1. Who We Are

BuyCarCheck (buycarcheck.com) is a UK-based vehicle information service that provides free and paid vehicle history checks using data sourced from the DVLA, DVSA, and other authorised data providers. References to "we", "us", or "our" in this policy refer to BuyCarCheck.

2. What Data We Collect

Payment data

Payment is handled entirely by Stripe — an independent payment processing platform that lets businesses accept online payments (cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.). We never see or store your card details. Stripe may retain payment records in accordance with their own privacy policy and applicable financial regulations.

Vehicle check queries

When you enter a vehicle registration number, we submit it to the DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service and the DVSA MOT History API to retrieve publicly available vehicle data. If you use a paid credit to run a full check, the searched number plate is stored in our database alongside your email address to record which vehicle was checked against which credit. Free basic checks are not stored.

Email address (purchase only)

When you purchase a paid report, Stripe collects your email address as part of the checkout process and passes it to us via webhook. We store this email address in our database solely to allow you to redeem any remaining unused credits from your purchase. Your email is used for no other purpose — we do not send marketing emails and we do not share it with third parties.

Visit data and IP address

When you visit BuyCarCheck, we collect: the page visited, your IP address, approximate country and city (derived from your IP), browser family, device type, operating system, referrer URL (origin and path only, query strings stripped), session duration, and scroll depth. Your IP address is stored for up to 30 days for analytics and fraud prevention, then permanently deleted. All other visit data is retained for up to 24 months in anonymised form.

Advertising attribution (UTM parameters)

If you arrive via a paid advertisement (e.g. Google Ads), the URL may contain UTM parameters such as utm_source, utm_medium, and utm_campaign. We record these alongside your visit data to measure the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. These parameters do not identify you personally.

3. Cookies & Session Storage

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

sessionStorage

Our visit tracker writes a temporary anonymous session ID to your browser's sessionStorage. This is cleared automatically when you close the browser tab and cannot be used to identify you across sessions or devices.

localStorage

We may store your remaining credit count in localStorage after a successful purchase so the interface can display how many checks you have left. This data stays on your device and is not transmitted to our servers.

Stripe cookies

When you proceed to checkout, Stripe's payment page may set its own cookies for fraud prevention and session management. These are governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.

4. Legal Basis for Processing (UK GDPR)

Contract — processing your email to fulfil your purchase and allow credit redemption
Legitimate interests — analytics (including IP-based fraud detection and advertising metrics) to improve the service and measure campaign performance
Legal obligation — retaining transaction records as required by law

5. How We Use Your Data

To return vehicle information in response to your query
To allow you to redeem remaining credits against your purchase email
To understand which pages are most visited and improve the service
To detect and block automated bot traffic
To process payments via Stripe for premium reports

We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.

6. Data Retention

Email addresses & associated registration numbers — retained until your purchased credits are fully used or for up to 12 months from purchase, whichever comes first. You may request earlier deletion by contacting us.
IP addresses — stored for up to 30 days for analytics and fraud prevention, then permanently deleted. Country and city derived from the IP are retained separately for up to 24 months in anonymised form.
Anonymous visit records — retained for up to 24 months for analytics purposes, then deleted.
Payment records — retained by Stripe in accordance with their privacy policy and applicable financial regulations.

7. Your Rights (UK GDPR)

Under UK GDPR you have the right to:

Access the personal data we hold about you
Request correction or deletion of your data
Object to or restrict processing of your data
Data portability (where applicable)
Lodge a complaint with the ICO at ico.org.uk

To exercise any of these rights, email privacy@buycarcheck.com with the email address associated with your purchase. For anonymous visit data, we are generally unable to identify records belonging to a specific individual.

8. Third-Party Services

DVLA Vehicle Enquiry Service — vehicle registration data
DVSA MOT History API — MOT test history data
Stripe — payment processing and checkout
Vercel — hosting and geo-IP resolution
Database — (stores email addresses for credit redemption and anonymous analytics)

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of the Service after changes are posted constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

10. Contact

For privacy-related queries, please email privacy@buycarcheck.com