By: Kelly | Last updated August 13, 2021 
Online background check services nowadays are very complex and offer a variety of searches. Every search is done on the internet and results are in a lot of cases instant. Most of these services offer people searches, background checks, reverse phone lookup and many more.
Web-based background check services can be very useful because they reveal important information on almost anyone. These services collect their data from billions and billions of public records, from federal records to Deep Web data, social media information, criminal records and more.
What can you use an online background check service for?
While there are limitations in how you can use the information in a background check report, there are still a lot uses for them:
- You can run a background check on your boss or a coworker
- You can run a background check on a neighbor that just moved in
- You can track down a former classmate or a childhood friend (most background check services include in the report the address history and phone number of the searched person)
- You can run a background check on an online seller to see whether they are safe or scammers
- You can run a search on the parents of your kid’s new friend
- You can run a background check on a potential date
- You can even search yourself just to get an idea on how much information about you is available on the internet
Online background check services that are not FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) compliant can’t be used for employment screening, tenant screening, determining a person’s eligibility to get credit and other such purposes.
US Search online background check service – What does it offer?
US Search is an online background check service with over two decades of experience in the industry. It operates anywhere in the United States and offers various types of searches to its customers:
- People searches
- Background checks
- Email searches
- Reverse phone lookup
- Social network searches
- Property records
- Criminal records
This service is very serious about keeping intact the privacy of its users. All your searches will be completely confidential. When you run a search on someone through US Search, that person will have no idea that they’ve been searched for.
How does the people search feature work?
As we’ve already mentioned it, US Search offers various types of searches and ‘people search’ is one of them. This type of search allows you to track down various people, because almost anyone leaves behind information that can be collected, from birth and death records to phone numbers, properties owned and much more. With this type of search you can reconnect with a childhood friend or former classmate, former roommate and so on.
There are just a few simple steps involved in the process. First, you need to enter as much information as you have on the person you are searching for. On the US Search website you can input information such as the first name, the middle name, the last name of the person, their city/state of residence, their age. The more information you enter, the best the results.
Once you entered the information, a free preview of people search results will be displayed. From there you narrow it down to the exact person you are interested in.
The final step is to choose a type of report and there are three options to choose from: an instant people search report, an advanced people search report or a background check report.
The instant report includes the current address and the phone number of the person.
The advanced report adds the entire address history (past and current addresses).
The background check report is the most comprehensive report you can get and includes all the information we’ll enumerate below.
Available US Search plans
US Search offers single reports or OmniSearch memberships. The OmniSearch memberships allow you to run unlimited people and phone searches for the period of time you’ve chosen. You can choose between monthly memberships and quarterly memberships.
The monthly membership is $19.95.
The quarterly membership is $49.85 and you’ll be billed every three months. If you opt for this membership, you’ll save $10.
If you don’t want to use the service on a constant basis and you just need to run a one-time search on someone, you can also purchase a single report, for the amount of $2.45.
All these costs are for the standard reports offered by US Search, which include information such as full name, age, contact details, address history, aliases, relatives, associates, social networks.
If you want a more comprehensive report that includes even more information, you can purchase addons for an extra charge, such as: national criminal records ($19.95), marriage and divorce records ($2.95), email addresses ($2.95) and more.
If you don't think that US Search is the right service for you, there are plenty more options that you can find in our rankings of the best background services for this year.
