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Tuesday, March 19th
Intelius is one of four people search platforms in our review under parent company PeopleConnect (in addition to US Search, Truthfinder, and Instant Checkmate). That means you'll come across similar results here as what you'll find there, though each service differs slightly in terms of pricing.
Takes 5+ minutes to search
How would you like to start your people search? At Intelius, you can start with a name, city and state (and check the box if you're searching for your own records). Otherwise, you can start with a phone number or address. As the search runs, you'll see questions come up that help the search engine refine the results: specific towns where the person may have lived, age range, number of siblings, and so forth. (Unless, of course, you're looking for someone with an unusual name - and then you can click to have the report run without answering further questions.) It may still take five minutes or longer for Intelius to go through all of the available records, and in the middle of the process you'll have to put in your name and email address to save your progress.
Several options for reports and pricing
Of the sister services, Intelius comes in with the second-lowest price - most of the time. You can expect to pay $24.86 for one month of unlimited people search access, or $42.25 for two months. On the other hand, if you wait around on the site for 5-10 minutes, you'll get a pop-up offering a 5-day trial for $1.99, which we found for just $1 with the other services in the brand family. Give it even longer and you'll be offered a price of $29.99 to access just one report, with no ongoing subscription fees.
Needs to spell out all of the costs
What's missing? That's a smart question to ask. Intelius doesn't provide an FAQ, so there's nothing spelling out anything about having to pay for "premium" data reports. However, given that all of the PeopleConnect sites work in the same way, we think it's pretty safe to say that at some point in your people search, you're going to be hit up for more cash if you want access to absolutely everything they have about the person you're researching.
Costs
Your results may vary
It should come as no big shock that Intelius' user feedback mirrors the three other brands'. People searching for basic info usually find what they're looking for here, and the BBB gives Intelius an "A+" - which means it's trustworthy, relatively speaking. But, like many people search sites, you're not going to get every possible piece of information from their basic features, and some details may be flat-out wrong. We encourage you to search your own information first and see for yourself.
Not the best, but pretty low-risk to try
Intelius winds up with a just-average rating from us, right along with the other people search services held by its parent company. You might pay a little less - or a little more - here, depending on how you use the platform. You could do worse than Intelius when it comes to looking for someone's information, but you've got a couple of choices that might give you more details with less hassle.
There are hundreds of sites out there that promise to connect you with long-lost relatives, childhood friends, former classmates and coworkers - or to help you look into the background of someone on your radar. Most of these services utilize the same public records databases to deliver results.
So, what makes one people search platform different from the next? None of them guarantee the accuracy of their results - after all, databases can have incorrect information. But, the best services give you enough of a preview before you pay for a report that you can determine for yourself if you've found the right individual. They also may include a trial period of a few days to a week, letting you conduct multiple searches to see if you'll get what you need from their results.
Those trials typically convert to a monthly membership unless you cancel first. As you might guess, some people search providers make that cancellation more difficult than others - or they make it less likely you'll realize that you're opting into a monthly plan with your trial. Be sure to read the fine print.
Another thing to watch out for is the difference between a basic people search and a comprehensive one. What you'll get with almost every platform's initial search is just the basics of phone, address, known relatives and email addresses. More detailed information like criminal records and property ownership will almost always require an upgraded plan, either as a one-off fee for each report you want to run in-depth or as an extra monthly fee.
If you're concerned about having your own personal information available to other people conducting searches, you've got one good reason to visit every people search site, even the lowest-ranked ones: removing your own data from their records. You'll usually find that function at the bottom of the site, worded as "Opt-Out" or "Do Not Sell My Information" . Typically, you'll either enter your information and perform a basic search (no paid membership required), then click on your matching profile to request that it be removed. Finally, expect to get a confirmation email; after you've clicked on the link in it, your info should be removed within 48 hours (though, in our experience, some sites had our results gone almost immediately).
When you're trying to choose among people search providers, they all start to look the same. Confused? Don't worry! You can use these criteria to decide which one to use:
To help you find out more about virtually anyone, TopConsumerReviews.com has evaluated and ranked the most popular people search providers available today. We're confident that this information will make it possible to track down a long-lost relative, learn more about your prospective love interest, or see what your high school classmates are up to!
Select any 2 People Search Providers to compare them head to head