Last updated 15 October 2026
A £25 fee to win a scrap car you then pay £234 to buy.
Scrap Local sells scrap car leads for £99 a month, then takes a success fee of £25 or 10% of your winning bid, whichever is more. Scrap Car Comparison and CarTakeBack cost nothing to join and charge for each car they send you, but neither publishes the figure. Buy the click from Google yourself and a car owner's search costs £2.49 to £8.74.
In scrap, you pay the customer. car.co.uk's 2025 figures put the average hatchback at £234, and the fee for finding it comes on top of that, out of whatever the car is worth to you once it's in the yard.
What the owner was told before you rang
"Our buyers guarantee all their prices so the price you're offered is the price you get paid"
That's Scrap Car Comparison's home page. Its own terms say the offer is made "only after an inspection of your Vehicle has been carried out on-site". If the car on the drive isn't the one the owner described, you're the one who has to change the price. What each seller promises.
Where we stand
We don't sell scrap car leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying scrap car leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build scrap car buyers a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
This guide is for collectors and authorised treatment facilities buying end-of-life cars and vans. Fixing cars is in our garage leads guide and our car body repair leads guide. Skips are in our skip hire leads guide.
What you are buying
The lead fee comes on top of what you pay for the car.
In most trades a lead is paid for out of the invoice. Here you hand the owner money for the car, then pay for the lead, then collect it, and your own money comes from what the car fetches as parts and metal. Here is what owners were paid on average in 2025, with Scrap Local's success fee if you win at that price and the cost of winning the same car off your own Google ad.
| Car or van | What owners are paid | Scrap Local fee if you win | Your own ad, one win in 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchback, about 1,150 kg | £199 to £234 | £25, 12% of the payout | £172 a car, 79% of the payout |
| Saloon, about 1,350 kg | £227 to £267 | £25, 10% of the payout | £172 a car, 70% of the payout |
| MPV, about 1,550 kg | £242 to £284 | £26.30, 10% of the payout | £172 a car, 65% of the payout |
| SUV, about 1,650 kg | £255 to £300 | £27.80, 10% of the payout | £172 a car, 62% of the payout |
| Medium van, Transit Custom or Vivaro | £300 to £500 | £40, 10% of the payout | £217 a car, 54% of the payout |
| Large van, Transit LWB or Sprinter | £400 to £600 | £50, 10% of the payout | £217 a car, 43% of the payout |
Car ranges run from car.co.uk's median 2025 offer to its average for that body type, from its UK Scrap Car Report; van ranges are from its van guide (April 2026). car.co.uk buys scrap cars itself. Fees are worked at the middle of each range. Your own ad uses "scrap my car" for cars and "scrap my van" for vans, with the conversion rate explained further down. Winning one quote in 3 is MyJobQuote's figure for its own trades; nobody publishes one for scrap. Scrap Local's membership and its lead fee for claimed enquiries come on top, and it doesn't publish the lead fee.
We'd normally want landing a customer to cost 10 to 15 percent of the job. Measured against the payout, that band is generous for scrap, because what you keep from a car is smaller than what you paid for it. On a £217 hatchback the £25 floor is 12% of the payout. On a £500 large van the fee is £50, 10% of it. The 10% only overtakes the £25 floor on a bid over £250, so on most cars you pay the floor.
Weight sets the price
car.co.uk's report rises with its estimated weights, from about 1,150 kg for a hatchback to 1,650 kg for an SUV. Ask for the make, model and whether it's complete before you bid, and price a van as a van.
Offers fell last year
Its average offer dropped from £270 in 2024 to £254 in 2025. A £25 floor doesn't fall with it, so it takes a bigger share each year the payout drops.
Your numbers
How much can a scrap car lead cost before the car stops paying you?
The presets are what owners were paid in 2025, so the answer is the most you'd spend against the payout. If you know what a car is worth to you once it's stripped and weighed in, type that in instead for a stricter answer. Then add how many of your offers get accepted and the seller's price per lead.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A SCRAP CAR LEAD?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.
You can pay up to about
£11
a lead, winning one in 3
- Healthy range, per won job
- £22 to £33
- Which per lead is
- £7 to £11
Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.
That 10 to 15 percent band is a rule of thumb we use across every trade. Nobody has measured it, and for scrap it is a ceiling, not a target.
Who sells them
Six places a scrap yard can buy cars. Only one prints its prices.
