Intelius Review

Detailed Reviews

Throughout our life, we meet hundreds of people. It can be in school, college, workplace, neighborhood, at events, and many other instances. How many names do we remember, and how many do we stay in touch with after that? The ability to choose our social circle is a privilege in our life.

It is a wise decision to know the new person in and out before accepting them into our life. One can run a thorough background check to find out the person’s personal information. Background check services such as Intelius provides the users with detailed reports sourced from public and private records.

Pros

• Intelius provides a large variety of search options.
• They allow the user to purchase a single report without subscribing to their plans (A La Carte Reports).
• The revamped system allows users to view their purchased reports indefinitely.
• The people search displays a spider graph that shows the connection between relatives.
• They offer a 7-day free trial of Intelius Premier Plus membership.

Cons

• Their pricing structure is complex, and they lack transparency in pricing their reports.
• There is no download option for the reports.
• The 7-day free trial charges additional cost if the user cancels within 7 days.

Introduction

The current generation relies heavily on search engines such as Google. It has become a habit to search for shops, restaurants, people, places, and what not!

You can have any information at your fingertips within seconds. The usage of the data determines whether it is prudent or not to have easy access to the amount of info at our disposal.

However, the search engines are restricted as they can only retrieve publicly open sources; websites protected by passwords cannot be accessible.

American citizens can access public records according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The question that arises is, what kind of documents are these?

We can retrieve birth & death records, marriage, court records, property & licensing records, and other statistical data.

The state agencies allow access to those public records that are not considered confidential. Thus, some national records may be unreachable if the federal agencies choose to prevent its release.

Intelius acts as a data broker. They conduct data mining (public and private records), sort the information, and create profiles of individuals in their database.

Any person willing to find out information about another person or view their profile can utilize their service after paying for it.

Intelius has its headquarters in Seattle, Washington. Its parent company is PeopleConnect, which also possesses Classmates and USSearch.

So, what does Intelius do? It offers information services, which include people search, property search, background checks, reverse phone lookup, among others.

It can form a vast network of information after sourcing it from over 20 billion public records. They can also search using some of the commercially available resources too.

Let us have a look at their homepage and then find out what they have to offer their users.

The homepage

Intelius recently enhanced its website design to improve navigation. It also provides a simplified user experience as they have divided the searches into the name, phone, and address.

We can see there are 3 search options readily available on the main body. It includes name, phone, and address.

Why do people need to search for information about other people? It may be that the person wants to research family history or look for distant relatives.

They allow us to trace unknown phone numbers, thus establishing the identify the person who is calling. One may need to check the criminal records of a person too.

The sex offender registry is also accessible, and hence the background checks locate any registered sex offender within your vicinity.

Property title records are available for people planning to shift or purchase a property. The intellectual property registration (copyrights, patents, and federal trademarks) are a part of public record.

Business and professional licenses of a person can be a part of the background check services. One may search for themselves to figure out the details available in the records.

The various types of searches

Let us first explore the most popular report of people's search. We need to inform the system about the first and the last name of the person.

We then input the name of the state/city of the person, which is known to us. Then the search button conducts its function and provides us the list of people that share the characteristics.

The search results display the full name, age, phone number, locations, relatives, and information about employment and education.

The search list may be massive; thus, we can filter the results using the refinement options of state, city, age range, and middle initial.

Once we locate our target, we can click on the get report button. So, what shall entail in the report? We can get information such as age, aliases, contact details, relatives, social networks, criminal records, etc.

We want to mention that we failed to capture the actual reports of theses searches. It is because the reports are accessible after paying, and their pricing structure is complex.

The next type of search is using the phone number of the unknown caller. Everyone wishes to uncover the anonymous number, it may be a friend with whom you lost touch, or it may be unwanted calls.

Whichever the case, people need to get to the root of the issue and establish the identity of the caller. Intelius phone report will inform the user about information such as name, address, relatives, age, location, and phone carrier.

They also offer a confidential report of Reverse Phone Lookup, which provides detailed information on the unlisted cell phone, landline, or business number.

Day in day out, we are facing an increase in risk related to telemarketers and robocalls. A scammer number, thus, will be identified in the search.

The other type of search is related to address and reverse address lookup. You may be looking for a place, either on rent or to purchase the property.

At such times, we need to be cautious and establish the facts about the neighborhood. We get some fascinating property facts from the address search.

