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InstantCheckmate

How would you rate InstantCheckmate?
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California
1 review
16 helpful votes
Follow Bil P.
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Stay away.
October 29, 2015

Instant Checkmate should be put out of business. Instead of revealing the criminal history of others, the criminal history of Checkmate should be exposed. Everything they do is designed to separate the visitor from his or her money. It's deceptive, a sham, and a joke.

Date of experience: October 29, 2015
Illinois
1 review
18 helpful votes
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Paypal helped
August 5, 2015

I paid with PayPal and canceled recurring payments immediately after getting my first search. I called this company and made them send me an email confirming this fact! I found more information on Google than I did on this scam site!

Date of experience: August 5, 2015
Arizona
1 review
20 helpful votes
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I went to their site and tried the free lookup which seemed to be pretty complete. So I subscribed to the 30 day plan for $28.85 which for any other web site would be a standalone purchase with no contingencies. After careful reading of the fine print I discovered that they were going to charge my account the same amount every month until I canceled the agreement. I immediately deleted the continuing transaction from PayPal. I try to download the information the Ap has discovered about and find that I will be charged $1.99 for each download. I skip that and try looking up somebody else. While the information was very complete on the sample lookup, this time it is not nearly as complete and if I want that additional information, you guessed it, there is another charge in the $20.00 range. RIPOFF!

Date of experience: November 1, 2015
Illinois
1 review
7 helpful votes
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I did a search for myself and they did not even get my name right. They added a middle initial - I have no middle name or initial. If they can't get my name right - how can you trust anything about them?

Date of experience: June 17, 2016
Washington
1 review
14 helpful votes
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Beware
March 7, 2015

I recently subscribed to InstantCheckmate. I ask for information three times; one for a friend, one for my son, one for me. None were accurate and did not contain any information that should have been included. They were totally wrong. I emailed them and informed them of this unsatisfactory service. I told them I wanted my money back and wanted my account closed immediately. They have not responded. Beware of this company!

Date of experience: March 7, 2015
Nevada
1 review
7 helpful votes
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Scam autobilling
July 16, 2016

Even if you THINK you are only signing up for one month, they WILL continue billing you.

Deceptive.

DO NOT USE

Update:
After a day and an email back to the Company, they have refunded the money that was withdrawn for a second month after my one month membership.

ANY company that tells you that you are purchasing a one month subscription, but then in the little print, says they will continue billing you monthly is not right in my book.

Instant checkmate did do the right thing and refund the second billing after I cancelled my account.

Bad for the auto billing when they sell you "One month" of service.
Props for refunding the fee for the continued service I did not want.

Your mileage may vary. Don't do business with sites that continue a subscription automatically when you try to buy just a one month service.

Date of experience: July 16, 2016
West Virginia
2 reviews
19 helpful votes
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This company uses information that is free for everyone under the information act. It overcharges and under delivers. There is a glich in the PDF function, so you are unable to download a PDF. The customer service is friendly and helpful it seems at first. But after trying to get a refund they said I could have because of the service being no where close to what we expected, the first man I spoke to told me he would process the claim, and then I called back within the hour and spoke to another woman who said the claim had not been submitted at all. I feel they tried to tell me what I wanted to hear to get me off the phone. Do yourself a favor and avoid doing business with them.

Date of experience: August 7, 2015
Mexico
1 review
2 helpful votes
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Worthless scam
March 22, 2021

The service is a joke. I knew it when they didn't even have adequate info to verify my identity such as a birth date or a social security number and they gave me countless options under my name that didn't even match any of the criteria I gave them. The so-called report was about 75% inaccurate and fiction so to do this on someone else and to trust the info you receive is ludicrous and actually should be criminal because it could incriminate someone you're searching for incorrectly, and and most likely will. Also site was difficult to navigate and I had to redo my password twice, my request for my own report twice and couldn't reach customer service on the phone and on and on... Waste of time and money.

Date of experience: March 22, 2021
Nicholas K. InstantCheckmate Rep
over a year old

Hello Robin,
We are constantly working on and updating our records and we appreciate you taking the time to give us constructive feedback. We apologize you were unhappy with some of the information in our reports. Since we rely on third-party data sources, we can only display the information that we were provided, which could potentially include incomplete or inaccurate data. We hope to continue to improve our services to make them better for you and future customers.

Thank you

Massachusetts
1 review
7 helpful votes
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Spam popups
December 9, 2017

I signed on looking for info about an old friend. Got no useful information. I did get daily spam popups. "What did Harriet Smith do?" "What is Harriet Smith doing?" "Find out the latest news on Harriet Smith," etc. (not the person's real name). Now I'm getting holiday spam pop-ups! "Find Harriet Smith for Christmas..." This site is GARBAGE!

Date of experience: December 9, 2017
California
1 review
17 helpful votes
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It sucks.
October 19, 2015

At first I was excited. It claimed it was free, and was instant. It was the opposite. It took me 15 min to fill out the information, and it wan't free! $%^&! It was a cool idea, but it didn't perform. :(

Date of experience: October 19, 2015
New Jersey
1 review
11 helpful votes
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One time only charge for premium & PDFs 19.99 charged 3 times when I hit button because I was not given any premium info. Cancelled subscription and charged for one month, but unable to use after I cancelled in 3 days due to false charges.

