TruthFinder background check service
TruthFinder is a platform that claims to be one of the most trusted and best background check services in America. The company says it goes deeper than competing services by scanning dating profiles, education history, and owned assets when performing a check. It is based in San Diego, California, and was founded in 2015.
But how well does the site work in practice? As you’ll find out in this TruthFinder review, there are a few problems with the service, especially regarding pricing transparency and overenthusiastic promises about the level of information you’ll receive. Read on to find the truth about TruthFinder.
Plans and pricing
TruthFinder is frustratingly opaque when it comes to pricing. The only way to find out how much the service costs is to attempt to perform a background check and then wait several minutes while your report is prepared. Then, just before you open the requested report, you’ll be shown a pricing page. Unfortunately, this tends to be the norm as services like Instant Checkmate also use this approach to post pricing.
Rather than charge for a single background check, to use TruthFinder, you’ll have to subscribe to a monthly membership that unlocks unlimited reports. This costs $28.05 or $46.56 for two months, pushing the per-month price down to $23.28. The TruthFinder site is also programmed to occasionally offer special deals such as a single report with no membership or $1 to access five reports (the last offer was made after our test search and closing the browser page). A shortcoming is that there is not an annual plan with a discount nor an option to pay for only a single report.
Besides standard background checks, TruthFinder offers a reverse phone lookup service. This significantly cheaper product costs just $4.99 per month for unlimited lookups. Unfortunately, no non-membership option is available, so be sure to cancel your membership quickly if you only need to perform a single search.
Payment can be made via a major credit card or PayPal.
Features
TruthFinder offers many of the same features that you’d expect to find with other background check services. These include searches that cover both public and private databases, plus the ability to identify potential associates and relatives of your search subject.
If TruthFinder correctly manages to identify the person you are searching for, you could receive a report containing many essential details about their life. These will be collated from birth records, social media profiles, and criminal histories.
The TruthFinder platform also offers self-monitoring tools, meaning you can view your record to see what potential employers, or other people who search for you, will see on the platform. Through TruthFinder, you can even claim a particular record as your own. If you do this, you’ll be able to correct factual inaccuracies on it or hide it from other TruthFinder users.
If you’re getting suspicious calls from a number that you don’t recognize, you may be able to use TruthFinder to identify its owner via the reverse phone lookup feature. In some cases, TruthFinder may even be able to reveal social media profiles or photographs associated with the number you are searching for.
Interface and in use
The TruthFinder interface is slick and easy to use. To perform a search, all you need to do is enter the search subject’s name and their local city. Next, TruthFinder will ask questions to help narrow down possible results, such as the gender, age, and known locations of the individual being searched for. You are also requested to provide your first and last name, email, and zip code.
After that, TruthFinder will display a series of loading screens and progress bars. However, although these pages are visually attractive, it’s hard to avoid the feeling that they are presented for show. There are also enticing statements about how you may be “shocked” to see what is in this individual’s report, and you also have to verify that you are over 18 years old. There is also some marketing as 5-star favorable service reviews are flashed non-stop during the process.
Eventually, TurthFinder will show you a list of candidates who match your search query. You can identify the correct person based on a few factors, such as address and social network. During our testing, TruthFinder successfully identified the majority of people we tried searching for.
Once you’ve found the correct person, you’ll have to pay for your report before opening it. The final report screen is a lengthy interactive document containing a wide range of information on your search subject, including location history, contact information, and possible relatives. Strangely, TruthFinder also includes extraneous information in reports, such as horoscopes and astrological signs.
Support
If you run into trouble or have any difficulty using TruthFinder, you can turn to the help section of the platform’s website. Unfortunately, the information presented here isn’t as detailed as we’d like, but there are some articles on essential topics such as “Cancel Account” and “Is TruthFinder Safe?” Consequently, If you need assistance, you’ll probably be better off contacting the service via the toll-free number, which is available Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 10 PM ET. TruthFinder support staff are available weekdays and work extended hours, so your query will be responded to quickly.
We were disappointed to find limited other options, such as chat, videos, or a user forum. We also did not find a direct email or a support portal.
Security
To keep your search query private, TruthFinder applies 128-bit encryption to all information transmitted and data stored by the service. One primary security concern with any background check site is that the service shouldn’t be used for malicious purposes like stalking. To this end, TruthFinder does attempt to inform customers what the site can and can’t be used for via a series of pop-up warnings.
The competition
One major limitation of TruthFinder is that you can’t use the service to complete pre-employment background checks as it is not FRCA compliant. If you are looking for such a service, consider People Trail instead. People Trail is licensed to perform pre-employment background checks and doesn’t require you to sign up for a lengthy membership as TruthFinder does.
PeopleFinders is another background checking service in direct competition with TruthFinder. If you’re not keen on TruthFinder’s hefty monthly cost, you’ll be glad to hear that PeopleFinders’ prices start at a more budget-friendly $2.95.
Final verdict
TruthFinder is a helpful tool if you need to look up a long-lost relative or double-check what information about yourself is available in the public domain. However, the service loses points for its pushy marketing tactics, mostly opaque pricing, and ultimately a high price point that requires a monthly plan. In the end, because of its expensive subscription model, we only recommend TruthFinder to users who need to perform frequent background checks.
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