent garages never reaches the manufacturer.

Got the receipts? You can add your own records to the report.

We show what main dealers recorded with the manufacturer. Services at independent garages or fast-fit centres, or done at home, aren't sent to the manufacturer, so they can't appear.

Manufacturers also started keeping digital records at different times, so a car's earliest services can be missing even if a main dealer did them.

If you have the paperwork for a missing service, you can add it yourself.

Dealers type each record into the manufacturer's own system, often in the language of that manufacturer's home network, so a line can arrive in French, German or Italian. We translate records into English automatically.

Occasionally a dealer's code or abbreviation can't be translated. It's then shown exactly as the dealer typed it.

Open your report and use the buttons at the top: Download PDF, Print or Share (email with the PDF attached, WhatsApp, or copy the link).

The link to your report doesn't expire, so you can keep it or send it to someone else.

Before you pay we normally show you the make and model we found, so check they match the car. If that vehicle has no records, you won't have been charged anyway.

If you spot a mistake after paying, contact us straight away with the registration or VIN you entered and the correct one. If your report hasn't been delivered yet, we can usually cancel it without charge.

Identifying a vehicle costs us a lookup with our data provider, so each visitor can look up 2 different vehicles a day before buying. Looking the same vehicle up again doesn't count, and nor does a VIN we can't find.

If you've reached the limit, you can still buy a check on a vehicle you've already looked up, or come back the next day.

Checking cars for a business? A trade account has no daily limit.

The VIN (vehicle identification number) is 17 characters long. It's printed in field E of the Vehicle Registration Certificate, stamped at the base of the windscreen on the driver's side, and often on a label inside the driver's door frame.

A VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q, so a character that looks like one of those is a 1 or a 0.