How it works

1. Get your price

Enter the registration and postcode. We pull the car’s details from the DVLA record — make, model, year, fuel and kerb weight — and price it against what the licensed scrap yards covering your postcode district will pay for it today. Each yard on the network sets its own rate for each district it works; you are shown the best of them.

Then a few questions about condition. Does it start? Do the wheels turn? Is the catalytic converter still on it? Each answer moves the figure, and you see the effect straight away. No email address is needed to see the price.

2. Accept it and tell us where the car is

If the figure is right for you, give us the address the car is at, a contact number, and the days that suit. That is the booking. It goes to the yard behind your price — the one that will actually collect — and nobody else.

3. Your collector rings within two hours

The yard calls you, normally within a couple of hours during the working day, to fix the collection day and a morning or afternoon. Its own driver comes to the address, anywhere in the UK, at no charge — including a car that has not moved in years and has to be winched.

At the car the driver checks your photo ID and proof of address (the law requires it), confirms the vehicle is as you described, and loads it. If it is not as described — the engine is missing when you said it was complete, say — they explain the revised figure before anything goes on the truck, and you are free to say no.

4. You are paid and the paperwork is done

The yard pays by bank transfer within 24 hours of collection, to the registered keeper’s account. Back at their site the car is depolluted and dismantled, and the yard issues the Certificate of Destruction on the DVLA’s system. The certificate number is recorded on your booking and the certificate emailed to you; the DVLA refunds any full months of tax left.

Why it pays more than ringing a yard yourself

A single yard quotes you one figure with nothing to compare it to. On the network the yards covering your district are competing for the same car, and you get the best of their rates without ringing round. There is no auction after you accept and no middleman taking a cut of the price: the yard that set the figure is the yard that collects and pays. Across the 27,900 cars collected through the network since February 2024, the middle price paid has been £236.

Scrapping a car the legal way

Four things worth knowing, because plenty of operators cut corners on them:

• Cash is illegal. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 bans cash payment for scrap metal, vehicles included, in England and Wales. Anyone offering notes on the driveway is breaking the law — and it is a sign the car may not be disposed of properly either. Every yard on the network pays by bank transfer, wherever it is.
• The car must go to an Authorised Treatment Facility. Only an ATF can legally depollute and destroy an end-of-life vehicle, and only an ATF can issue a Certificate of Destruction. Every collector on the network is one; we check the permit (Environment Agency, SEPA or NRW) and the waste carrier registration before a yard gets a single job, and again when they come up for renewal.
• The DVLA must be told. Until it is, you remain the registered keeper — and liable for tax, insurance and any fines. The yard does this when it issues the certificate; you can also do it yourself with the yellow section of the V5C.
• Keep the certificate. It is your evidence that the car was destroyed legally and that your liability ended on that date.

What if I have lost the V5C?

The car can still be scrapped. There is a little more checking and a small deduction to cover it, and the driver needs to see photo ID and proof of where you live now — an old address on the DVLA record is not a problem. More on scrapping without the logbook.

What about a private plate?

Take the registration off before you accept a price. Once the car has been destroyed by an ATF the plate cannot be retained. You can apply to keep a registration on GOV.UK.