Positives
- User-friendly layout
- Organized reports
- Versatile search options
- Criminal and financial records
- Mobile app
Negatives
- Expensive
- Additional fee for downloads
- No single report purchase option
Staying relevant as a background check service with so many competitors on the market is no easy task. Nevertheless, Intelius has remained in the spotlight since its foundation in 2003. The company provides a highly refined search engine that returns several types of personal data, such as birth dates, criminal records, financial information, and more. Users can look up a long-lost friend or family member, or check the background of a new neighbor with ease. Intelius isn’t restricted to just the browser, as the smartphone app makes searching for people on the go straightforward. Although it’s not a free service, the cheapest subscription is charged every two months and costs $21.13 per month ($42.26 in total).
Features
Specialized in multi-layered information retrieval, Intelius is a helpful source for discovering data on distant family members, new neighbors, or even suspected scammers. All search functions are available on the web browser, and users can download reports for an additional fee. The reverse phone and address lookup tools are useful alternatives for finding information on a person whose full name is inaccurate or unavailable. Another option for when initial details are missing is the people directory, which separates people’s surnames alphabetically and displays the most common names with the surname listed.
The service should also be commended for its dedicated smartphone support. The app, which is available on Android and iOS devices, provides the same results, just on a smaller screen. Additionally, the website works well via a browser used on mobile devices, with an adapted layout that fully displays the reports and their navigation menu. Having all the features suitable for smartphones is useful, as customers can search or access previous reports whenever they need.
Reports
Intelius offers several types of reports that may contain personal, legal, or financial information, which can be accessed by providing either full name, phone number, email, or address. Generally, they are rich in relevant details, which are gathered and presented in an organized way. Depending on the subscription plan chosen, they can be person, phone, or address reports.
People searching returns the most essential information, such as email, address, and relatives, among others. The report also shows sex offenders nearby, based on the subject’s location history, with details like full name, location, and criminal offenses, along with photos. The report itself is well-presented and easy to comprehend; there’s even a map that pinpoints all the areas in which the person has lived.
With the reverse phone lookup tool, it’s possible to find information about a person or business from just a phone number. The report may contain the subject’s name, address, social media profile, and more. This tool can help determine whether an unknown phone number belongs to a telemarketing company, a distant relative, or a scammer. Also, when going through the results, there’s an option to view the phone number owner’s background report, which can be useful when their name isn’t accurate enough to perform a people search.
Another helpful alternative to finding someone without knowing their name is the address lookup tool. By providing the subject’s street address, city, state, and zip code, Intelius may show details such as location, property value, evictions, and many more. This kind of report often includes information about the current and previous property owners, which can be used to run a background check on the person found. This can be helpful to learn more about who’s living next door.
Searches
Intelius offers all the necessary search options for finding or identifying someone. There are four ways to search for someone’s data: by their name, phone number, email, or address. All these types of searches can return meaningful information about the subject. Moreover, having different options can be helpful, as, in some cases, the subject’s name may be what the user is trying to find out. For example, the phone search is useful for discovering who’s been calling persistently from an unknown number, and the address search helps look for information about a new neighbor or a property owner.
Ease of Use
The site’s layout is uncluttered and straight to the point, which makes the navigation simple and intuitive. Its interface clearly displays the search box with its four categories divided into tabs that can be easily changed from one to another. The reports button shows all previous reports, categorized by background, phone, email, and location. Intelius works well when accessed from browsers on mobile devices, with the same tabs displayed and easily accessible. There’s also a mobile app available for Android and iOS devices, which the website doesn’t draw attention to. This is surprising since it’s also user-friendly and allows customers to check people’s backgrounds on the go.
Data Reliability
Intelius searches millions of public records to provide the information found on its reports, so the data presented can only be as reliable as its sources. Moreover, another drawback of the service is that the report system is essentially a shot in the dark when using Intelius for the first time. It may seem that an initial search is free, but actually, no results are shown until payment has been made. Furthermore, there’s no guarantee that the desired information will be revealed anyway. Indications are given, suggesting that some personal records have been found, but that’s as far as it goes. For this reason, it’s not unusual to end up with outdated, incorrect, or completely absent information.
Security & Privacy
Intelius prides itself on providing industry-standard protection for its users, as shown by the valid security certificate on its site. Every page involving data transmission or personal information is covered by 256-bit encryption, considered strong enough to defend against most hacking attempts. Intelius also offers additional identity protection for $9.95 per month. Unfortunately, the company admits it collects personal information, but users can request their data not to be stored, as mentioned in the site’s DMCA policy. Additionally, there’s the option to remove your profile from Intelius’s database, which will stop it from appearing in other people’s searches but won’t erase it from the official records from which it was gathered. This opt-out page can be found in the help desk section, and the staff will remove the information between 24 to 48 hours after the request.
Pricing
Intelius has three different price plans. People search is the cheapest, starting at $21.13 per month (billed every two months). However, customers who don’t have the required information to do a people search need to subscribe to the more expensive plans, which only come as monthly subscriptions. The Address Lookup plan, which comes at $29.78 per month, lets customers find information with just one address. Meanwhile, the Reverse Phone Lookup costs $34.95 and only requires a phone number to get all the information on someone.
It’s important to mention that all three plans offer unlimited reports, but paying for a single report separately is not an option. Also, to download reports, there’s an additional one-time fee of $3.99. Finally, Intelius provides an extra identity protection service, which costs $9.95 per month. The company accepts Visa and Mastercard credit cards, and Paypal.
Customer Service
Intelius proudly presents its A+ rating received from the Better Businesses Bureau, which is hugely positive. As for the on-site customer support, the options available are to call the help desk on weekdays, from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. PST, subit a ticket, or send an email. But before reaching out, it’s always a good idea to visit the FAQ page, which holds an extensive list of answers for different problems. The company also maintains a blog page with several helpful articles about its various tools and how users can make the most out of them. Finally, although Intelius has both Facebook and Twitter profiles, the company doesn’t update them in a while.
Bottom Line
Overall, Intelius does a good job of gathering people’s information from public records and displaying it in an organized and accessible layout. Its multiple search possibilities are a strong point of this service, as well as its people directory. However, having to pay an extra fee to download the reports and not being able to purchase a report on its own are certainly drawbacks. Despite these, Intelius is still a reliable background check service, with the advantage of being accessible from mobile devices through a browser or dedicated app. Finally, even though there’s no chance of getting a full report for free and the monthly subscription prices are not the cheapest, the data-rich and well-organized reports are commendable.
* Your membership will automatically renew every 60 days unless you cancel before the start of the next term. Intelius will charge the recurring membership fee of $42.25 to the same payment option you use today until you cancel.
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Dee says
I just wanted to check on an number to make it was legitimately for a real law firm
After doing all the nonsense I had to do, I paid $.95 for a people search, all I got was an error message over and over.
BUT I was then charged a total of $5.34 via two separate payments.
I hope to get this back
Daniel (Best Reviews Team) says
Hello Dee, and thanks for your comment! We’re sorry to hear about your experience with Intelius.
The company does provide refunds (even if it’s in a case-by-case scenario), so we hope you’re able to get your money back. If you’re still trying to figure out whether the call you received is from a legitimate company, we recommend reading our blog article 4 Best Ways To Look up Phone Numbers. Have a nice day!