Seller pages and prices are quoted from each firm's own website, and "Not stated" means the firm doesn't say.
| Seller | Price | Who else gets the car | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scrap Local | £99 a month, then £25 or 10% of your bid | Claimed in 20 minutes, then bid on | "the chance of business" |
| Scrap Car Comparison | Free to list, commission per car, amount not published | Other buyers quote beside you | "no monthly charges" |
| CarTakeBack | No joining or monthly fee, pay per car, amount not published | Not stated | "Only pay for cars successfully referred" |
| Recycle Any Car | Free to list, how it is paid not stated | Not stated | "completely free" |
| Scrap Car Network | Not published | Partners bid on the car | "contact us now" |
| Striker Leads (agency) | Not published | Not stated | "Google, Bing, Facebook, and X Ads" |
Scrap Local charges a membership, a lead fee and a success fee
Its scrapyard page sells the premium plan at £1 a day, or in its words "Just £99 per month, 30 day rolling", open to a "scrap metal dealer, vehicle recycler or even a scrap collector". Its terms then give premium members 20 minutes to claim a new enquiry for a "Lead Fee" it doesn't publish, before the enquiry goes to bids. Win a bid and the success fee is "£25 or 10% of your highest bid (whichever is greatest)", held in a wallet you top up first.
Read the small print before you join. Membership fees are "non-refundable irrespective of the number of Jobs", wallet top-ups are "non-refundable and non-transferable", and a won lead you don't answer within 24 hours is charged in full. "Hot" leads "have never been spoken to by Scrap Local and may not respond"; "Pre-Qualified" ones have, and "may have images". The terms put it plainly: "You are paying for the chance of business not for guaranteed result of business."
The £99 spreads thin on volume: £9.90 a car at 10 cars a month and £4.95 a car at 20 cars a month. On the average £234 hatchback that's £25 in success fee on top.
The comparison sites are free to join and take a cut per car
Scrap Car Comparison takes a "registered ATF or Specialist Dealer", says "there are no monthly charges", and its terms say it "will receive a commission payment from our Trusted Collection Partner for arranging the transaction". It doesn't say how much. You can "turn your prices off until you catch up", or "raise your prices a little" to win more, so you are bidding against the other yards on the same screen. It tells owners it has "450+ specialist buyers nationwide" and "£225M+ paid out to customers since 2009".
CarTakeBack takes ATFs only, joined with your "ATF licence number", and lists "No joining fee No monthly subscription fees Only pay for cars successfully referred". You choose the prices, how far you travel and which vehicles you want, and its system issues the certificates of destruction. Recycle Any Car takes ATFs and specialist dealers, says being listed is "completely free", and doesn't say how it makes its money. Ask each one for the fee per car in writing before you set a price, because it comes off the same margin as the payout.
Scrap Car Network and Striker Leads don't print terms
Scrap Car Network tells owners it has "thousands of scrap car collection partners all over the UK bidding on your vehicle", and tells would-be partners it's "made up of several hundred partnerships". Neither page gives a price. Striker Leads is an agency that runs "Google, Bing, Facebook, and X Ads" for scrap car buyers and publishes no price, so you'd be paying it to buy clicks in the same auction you can bid in yourself.
Everything here about Scrap Local's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 11 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Rather have scrap car leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingWant to know how many people near you search Google for what you do each month? Message us your town and we'll send you the real numbers.
Check my areaBuying the click yourself
90,500 searches a month for "scrap my car", and the comparison sites own their names.
Scrap yards barely search for sellers: "scrap car leads" gets about 20 searches a month. Car owners make up for it. "scrap my car" gets 90,500 a month at £4.20 a click, "car scrap yard near me" 22,200 at £2.49, and the dearest row is "sell non runner car" at £8.74. Owners also search the aggregators by name: "scrap car network" 4,400 times a month and "scrap car comparison" 3,600. The per-lead figures divide each click by 7.33%, WordStream's conversion rate for home improvement search ads. That benchmark comes from American campaigns, so treat the column as a guide.
| Search | Searches a month | Per click | Per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| sell non runner car | 880 | £8.74 | £119 |
| scrap van | 880 | £5.81 | £79 |
| sell car for scrap | 2,400 | £5.48 | £75 |
| scrap car removal | 390 | £5.36 | £73 |
| scrap my van | 2,900 | £5.29 | £72 |
| sell my car for scrap | 1,900 | £5.27 | £72 |
| scrap car collection | 2,400 | £5.14 | £70 |
| scrap car buyers near me | 590 | £4.94 | £67 |
| scrap car for cash | 1,900 | £4.61 | £63 |
| scrap car collection near me | 1,300 | £4.35 | £59 |
| scrap my car near me | 8,100 | £4.29 | £59 |
| scrap my car | 90,500 | £4.20 | £57 |
| scrap car buyers | 1,000 | £4.17 | £57 |
| scrap car near me | 3,600 | £3.84 | £52 |
| scrap car prices | 9,900 | £3.27 | £45 |
| how much is my car worth for scrap | 1,300 | £3.10 | £42 |
| car scrap yard near me | 22,200 | £2.49 | £34 |
Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 11 October 2026. The click prices are Google's estimates from what other advertisers bid, so what you actually pay will land near them rather than on them.
