REVS check Australia: finance owing, stolen and written-off, from $12.95

REVS stood for the Register of Encumbered Vehicles. Each state ran its own version, and buyers used it to find out whether a car still had finance owing. In January 2012 those state registers were replaced by the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR), one national register run by the Australian Government.

The name stuck. People still say "REVS check", and many websites still sell one, but every REVS check in Australia today is a search of the PPSR. There is no separate REVS database left to search. What you get back is a PPSR certificate, and the certificate is the same whoever orders it.

A PPSR vehicle certificate shows security interests registered over the car, which usually means a lender is still owed money. It also carries a block of NEVDIS data: stolen status, written-off status and the registration details held against the VIN.

• Security interests (finance owing) and the secured party named on each one
• Stolen status from NEVDIS (Tasmanian stolen records are not supplied)
• Written-off status, statutory or repairable, with the damage codes
• Registration plate, state, expiry, make, model and colour held against the VIN
• A 16-digit search number you can use to retrieve the certificate free from the PPSR at any time

You need either the number plate and its state, or the VIN. The plate is on every ad. The VIN is on the compliance plate, the driver's door jamb and the registration papers. Either way the search takes about a minute and you confirm the car before paying.

1. Enter the number plate and the state it is registered in, or the 17-character VIN from the compliance plate or rego papers.
2. Confirm the car. We look up the plate and show you the make, model and year before you pay anything.
3. Choose the certificate alone ($12.95) or the car check report ($27.95), then pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay.
4. Your report page opens straight away and the certificate PDF is emailed to you, usually within two minutes.

If you have the VIN, you can search the PPSR yourself for $2.00 at ppsr.gov.au. That is the cheapest REVS check there is, and we say so on every page. The catch is that the PPSR cannot be searched by number plate. Most online ads only show the rego, and only Victoria prints a full VIN on its free rego check.

The certificate is also written for lenders, not buyers. It confirms a security interest exists but never shows how much is owing. It prints write-off damage codes without explaining them. Our report adds the plate lookup, a plain-English verdict, decoded codes on the report tier, and a free re-run if you mistype.

Because the PPSR is national, one REVS check covers a car registered in any state or territory. Two things still differ by state. The first is the free rego check: Victoria prints the full VIN, Queensland often does, and Tasmania, the ACT and the NT print none. The second is what a repairable write-off must pass before it can be re-registered. That is an inspection in most states, and in NSW it is almost never allowed at all.

The state pages below cover both, along with the free check link for that state. If the ad shows a plate from one state and the car is parked in another, search the plate under the state printed on it.

Here is the honest order of options. The PPSR search at ppsr.gov.au costs $2.00 and needs a VIN. Budget Direct gives away a PPSR certificate, limited to two per mobile number, in exchange for marketing consent. After that comes our $12.95 certificate, which adds the plate lookup, a verdict page and the guarantees.

Be careful with very low advertised prices. Some sites quote one figure on the homepage and a higher one at checkout. Others sell a cheap first report that quietly becomes a monthly charge. Our price is the price, with the $2.00 government fee itemised, and there are no subscriptions or trials.

Whichever option you choose, the certificate is the same document. Pay for the service around it only if you need the plate lookup, the explanation or the re-run guarantee.

• How much is owing. The register records that an interest exists, not the balance. Ask the seller for a payout letter from the lender.
• Who owns the car or how many owners it has had. Only Service NSW and VicRoads sell owner-count reports, and only for their own state.
• Accident repairs that were never claimed on insurance, service history or odometer tampering.
• Whether a Tasmanian car is stolen. Tasmania does not supply stolen-vehicle data to the PPSR.