The search result list shows the year of built, bedrooms, home size, and plot size. However, the paid reports generate detailed information on the owners, residents, contact, home value, sales history, area sex offenders, satellite, and street images, among others.

Intelius allows one to conduct criminal record checks too. You may have met someone new and wish to figure out if he/she is trustworthy without any legal charges.

The generated report can be statewide or nationwide and will disclose the offense type, whether it is a felony, DUI, misdemeanors, among others.

We can also view the details on the dates, which court, case number, and the verdict and its charges. Prevention is better than cure, and identifying the truth about the people around you saves you from loss and heartbreaks.

Instead of performing these searches individually, one can conduct the background check, which provides an exhaustive report of the person.

Intelius background check services

There are background check companies that are CRA. They can thus conduct employment or tenant screening, check a person’s credit ratings or their education background for scholarships/admission.

However, Intelius provides a general background check. It provides intel that can be used to reconnect with a long-lost friend, family member, or neighbor.

The people who date online can also verify the information given by the partner using the service. The data can also be used to safeguard oneself and close family members from strangers too.

The property and phone number search give useful information on potential threats. A person can run a search on themselves to establish the accuracy of the data.

The details of the person’s full name and the city/state, are needed to run the search function. Again, there may several results, which we can filter and reach the desired person’s report.

What do we get out of the background check? It delivers the “people search” information (names, contact details, relatives, etc.) in addition to other data.

It goes further to deliver the person’s criminal records, marriage, divorce, bankruptcies, liens, and lawsuits against them.

These reports may also include Intelius public records. It includes all the information available with the federal/state agencies.

Other services offered by Intelius

We discussed people and phone number search, but Intelius also hosts directories for the same. They also have a section that allows people lookup by state.

What’s even cooler, is that hey present state facts, statistics on population, health, income, labor, and area codes.

The phone directory also provides information on the area codes. If you are a person who needs to conduct several searches, then there is an alternative for you.

One can subscribe to Intelius Premier, which is a monthly membership program. The advantage is that you get an unlimited search option and their premier report.

The reports can be accessed from their mobile applications, too, Android and iOS. Intelius has a unique program of identity protect.

It is a monthly subscription to safeguard yourself from identity theft. It also monitors the person’s credit and public records.

Most of the background check companies allow people to opt-out. Meaning they can pull down their personal information. Although it is debatable whether that happens or not!

However, a person can request Intelius by submitting an Opt-Out online form and have their information removed from the database.

(CRA) and the FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) forms a part of the federal law that must be complied by Consumer Reporting Agencies (CRA.)

The aim is to safeguard consumer’s right to privacy as FCRA decides the limitation of information in the consumer reports.

The consumer reports may have vital information about the person’s creditworthiness, character & general reputation, mode of living, among others.

The kind of information may be a threat to a person’s reputation. Many times people attempt to tarnish the character and image of other individuals.

The CRA is the background screening company that provides services such as employment, check, and tenant screening.

Intelius is not a CRA, and thus no user should use the information to make decisions of hiring, housing, insurance or creditworthiness.

It is also a requirement by the FCRA to get the consumer’s permission before legally accessing the consumer reports.

While Intelius searches confidentially, as the person gets no hints about being searched. One must be careful before misusing the information provided by the background search of Intelius.

Conclusion

Intelius provides its users an easy to use interface. The top search options appear on the dashboard while others are accessible from a drop-down arrow of “other searches.”

The various type of searches is cherry on the cake. Although we could not get a glimpse of their reports, we would like to mention that they provide an interactive relationship map. It shows the connection between different people in the person’s network.

They deliver detailed reports; however, their pricing plans are confusing. The user can subscribe to their premier membership or perform a la carte (pay for individual reports.)

When it comes to the comprehensiveness of the reports, we cannot expect 100% accurate. It is because the source of the data (public & commercial) may lack some information, or it is yet to be updated.

They lack dark web scans, unclaimed money, and social media searches, which is present in Beenverified. However, Intelius is one of the foremost companies to provide people search and background checks. Thus, it has the experience, upon which customers can rely.

Although there are better background checking service providers, Intelius is known for its detailed reports, directory, and anti-theft features. We, however, feel they lack transparency in pricing as the user figures out charges only during checkout, that too with extra add-ons.