Intelius People Search Review: Real Cost, Pros, and Cons (2021)


Intelius is a good resource to find information on an individual securely and discretely. The service offers a variety of products, including background checks, reverse phone lookups, reverse address lookups, and more.

With a decent accuracy rating, Intelius provides in-depth reports, with a vast amount of valuable and explanatory information, that can be trusted.

In this article, we will dive deep into the pros and cons of Intelius, highlighting their features and giving feedback on needed improvements.

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What Is Intelius?

Essentially, Intelius is a public records company, providing their customers with information services. This people search website enables users to run thorough background checks and learn more about the details of someone’s past. Reports could reveal a criminal background, unknown aliases, past addresses, social media accounts, etc.

This Seattle-based company was founded in 2003 and is now known as one of the biggest and most trusted internet background check service companies in the data brokerage industry. It’s a part of a larger company, People Connect Inc.


It uses public records and data on the internet to produce their background reports, specifically data from federal, state, and local government agencies, as well as some private companies. When running a background check, the service will look for personal information, phone numbers, an address history, and criminal records on the searched person.

It’s important to note that it is illegal to use Intelius background checks to screen a potential tenant or employee, as it’s not technically a consumer reporting agency. While it can be used to research a personal matter, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, it should not be used in most professional situations.

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How Does Intelius Work?

Intelius utilizes a massive information database from online public sources. While the root to their searching techniques is publicly available, tracking this level of information manually is extremely difficult.

Compiling all of the information through Google and varying public record services and sources would be a time-consuming and tiresome task. Intelius, on the other hand, can produce the same information in a matter of minutes.

Where Does Intelius Get Its Data?

• Federal, state, and county public record data
• Local crime records, including information from the FBI and other government agencies
• Online phone directories
• Real estate deeds
• Social media accounts
• Financial institution data
• Court documents and records
• Lawsuit filings
• Commercial company documents

What Information Can an Intelius Background Check Give?

• Arrest and criminal records
• Warrants and court documents
• Liens, foreclosures, and bankruptcies
• Birth and death records
• Misdemeanor and felony convictions
• Court records
• Personal and contact information

Top Competitors:

TruthFinder
Instantcheckmate
BeenVerified

Is Intelius Accurate?

Intelius has an A-rating among the Better Business Bureau and is widely known as a legitimate, accredited business. Ultimately, it is not a scam and when used correctly, can provide some telling information.


The company is also very transparent on their website regarding the Fair Credit Reporting Act regulations. In other words, the certain restrictions that should be abided to when using their service and consumer credit information for illegal uses.

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Intelius Pros

Affordable Subscription and Trial Period

Intelius offers users both an affordable subscription fee and a trial period, while deciding whether you want to upgrade to a more consistent account.

The premier membership can be purchased for as low as $19.95 a month. This subscription will allow you to perform as many searches as you want. Such an offer is far more expensive on some of the other background check service websites.

Additionally, you can test out the product before officially getting a monthly subscription. The trial period is quite cheap, which is hard to come by with some of the other services out there.

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Thorough Reports

When running a background check on someone, Intelius will cover all the bases – from an education history, like university degrees and high school diplomas, to criminal background reports and court filings. You can rest assured knowing the service is providing you with a comprehensive, accurate report.

Easy-to-Use Interface

Their website and search engine service, more broadly, is quite easy to understand and use. Directly on the homepage, you will easily find the area to enter someone’s first and last name, city, and state.

Additionally, you can easily switch between a people search and reverse phone or address lookup. For those types of searches, all you need is the phone number or street address in question and Intelius will search the web for any available information.

Customer Service and User Support

Many consistent Intelius users rant and rave about their level of customer service and willingness to help. If you have a question or concern, they will work with you to resolve the issue quickly. You can reach a customer support agent by either phone or email.

Intelius Contact Information

• Phone Number: (888) 245-1655
• Email Address: [email protected]

Intelius Cons

Hard to Find Information on Pricing

You really have to search hard to find the prices on their website. Even if you get to the right place, it’s hard to get a clear answer on exactly what the price will be for the subscription or service wanted. This can be viewed as misleading to some degree.

For example, if you pay for one people search it will cost you $0.95, which is very affordable. But after paying, you will be automatically enrolled in their monthly subscription service at $29.95/month.

Additionally, if you sign up for the trial period, once cancelled, the website will automatically charge you a $7.95 cancellation fee. This can be deceptive considering nothing was due at the start of the trial period.

Though, it’s important to note that if you contact their customer support team after an auto-renewal, they should refund you the subscription amount.

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Confusing Advertising

Intelius often markets their service with various, unique functions and features. Though, in reality, many of these features actually do similar things.

Also, the people search feature often lures you in with flashy advertisements making it seem as though the individual has a damning criminal record. While most of the time, the person has nothing criminal to note. This can cause unnecessary concern and stress to the user.

How Much Does Intelius Cost?

Intelius has several varying plans and subscriptions. While they are unclear on much of their pricing, here is a good overview:


• People Search: $0.95
• Background Check: $39.95
• Reverse Phone Lookup: $0.95
• Reverse Address Lookup: $4.95–$14.95
• Criminal Record: $14.95 statewide or $29.95 nationwide
• Premier Subscription: $19.95/month
• Premier Plus Subscription: $29.95/month

It’s important to know, most if not all of these payment plans have a cancellation fee attached to them. Keep this in mind when purchasing a plan.

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Intelius Premier Versus Premier Plus Subscriptions

The Premier subscription will get you an unlimited number of searches a month, regardless of whether it’s a people search, reverse phone lookup, etc. You can then access information like contact info, current and past addresses, and social media accounts. However, you will not have unlimited access to the background check service.

The Premier Plus subscription, on the other hand, gives you everything the Premier plan offers, plus one background check per month.

Intelius Key Features

Intelius is more than just a platform that does background checks. There are many options and capabilities that can be utilized on the site.

Here are some of their key features and services:

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People Search

The people search function is Intelius’s most broadly used feature. Results can provide you with essential and detailed information on the person you’re searching for.

You will need to enter the person’s name, along with their general location (city and state). From there, Intelius will search all corners of the internet, including billions of records and other data.

The results could include the following information:

• First and last name
• Known aliases
• Date of birth
• Past and current address history
• Phone numbers and other forms of contact information
• Education and employment background and history
• Possible relatives
• Social media profiles
• Financial information, i.e., liens, bankruptcies, and/or foreclosures

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Public Records Report

This report will provide you with similar information to a people search, but with marriage and divorce records added.
Reverse Phone Lookup

Their reverse phone lookup feature will search the web for data on the mystery phone number in question. We’ve all received those spam calls, claiming the warranty on our car is lapsing. Well, this feature can help you figure out where exactly it’s coming from and who’s calling.

Reverse Address Lookup

This is very similar to a reverse phone lookup, but for a certain home or commercial address. It can tell you the address, value of the property, contact information associated with the property, and any previous or current residents.

Background Check

Surprisingly their background check slightly differs from their people search feature. An Intelius background check will look for the following:

• Arrest records
• Warrants
• Misdemeanor or felony convictions
• Marriage and divorce records
• Financial information
• Birth and death record
• Court records and filings

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Conclusion

You can utilize this background check service to search for a long-lost relative, vet a potential date, etc. The varying services and features are quite impressive, giving you better insight on the person you’re trying to gain information on. Overall, we recommend the Intelius background check service.