Free Background Check

You’ll see the term “free background check” get thrown around a lot when you start looking for information on doing your own background checks. However, this doesn’t mean you won’t have to spend any money! A better description for “free background check” would be “do-it-yourself background check”. “Free” really only indicates that you, “the searcher”, will be doing all of the work and not paying someone else to do it for you. Anyone, no matter who is doing the search, will be paying something to access records beyond the basic name, address, and telephone number!

Why Do Web Sites Say “Free” If They’re Not?

There is a reason web sites use the moniker “free background check” instead of “do it yourself background check”: nearly everyone searches for “free background check” and most assume it’s the same as the “do it yourself” variety. We’ve been building web sites related to and providing information on background checks and people searches since 2001 and we’re just as guilty as everyone else when it comes to using these terms synonymously. We receive e-mails, almost on a daily basis, that drive this issue home. Most say something like this:

Dear Sirs,

We clicked a link on your web site that takes us to whateversite.com but they want to charge money to access the records. All over your web site it says free, free, free but now we have to pay!

Thanks,

John Doe

And they are right; to a certain extent. Many of the web sites we link to and tools we recommend use public record resources that city, county, and state governments maintain. In fact, these resources are the only place you can get the information you seek outside of the national police database that IS NOT public accessible. While some of these public records are still freely available, most now require at least a small fee to gain access to them. Even if you were to visit the appropriate local agency they are going to charge you for their time, paper, ink used to print the reports, etc…

We want to provide our visitors with the tools and resources they need to conduct their own background checks cheaply and easily. Hiring a private investigator is too expensive for most, and may or may not provide the same information you can dig up yourself at a fraction of the cost. In certain situations a pi could be needed but most individuals just need bits of information and not a complete, in-depth life history of a person. So the next time you see “free background check” mentioned, remember “free” isn’t really free.

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