Written by: Ritesh
Updated: September, 11, 2024
Intelius is a highly rated checker of public records. We ran our own online background check on the company to see whether it’s really worth its weight in gold. Read this Intelius review to learn about the insights we gleaned from our investigation.
Highlights
Intelius is arguably the leading information broker in the US. Founded in 2003, the Seattle-based company is under the umbrella of People Connect Inc., a digital identity corporation that also controls TruthFinder, Instant Checkmate, US Search, and Classmates.
At first glance, Intelius.com won’t blow you away. If you compare it to other personal background check companies, you’ll find Intelius’s quite average in terms of design and content.
So, what’s behind the platform’s uber-popularity? We decided to do our own Intelius review to find out.
Legal Disclaimer – Intelius isn’t a Consumer Reporting Agency (CRA) as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The site can’t be used for employment, credit, tenant screening, or related purposes.
Many Intelius reviews claim this is the best platform on the market. The following key features are the reason why:
Intelius has more than 20 billion public records at its disposal. The platform’s data reservoir is so colossal it’s like a sage among personal information experts. Throughout its over 15-year history, it has accumulated a database bigger than most, so it can naturally provide the most substantial reports.
However, we found several negative reviews on Intelius background checks, saying that they sometimes contain inaccurate and incomplete data.
Apparently, Intelius’s perhaps unparalleled resource of publicly available background information of people (including marriage and divorce histories, liens, civil judgments, public arrest records, and sex offender archives) isn’t enough to please everyone.
If you want to find out about a person’s educational attainment, Intelius is the platform to use. Many personal background check companies don’t offer such in-depth information.
This interactive tool will help you see beyond your subject’s inner circle and discover more connections with a single click of a button.
When testing for this Intelius review, we loved the graphs. The site automatically connects the dots to help you see how things are connected.
Another advantage of using Intelius.com is the multitude of search and billing options.
You won’t have to commit to a lengthy subscription service if you won’t perform countless searches in a month. But if you don’t want to pay per lookup, you’ll have the choice to sign up for Intelius Premier and enjoy unlimited searches.
Further, you may pull a statewide or nationwide criminal history report individually for less than the cost of a full-on online background check. For just a couple of dollars more, you could get a hold of everything Intelius can dig up about a person.
Intelius offers a value-added solution to combat ID theft and fraud: Identity Protect. With this monthly subscription, the company will monitor your public records and keep an eye on your credit card activity.
Is Identity Protect worth spending nearly $20 a month on?
Definitely give it a try if your budget allows it.
Intelius has earned the coveted BBB accreditation since 2014. Although the company wasn’t in the BBB’s good graces during its first 11 years in the industry, it currently boasts a respectable A rating.
However, it’s worth noting that BBB users have rated the company just a shade over one star. It’s discouraging, but we advise you to take negative Intelius reviews with a grain of salt.
Intelius.com has to undergo an annual audit that measures its readiness to neutralize attacks and prevent data breaches.
The site’s Honor Roll status is proof that it has passed the OTA’s requirements. In fact, Intelius is one of approximately 1,200 organizations the OTA has audited and recognized to have robust online consumer protection and excellent data security through responsible privacy practices.
Does nailing the OTA’s cybersecurity audit carry weight? Absolutely.
Behind the OTA is the Internet Society, a global nonprofit with a goal of making the Web open, trustworthy, and secure. It’s a legitimate organization and its approval is important.
Speaking of privacy, Intelius gives residents of the Golden State the option to stop the sale of their public records.
In pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act, the company has set a procedure in place that allows you to request access to your personal information and see what others could search about you. You can also ask to remove all of your existing records from Intelius’s database for good.
Intelius review can’t seem to agree on that one. Here’s what we found:
Intelius.com’s design is unpretentious. It doesn’t have the dizzying array of pages other criminal background check sites tend to have.
On the other hand, it’s very intuitive and makes the service easy to use. Even novice users won’t face any challenges while using Intelius.
The company has seen a spike in complaints since it launched its new platform in the second half of 2019. Usually, the unpleasant Intelius reviews are about reports with old, inaccurate, or missing details.
The good thing about Intelius is it won’t withhold search results before a payment is made. You could take advantage of Intelius free search options to view bare-bones records. This way, you’ll know what you’d be paying for. It can also help ensure that you won’t have to risk spending your hard-earned money on non-existent records and fruitless lookups.
The Intelius platform is accessible without a web browser. The company has rolled out mobile apps for iOS and Android. The mobile Intelius app is just as good as the mobile-responsive Intelius.com, so the company can deliver the same level of user experience either way.
Intelius prices are some of the most affordable in the industry. But it can be difficult to wrap your head around them. The inconspicuousness of its billing policy is what grinds some people’s gears.
Here’s how it goes:
One-Off Payments
Subscriptions
Bear in mind that discontinuing Premier Plus during the 5-day trial comes with a cancellation fee of $7.95.
The Intelius Premier Plus free trial is available only if you opt to keep the service. Many customers assumed that the Intelius free trial wouldn’t turn into a charge under certain circumstances. To learn everything about the offer’s mechanics, read the fine print.
Intelius is an exceptional platform. But it could definitely use some improvement in many ways.
The pricing can be more straightforward. It’s good that the company offers plenty of options for different pocketbooks, but the average person needs pricing clarity.
The company has received mixed Intelius background check reviews, many of which center around data inaccuracy and inconsistency. Although we didn’t have the same experience with the platform, we believe that these allegations weren’t baseless. Where there’s smoke there’s fire.
At the end of the day, the platform has more resources than most of its competitors. And we expect to see less of such complaints in the future. After all, the BBB itself is high on it.
Why don’t you give it a try and see for yourself?
More helpful reads:
Is there a totally free background check?
Like other law-abiding background check companies, Intelius depends on public sources. Any information of yours another person could obtain from government agencies, uncover through Google, or unearth via other search engines is likely within Intelius’ reach.
In other words, Intelius doesn’t need your authority to make your personal (albeit non-sensitive) data available for public consumption. Your consent is implied when you applied for a driver’s license, subscribed to a phone service, created an email account, rented an apartment, filed for divorce, and the like.
No credentialed company with a solid reputation could guarantee accurate and complete results as well as impregnable cybersecurity 100% of the time. But Intelius makes adequate effort to collect abundant public data and deter hacking.
Intelius’s long-standing presence in the industry speaks for its credibility. There’s irrefutable evidence that it upholds its unwavering commitment to protect the identity and financial data of its users.
If you want to find a person on Intelius but don’t want to subscribe over the long term, you can opt out of its service before your trial period is over.
However, you have to do it manually. You have to visit the opt-out page on Intelius.com, and then fill out the form on it accordingly. Beware of the expiration of your trial to avoid an unwanted regular membership and be charged the full price.
Users who are incorrectly billed by the company, particularly those who complain through BBB, can receive a refund.
To initiate your cancellation request, log into Intelius. Then, go to “My Accounts” in order to find the “My Membership” tab. From there, you could call it quits by proceeding to the “Cancel My Membership” section.
In case that you experience some trouble or have some questions, you could talk to Intelius’s Customer Support through (888) 245-1655 (7AM-5PM PST, Monday through Friday), at [email protected], or via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. If you need more information, check out our Intelius review above.