Intelius Review

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. 

Intelius Features

Many Intelius reviews claim this is the best platform on the market. The following key features are the reason why:

Massive Pool of Records

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.

Distinctive Data

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.

Intelius Connections™

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.

Tiered Service

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.

Identity Protection

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.

Rated A by the Better Business Bureau

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.

Honor Roll Status From the Internet Society's Online Trust Alliance

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.

CCPA Inquiry and Deletion Procedure

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.

Ease of Use

Intelius review can’t seem to agree on that one. Here’s what we found:

Web Design

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.

Report Quality

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.

Paywall

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.

Mobile Apps

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 Pricing

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

• $29.95/online background check report

Subscriptions

• $19.95/month of Identity Protect subscription

• $24.86/month of Intelius Premier membership

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 Review - Verdict

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?