Trying to find out who the owner of a car is or learn about its accident history? If you have its license plate number, then you’ve got all you need to obtain this information and much more. The web has made vehicle records far easier to access by a car’s plate number alone, making it easy to research a car before you hand over any money for it. Here’s how you can look up a license plate in Louisiana and what you can learn in doing so.
How You Can Perform a Reverse License Plate Search for a Car in Louisiana
There are two common methods that people use to pull up vehicle records with a plate number in Louisiana, and each is described here.
The tried-and-true option is to give the plate number to the DMV, and then get the records from them. There are three ways you can reach the DMV to do this:
- You could find the address to a local DMV office and go there in person.
- You could call the DMV.
- You could send a written request by mail.
Even though this will work, there’s a more convenient option available. Quite a few background check sites also offer plate lookups along with their other services. FreeBackgroundCheck.org is one such site.
If you decide to go that route, here is the way to look up a plate number online:
- Visit the FreeBackgroundCheck.org site.
- By the Find Records Fast header, select the Plate option. This switches to the reverse license plate search option. By default, the site has its name search option up.
- Type the plate number you wish to look up into the search field.
- Under the State header, use the drop-down box to select Louisiana.
- Run your search and wait.
The search process itself shouldn’t take more than a few seconds. If you simply wanted to confirm some info about the car, you’ll be able to immediately, because the site will show you its year, make, model and body style. This makes it easy to determine if a license plate swap was done because you’ll see what car is registered to that license plate.
You can get the rest of the reports by choosing the View Reports option. You’ll need to sign up for an account, but there’s no charge for registering and it will only require a bit of basic info.
Information You Can Access Through a Louisiana License Plate Lookup
So, you know that you can get vehicle details through a plate lookup, but you probably want to know what other information is available. All the info you could find using a license plate lookup is covered below, along with how it can come in handy if you’re planning to buy a car.
VIN Information
Doctoring a VIN is a common scam that car sellers do if they’ve hacked the odometer to show a lower reading. That way, the VIN on the car will be tied to a car with lower mileage. When you do a Louisiana license plate lookup, you’ll see the VIN that’s tied to that car, allowing you to confirm that it’s the same one that’s actually on the vehicle.
Vehicle Ownership Records
If you’re worried that the seller isn’t the true owner of the car and you want to find out who the registered owner of the vehicle is, then a plate lookup can help you figure that out. You can see the registered owner on file to make sure that it’s the same person trying to sell you the car, and you can see how many times the car has changed hands already. It’s generally better when a car has had fewer owners because people who have a car for a long period of time usually take better care of it than someone who only has it for a short while.
Vehicle History Reports
You should never buy a car without seeing the vehicle history reports first. Although you hope that you can trust the person selling it, you never know what people will say or do to make a sale. If a car has been in accidents or natural disasters, it’s important to know that before you hand over your hard-earned money for it.
This isn’t to say that you should avoid cars with accidents or other red flags entirely. If you think it could be a good car, then there’s nothing wrong with buying it. But you should be aware of what it has gone through, and you shouldn’t be paying top dollar for a car with issues on its history report.
Conclusion
There’s really no downside to searching a car’s license plate before you buy it. You’ll either learn something about the car that makes you think twice about the purchase, or you’ll see that there are no red flags with it and have peace of mind about going through with the deal.
You can do a license plate lookup in Kentucky and you can check an owner of a vehicle in Kansas too.
