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Best Background Check Services for Dating

Best Background Check Services for Dating

Everyone knows that dating can be a minefield and you need to be cautious. This is especially true for online dating, as studies have shown that remarkably 53% of people lie on their online dating profiles. People may lie about their age, their financial situation, or even their relationship status. If that wasn’t enough you also need to mindful of catfishing. Of course, there are circumstances when online dating can end up being very dangerous, and yet some websites won’t even check whether or not its users are sexual predators. This is why background check services are so important. With a background checker, you can expose any lies, criminal records, and make sure that someone is who they say they are.

Best background check services for dating

Do dating sites run background checks?

You’d be surprised to learn that dating services aren’t always helpful in verifying that their users are who they say they are. For the most part, dating websites make no checks at all, as it’s often more important for them to have a large number of users than it is to remove them.

However, a few dating services do offer some sort of background checks – but they’re not always up to scratch. One example is the popular dating service eHarmony, which employs a third-party checking service called RelyID to perform some basic checks (although this a premium feature). For more thorough background checks it’s better to turn to a dedicated service.

4 ways to run a background check on your date

There are a variety of different methods you can use you run a background check online. Some of them are pretty straightforward and others require a little help but will give you far more thorough results.

  • A good place to start is using a search engine. By including any extra information you know, you’ll make sure you get the right result. If you have a photo, you can also do a reverse image search. But be warned, it’s easy to find false information using search engines.
  • One of the best ways methods to run a background check is through social media, which enables you to verify personal details and learn more about the other person’s interests. Just be sure to also look out for any hidden social media profiles.
  • Next, it’s time to delve a little deeper. All criminal records are available to the public, including sex offender lists. This can be a little time consuming but it’s important to do before things get too serious.
  • Regardless of what stage of a relationship you’re at, a background check service is a good idea. It combines many different methods into one complete package to save you time and effort.

How to choose the best background check service for dating

You may be surprised that there are so many different background check services around. It’s great to have competition but it can be tricky to round it down to just one. The best way to choose a background check service is by first figuring out what information you value. Some services are specialists at particular types of information, like education or work history while others may excel at searching for social media profiles. Then there are services that provide more comprehensive reports so you can truly get a good idea of a person’s history.

Some other things you also need to consider include how often you want to run background checks. Many services only offer subscriptions, while others allow you to run single reports. It’s also worth bearing in mind how quickly you want your reports – some services will have background checks done in just seconds while others can take longer to send you a full report. Finally, you want to know that your results are accurate, so you need to find a service with up-to-date records.

Recommended background check services for dating

When you’re running a background check on a date, it’s important that you get accurate and wide-ranging results. Here we picked out of three of the best background check services around that do just that.

Social Catfish

Editor's rating:
Starting price: $27.48/mo
Main features
  • Verify identities via photos
  • In-depth personal information
  • Detects scams and impersonators
  • Stay updated on changes
  • Reverse image search
  • Detailed reports
  • AI chat checker
  • Report monitoring
  • No mobile app
  • Hidden pricing
  • Paid 3-day trial
Summary
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Social Catfish is a web-based online platform specializing in verification and background check reports. With a database of over 300 million records, it provides thorough reverse search capabilities via names, usernames, addresses, phone numbers, and photos.

The reports include extensive information, from personal details like usernames and relatives to property and business information. It has plenty of plans, with prices starting at $5.73 for the first 3 days and 27.48 after that. Plus, its Social Media Pro plans all include a 20% discount.

Special offers
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20% off Social Catfish
Schedule a 10-minute consultation with a professional online investigator

TruthFinder

Editor's rating:
Starting price: $4.99/mo
Main features
  • In-depth, reliable information
  • Get results quickly
  • Simple for anyone to navigate
  • Alerts on exposed data
  • Quality of reports
  • Fast searches
  • Ease of use
  • Dark web monitoring
  • No single-purchase reports
  • Separate subscriptions for alternative searches
  • Extra fees for downloading reports
Summary
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Having been in the business since 2015, TruthFinder is well versed in running background checks on U.S. residents. The service scans private and public records, gathers people’s data, such as their social media profiles, location, and criminal records, and compiles it into easy-to-read reports. TruthFinder’s diverse search methods allow users to look for information about someone by filling in their full name, phone number, email, or address. The results from these searches are data-rich and well-organized in reports, which can be accessed from computers and mobile devices. Prices start at $4.99 per month for phone reports and at $23.52 for people search reports.

Special offers
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17% off TruthFinder*

Instant Checkmate

Editor's rating:
Starting price: $5.99/mo
Main features
  • Comprehensive background reports
  • Identify unknown callers
  • See full financial picture
  • Cancel anytime without penalty
  • Wide variety of information
  • Reverse phone lookup
  • Financial data included
  • No cancellation fees
  • No iOS app
  • No individual reports
  • Expensive
Summary
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A name can be important. It’s how we recognize people, how a business stands out from the crowd, and in the world of background check services, it’s used to find a person. But what if the person’s name is what you are trying to discover? With Instant Checkmate, people can also be tracked by their phone number, email, or address. The California-based company’s ability to instantly check criminal records, social media pages, and financial statuses, and convert this information into professional reports, is commendable. Prices start at $28.09 per month* for person reports and $5.99 per month for phone reports.

Special offers
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20% off Instant Checkmate

BeenVerified

Editor's rating:
Starting price: $23.98/mo
Main features
  • Tracking feature
  • Comprehensive reports
  • Affordable
  • Smartphone support
  • Monitoring feature
  • Detailed reports
  • Affordable
  • Smartphone compatible
  • No sample report
  • Takes long to compile reports
Summary
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*After 7-day $1 trial, user is billed full monthly subscription price.

If you had been watching national television in the early 2010s, then the name BeenVerified probably rings a bell. The popular background search service was actively promoted during ad breaks, telling people about the possibility of reconnecting with old friends, checking the background info of a date, or verifying an online seller. Despite appearing on the TV less nowadays, BeenVerified is still growing strong, constantly refining the art of public data searching. Starting from $23.98 per month, BeenVerified offers up to 100 background reports per month that can cover genealogy records, sex offender registries, liens and a surprisingly extended social media presence that can even include Kickstarter projects launched by the subject.

Special offers
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$1 7-day trial of BeenVerified
35% discount on quarterly subscription
Full refund for empty background check reports

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