Match.com requires a paid membership to gain accessibility to members and send messages. There are some recommendations they make based on your search parameters called Highlights. But, to respond to a Highlight you need to spend an additional $3.00. A six month membership is already $150. I'm a fully paid member who can't message the profiles they send me without incurring additional expense. NOTE: There is no level of customer service worth contacting. There is no help line to call. You can only use email. Email responses and "solutions" from their representatives come from a book of canned responses and in trying to resolve an issue, I received "help" from five different reps. Match.com is a scam. I'll never recommend it.