At that conversion rate every row costs £34 to £119 a lead. A lead off "scrap my car" is about £57, so at one win in 3 a £217 hatchback costs £172 in clicks to win, 79% of the payout. On these figures Scrap Local's £25 success fee is far cheaper per car, and we'd say so. What decides it is your own conversion rate, and only your own account can tell you that. Where your own ads earn their keep:
- Owners near your yard who search "near me"
- Vans and non-runners, where the payout is bigger
- Your name on the ad, not a comparison site's
- An owner who rings you, not several yards at once
- Clicks paid to Google, with nothing added
- An ad account that leaves with you
Don't promise cash in the ad
"scrap car for cash" and "cash for scrap cars" get 1,900 searches a month each at £4.61. You can bid on them, but paying cash for a scrap car is an offence in England and Wales, covered below. Say "paid by bank transfer on collection" on the ad and the website, so the owner who wanted notes in hand knows before you arrive.
Owners also search "scrap car dvla" 2,900 times a month and "certificate of destruction" 390. A short section on your website explaining the certificate and what to tell DVLA answers them before they ring a rival. Picking a monthly figure is in how much to spend on Google Ads, and running the account in the Google Ads guide for tradesmen.
Before you hand over the money
Pay cash for a scrap car and the fine has no upper limit.
Section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 says "A scrap metal dealer must not pay for scrap metal except" by a cheque that isn't transferable or "by an electronic transfer of funds". The Act counts a business buying cars for scrap as a scrap metal dealer, and breaking section 12 is a level 5 fine, which the Sentencing Act 2020 leaves without a cap. Gov.uk tells owners the same: "It's illegal to be paid in cash if your vehicle is scrapped in England or Wales."
Check ID, keep it three years
Section 11 says you must not take scrap metal without verifying the seller's "full name and address" from "a reliable and independent source", a fine of up to £1,000. Section 13 wants the registration, the ID copy and the payment record kept, for 3 years.
A licence per council area
The Act gives "a site licence, or ... a collector's licence", each for 3 years, and a collector's licence covers collecting "in the authority's area". Bolton charges £537 and £776 (2026/27); Bexley £421 and £832 (2025/26). A lead from the next council over may need that council's licence if you collect on a collector's licence.
Only an ATF scraps it
Gov.uk says "It's illegal to scrap your vehicle anywhere else" than an authorised treatment facility, and the owner should get a certificate of destruction within 7 days. Only an ATF permit holder can use DVLA's certificate service, so a collector without one is delivering to an ATF that issues it.
Moving the car counts too. Gov.uk's vehicle waste guidance says a car that hasn't been depolluted is hazardous waste. Collecting it from a householder's home needs no consignment note, but a car hire firm's or a freight firm's vehicle is hazardous waste from a business and does. Carrying other people's waste needs a waste carrier registration, £191.02 in England, renewed every three years at £130.25.
Put the paperwork to work on your website. Owners can be fined £1,000 for not telling DVLA, so your licence number, the certificate and how you pay are reasons to book you that a comparison site's listing doesn't give them. These rules cover England and Wales; Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own.
What you bid against
Gov.uk tells owners scrapping is usually free.
The scrapping page says "Scrap your vehicle at an ATF. This is usually free." Car makers have to offer "free take-back for their brands" through networks of ATFs, set out in the government's ELV guidance, and the 2005 regulations say no charge falls on an owner delivering a car with no market value. That stops applying when the car is missing "the engine, transmission, coachwork, wheels or catalytic converter".
Sell the collection, not the price
An owner with a complete car can take it to a take-back ATF for nothing. What you offer on top is the collection, a fixed price and payment on the drive, so put those first on the ad and the website.
The targets come with it
Producers must hit 95% recovery and 85% recycling by weight, and the guidance says an ATF taking cars outside a producer's network takes on those targets itself.
Watch the metal price too. letsrecycle.com's ferrous price table listed its "Cars" grade at £75 to £100 a tonne in May and June 2026 and £60 to £80 in September. A fixed lead fee doesn't move when that does, so re-check your bids each month.
Through the year
Scrap car searches barely move, peaking in March.
UK searches for "scrap my car" reached 110,000 in March and sat at 74,000 in 5 months, December and May to August, only about 1.5 times apart, so there's no quiet season to wait out.
UK searches for "scrap my car", by month
September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.
