By: Kelly | Last updated October 18, 2019 
Background check services are a thriving industry and the internet is full of companies offering these so called public records search services. They can be useful for various purposes:
- Reconnect with various people such as former classmates or work colleagues, childhood friends and so on
- Find out a thing or two about a potential blind date, a neighbor, a work colleague
- Do a background check on the parents of a new friend of your child
- Find out useful info on certain internet sellers so you can ensure you are doing your online shopping from a reliable source
- Run a background check on yourself to see what information is available about you, etc.
Depending on the service and plan you sign up for, your report might be less or more complex. Here are some of the more basic information typically included in a report: addresses (current and past), phone numbers, social media accounts, potential relatives, email addresses, arrest records. More complex reports can also include: owned properties, tax liens, driving records, bankruptcies, drug tests and more.
Instant Checkmate - what are the benefits of this service?
Instant Checkmate is an online service that describes itself as a public records search service. The company is not accredited by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), which means you can only use the service for personal, informative purposes. You can’t use the service for employment purposes, to establish someone’s eligibility for credit and other such uses.
Instant Checkmate offers several types of search: people search, reverse phone lookup, email search, location search.
Like most companies that offer this type of service, Instant Checkmate gathers its information by compiling “millions of public records, including information provided by state and local governments”, as they mention on their website.
Price. Instant Checkmate is a subscription based service and you can choose between a 1-month and a 3-month subscription. The company offers two types of background reports: the basic report and a Premium report. The two subscriptions include standard reports and not the premium ones.
The 1-month subscription is billed at $34.78.
The 3-month subscription is billed at $83.47.
With both plans you get unlimited reports for the period of time specified in the subscription.
There is also a trial available that gives you access to reports for only $1 per day. But the trial is only available for 5 days.
What does a standard report include?
A standard report includes addresses, phone numbers, the date of birth, email addresses, sex offenders located nearby, potential relatives, arrest records.
However, as we’ve already mentioned it, there is also the option to upgrade to a premium report, if you are willing to pay an extra $19.99.
The Premium report offered by Instant Checkmate completes the information mentioned above with: tax liens, neighbors, civil judgments, foreclosures, corporate affiliations and business associates, properties owned, voter registration.
Overall, the information provided in the Instant Checkmate reports is accurate. The interface is really organized and straightforward and Instant Checkmate also has a mobile app, although at the time of writing this article, it had no iOS support. The app is only compatible with Android devices, which is a drawback.
Another minor inconvenience is the fact that Instant Checkmate is a bit slow in generating your report, compared to other similar services on the market.
Aside from these disadvantages, Instant Checkmate is a reliable and experienced service, on the market for over 10 years.
Customer support is available via phone and email and you can contact them 7 days a week, from 5 am to 10 pm PST, except from holidays, when these hours may vary.
