Thanks to the TV show The Checkout on ABC Thursday nights, they had this big tip last week which we believe needs to be embedded on the internet and shared to everyone you know. It is regarding the REVS check which is now not even called that. There are companies such as Car History that repackage the PPSR government report and sell them at ten times the price to you! Sure they add to the report a few interesting things you can find out online for free about the model of your car (eg average odometer reading etc). One thing that CarHistory supposedly offered was a report on insurance claims. Interestingly, when we bought a report, it did not show the insurance claims we made on the car.. not sure why?
But if you are just wanting to find out if your car has been written off, stolen, encumbered with any finance company, you don't need to pay $36. But why wouldn't you trust a website like CarHistory? After all, RAC, the "consumer advocate", and your friendly insurance company, sells Car History reports on their online shop. They even give you $10 off. Unfortunately, as we also learnt, you can actually get the PPSR report for only $3.40 by buying the report directly from the Government website https://www.ppsr.gov.au (not ppsr.com.au, another company reselling these at a premium!). Yeah, $3.40 - less than the coffee you got this morning in Perth. This is worth letting your friends know, we reckon.
Here's the segment from The Checkout - skip to 1:15.