Steady demand, steady budget
With searches this flat, a fixed monthly ad budget is easier to judge than in a seasonal trade. Change it when the metal price or your yard space moves, not the calendar.
A bit more in March
March was the one month above the rest. Have your website and ads running by then.
Where the lead came from
Ask how a scrap car lead was collected before you ring the owner.
The ICO puts the checking on you as the buyer. It wants checks in proportion to the risk, and a seller telling you the data is clean doesn't count as one. An owner who agreed to hear from a comparison site hasn't agreed to your texts or emails unless the consent names you. Our roofing leads guide covers the ICO fine on a firm that pointed at the company it bought its data from.
Before you pay for scrap car leads, ask:
- What is the fee per car, in writing?
- How many other yards see the same car?
- Does the owner know the price can change on inspection?
- Does the consent name my business?
- Can I set my own collection area and prices?
Which way to go
Fill the yard through the sellers. Build the owners who ring you by name.
Buy per car if
- You have yard space to fill
- A £25 fee fits your margin
- You can collect within a day
- You hold an ATF permit or licence
Think twice if
- The fee per car is not in writing
- Fees are charged on unanswered leads
- The owner was promised a fixed price
- Most of your cars are small hatchbacks
Run your own if
- You want vans and non-runners
- You collect near your yard
- You want the call to yourself
- The ad account is yours to take
A scrap car pays twice over before you see a penny: once to the owner and once to whoever found it. The margin is in the cars you win without the second payment. How leads are sold in every other trade is in our guide to trade leads, and repairs on the drive are in our mobile mechanic leads guide.
Our sources
Where every scrap car figure here came from.
One thing to know first: we sell websites and Google Ads to trades, so we have a side in this. So each seller is quoted directly, and the sums show a Scrap Local success fee costing less per car than your own ads at the benchmark rate, because on these figures it does.
Seller pages and terms were read on 11 October 2026, and the UK search and click data came from Google Ads on 11 October 2026. Payouts are from car.co.uk's scrap car report and van guide, and the metal price from letsrecycle.com. The scrapping rules are from gov.uk, DVLA's certificate service and the vehicle waste guidance; the dealer rules from the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013, with licence fees from each council's own page; take-back from the 2005 regulations; and lead consent from the ICO.
Questions scrap car buyers ask
Scrap car leads, answered.
- How much do scrap car leads cost in the UK?
- Scrap Local charges £99 a month for its premium plan, then a success fee of £25 or 10% of your winning bid, whichever is more, on the cars it wins you. Scrap Car Comparison and CarTakeBack are free to join with no monthly fee and charge for each car instead, but neither publishes how much. Recycle Any Car is free to list and doesn't say how it makes its money. A car owner's click on your own Google ad costs £2.49 to £8.74.
- Are scrap car leads shared with other buyers?
- Mostly, yes. Scrap Local gives premium members 20 minutes to claim an enquiry, then puts it out to bids. Scrap Car Comparison shows the owner prices from several buyers and the owner picks one. CarTakeBack and Recycle Any Car don't say how many yards see a car.
- Can I pay cash for a scrap car?
- Not in England or Wales. Section 12 of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 says a dealer must not pay for scrap metal except by a cheque that is not transferable or by an electronic transfer, and breaking it carries a level 5 fine, which has no upper limit. Gov.uk tells owners the same thing: they have to be paid by bank transfer or cheque.
- Do I need a licence to collect scrap cars?
- In England and Wales, yes. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 2013 counts a business buying cars for scrap as a scrap metal dealer, which needs a site licence or a collector's licence from the council, each lasting 3 years. A collector's licence covers that council's area. Bolton charges £537 for a collector's licence and £776 for a site licence. Carrying other people's waste also needs a waste carrier registration, £191.02 in England.
- Can I scrap a car without being an ATF?
- No. Gov.uk says a car must be scrapped at an authorised treatment facility and that it is illegal to scrap it anywhere else. Only an ATF permit holder can use DVLA's certificate of destruction service, and the owner should get the certificate within 7 days.
- What is a scrap car worth?
- car.co.uk's 2025 figures put the average offer at £254, down from £270 in 2024. A hatchback averaged £234 and an SUV £300. Its van guide puts a medium van at £300 to £500 and a large one at £400 to £600 or more.
- When do people search for scrap car collection most?
- In the last 12 months, UK searches for "scrap my car" peaked in March at 110,000 and dropped to 74,000 in 5 months, December and May to August. That is only about 1.5 times apart, so demand is steady all year.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Cars on the lorry from owners who searched for you.
We build your website and run Google Ads from an account in your own name, aimed at the owners near your yard and the vans and non-runners that pay. See what it costs, then tell us about your scrap car business and we'll build the campaign around the cars you want more of.