Date of experience: July 31, 2015
California
4 reviews
17 helpful votes
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This sight is very complecated, and deceptive. There is no one price for everything. If you forget why you sighed up before, and you fall for the same scam again, you are black listed. You can not use your same e-mail address or credit card. Everything is an add on fee, the hole package is not included. I do not recommend this sight, there adds are deceptive, If you just want a background check it is ok, pay once and you are gone. If you want to look up someone by their phone number it is extra, if you want to make a copy that is extra, do not try it for more than one thing because all the fees will add on to lots of money. Try a more upfront company.

Date of experience: September 8, 2014
Georgia
1 review
2 helpful votes
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I needed to check some vital on a couple licenses and somehow i was sent to this website. I wasnt really paying much attention to what I was doing, as I am very leery of even going to a site like this. I gave my name and this site pulled up every bit of information from family members to other specific information. I was really suckered in now. I went further and paid. It promised me every bit of information, but when i clicked to see what it had, I GOT NOTHING! It had nothing about me. Then it had another button to click to see who was spying on me, but by this time i was afraid that i gave this site my email and my home address, let alone my debit card info. I honestly hope this site leaves me alone and dont hit me for a million dollars (i only have $40!) or commit a cyber crime using my name.

Date of experience: January 17, 2023
Nicholas K. InstantCheckmate Rep
over a year old

Hello,

We are constantly working on and updating our records and we appreciate you taking the time to give us constructive feedback. We apologize you were unhappy with some of the information in our reports. Since we rely on third-party data sources, we can only display the information that we were provided, which could potentially include incomplete or inaccurate data. We hope to continue to improve our services to make them better for you and future customers. Please feel free to contact our dedicated Customer Care Team at (800) 222-8985, or email us at support@instantcheckmate.com, and we will try to make this right.

Thank you

Texas
3 reviews
20 helpful votes
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And another thing! That website for that giggle ball for dogs is a rip off. If you order the two, they send you for and charge you. If you complain, they tell u to give the other balls to a friend. Finally they tell you they will refund the shipping fee but only if u return the balls at your expense. So. How is that a refund? Total $28 lost. These sites get away with this! Total rip off of the people's money. Also the balls are hard plastic. All the dog can do is nudge it with his nose. Dog on the infomercial appears to be playing with a replica that is pliable. Sucks!

Date of experience: October 25, 2015
Colorado
1 review
23 helpful votes
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Its a scam
September 28, 2015

Don't be surprised and amused by all the progress bars and endless search the webpage portrays.
Do not sign up for 1$ fee, you will end up paying more and all the hassle.
Best of all just google your name, you will find more records than what you find here

Date of experience: September 28, 2015
Texas
1 review
8 helpful votes
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Using the service once. Then cancled out online, I was still getting billed. I call there customer service line to speak to a supervisor to make sure it gets taken care of. First call while waiting for a supervisor I get hung up on. Second call is a 20 minute wait, finally a supervisor get's on the line and Mr. Rodney supposedly has taken care of thing's.

Date of experience: April 27, 2017
Georgia
3 reviews
9 helpful votes
Follow Tara B.
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PLEASE be careful when using this website. They will tell you that you are getting the total report and useful information with the one fee. After you enter the name they will tell you that for an additional $1.99 you can get the report on PDF, that didn't matter as you may decline and view the report there. However, if you wish to know anything beyond the person's date of birth, their astrological sign and an address that is over 3 years old, you will need to pay an ADDITIONAL $20 to view anything beyond that. I wish that I could give it less than 1 star, as they don't even deserve a rating.

Date of experience: January 22, 2014
Texas
1 review
0 helpful votes
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Extremely Satisfied
August 18, 2022

I found the self background check extremely accurate. I needed exact dates for a job interview and the information I pulled from my report was spot on. I got the job and I am extremely grateful that The information provided by InstantCheck was critical to my success. Thanks again for being available and affordable.

Date of experience: August 17, 2022
Nicholas K. InstantCheckmate Rep
over a year old

Hello Edward,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us with your feedback. We are delighted to see that you enjoyed your experience with us, and congratulations on the job! We look forward to continuing to assist you in the future:)

Thank you,
Instant Checkmate Support

Washington
1 review
11 helpful votes
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Very professional
July 8, 2015

I finally got a reply from chk. Mates, in there email they gave me a terms of use and what Happens after the 1.00 charge for five days the trial service then if not cancelled you get a immediately charge to your ccrd. For 29.63 and every month thereafter unless you cancelled the service, also if you get charged and it goes back to them as insufficient funds they reserve the right to Bill you every month to the amount agreed all refunds are on a case by case basis, fortunately I was granted a 2 month complete refund and service cancelled the lady who helped me is Ericka Wills in customer service. Even though it showed that I was at fault they issued the refund GOOD LUCK

Date of experience: July 8, 2015
Georgia
3 reviews
21 helpful votes
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I tried it and agree with the other comments. When it said it was establishing a secure connection I became suspicious because the address bar did not show the usual https URL. So I ran Wireshark (a network capture program) and can see my search name in readable text. So don't be fooled and DON'T enter any personal information.

Date of experience: February 21, 2014

Overview

InstantCheckmate has a rating of 1.5 stars from 344 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers dissatisfied with InstantCheckmate most frequently mention credit card, phone number and email address. InstantCheckmate ranks 86th among Government Records sites.

service
83
value
87
shipping
30
returns
42
quality
72
This company responds to reviews on average within 2 days
+7