Instant Checkmate Overview – Should you use this background check service?

Trying to do a background check on someone by yourself can be hard work. The research part can be exhausting and very time and nerve-consuming. There are so many sources of information you’d have to scour and so much hours to put in. That is why online background check services are so useful, because they save you the trouble of doing all the tedious homework. These services act like a detective that walks around, gathers the information and then compiles it and hands it to you in a neatly arranged and documented report.

Background check services have access to millions of public records, including birth, marriage records, court records, business records, governmental financial records, internet data such as that on social media websites and more. All these sources can contain useful information and online background check services analyze them all and include the helpful ones in your background check report.

Are there any limitations in how you can use the information in a background check report?

Web-based background check services such as Instant Checkmate do have their limitations. Because most of these internet background check services are not FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) compliant, the data provided in their reports can’t be used for purposes other than informative.

That means you can’t use background check services to:

• Harass a person or blackmail it with information extracted from the background check report
• For hiring purposes; you can’t screen candidates for a job based on background check reports
• You can’t use them for tenant screening
• You can’t refuse a student a scholarship
• You can’t determine someone’s credit eligibility based on the background check report

What can you do with an online background check service?

Even though they are not useful for professional purposes, background check services can still be of great use. They can help you do a lot of things such as:

• Run a background check on a work colleague
• Run a background check on your neighbors
• Run a background check on a potential date
• If your kid makes a new friend, you can run a background check on his parents
• You can reconnect with an old childhood friend or a former classmate
• You can run a background check on yourself, to see what others can find out about you and what information about you is available online

Instant Checkmate Overview – Is it a good background check service to consider?

Instant Checkmate is an online background check service on the market for almost 10 years. The company boasts on more than 1,3 billion searches and counting.

Just like most online background check services out there, this one is not FCRA accredited either, so the limitations described above apply to this service as well. You can only use the information in the background check reports for personal use.

Instant Checkmate is a complex service that offers several types of searches to its customers. You can search someone by their name, phone number, email and location.

How much does Instant Checkmate cost?

Instant Checkmate operates based on subscriptions and there are two types of reports offered: standard reports and Premium reports.

There are 2 subscriptions available for the standard report and they are:

• A 1-month subscription that is priced at $34.78
• A 3-month subscription that is priced at $83.47

These subscriptions give you unlimited access to the service for the chosen period of time (one month or three months), although you can only access the standard reports.

You can also upgrade to the Premium report anytime you want, if you feel you need more complex information on the person you are looking for. An upgrade to the Premium report will cost you an additional $19.99.

Instant Checkmate also offers a real affordable trial for up to 5 days, at the price of $1 per day.

What can you find in a standard report?

An Instant Checkmate standard report will include information such as:

• Full name
• Birth date
• Address history (current and past addresses)
• Potential relatives
• E-mail addresses
• Social media accounts
• Arrest records

What can you find in a Premium report?

However, if you want to have a more comprehensive report, you can opt for the Premium report. In addition to the information included in the standard report, this one also includes information such as:

• Civil judgments
• Neighbors
• Tax liens
• Foreclosures
• Corporate affiliations
• Properties
• Voter registration

Instant Checkmate provides accurate and easy to read reports and they also have a mobile app. Unfortunately though, there is a drawback with the app, in that it is only compatible with Android devices.