Instant Checkmate is a people search engine that adds data from public folders. The service is simple to use and offers a wide range of information, including contact details and criminal records. The results are not instantaneous and the service asks you many questions and warnings already before providing a report that can be more than annoying. However, the place is worth visiting with a claim of more than fourteen billion searches and counts.
In our Instant Checkmate review, we'll help you decide if this is the best tool for conducting a background check or a people search.
- Instant checkmate subscription options:
- 1 month plan: € 35.12 per month (total cost € 35.12)
Packages and prices
Instant Checkmate only offers subscriptions for unlimited reports. One month costs €35,12, or you can sign up for three months for €28,09 per month by paying €84,28 upfront in one go. There is no option to buy a single report for a single person, but we did get a "trial offer" for just €1, but it is not clear if this included more research beyond what we carried out, or the duration of the proof.
Features
Instant Checkmate allows you to search for a person based solely on their name, city, and state. There's also a reverse lookup feature on the phone, though it's somewhat hard to find on the Instant Checkmate website, as it's at the bottom of the page between "Do's and Don'ts" and "Become" affiliate", which hardly makes much sense. When you do a search, you're presented with a list of possible matches, and you can generate a detailed report for any individual.
The service only checks public folders, so there is no information available through Instant Checkmate that you can't get elsewhere. However, the platform projects a wide network and includes property details, old vehicle addresses, family members, marriages and bankruptcies in its reports. The tool will also tell you if the person you are looking for is a registered sex offender, has a firearms license, or has a criminal, arrest or trafficking record.
It is important to note that Instant Checkmate does not comply with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Therefore, you cannot legally use this service to perform a background check on job or recruitment applications.
Interface and in use
Using Instant Checkmate was not as easy as we would have liked. It's easy to start a search - just enter the information you know about your topic in the search bar on the company home page. Several pop-ups will ask you for details of the person you are looking for to help narrow down your results. These include the gender of the person sought and other known relatives.
Along the way, several stops indicate that the graphic content can be revealed and ask you to check the box. This happens multiple times during the search. Call us suspicious, but we posit that this is done to broaden the investigation and get users to invest more in it, both emotionally and temporarily, to pay when the price is finally revealed.
However, after these pop-ups come other pop-ups. These warn you of the graphic details that you might discover in an instant checkmate report in an exaggerated and annoying way. It might be fine if there was only one warning, but we encountered 5+ pop-ups before we could finally show a report.
It's also worth noting that in the midst of all those pop-up clicks, Instant Checkmate basically stopped working. The report never loaded and we had to start the process over. (It worked the second time). We also had to enter our name and email address to continue before looking at our search data, and we had to agree to receive emails from Instant Checkmate (which came quickly the next day and certainly would have continued to come back often without question if we don't unsubscribe right away, which was at least easy to do).
Things get better once you finally get into a relationship. We found that the information we reviewed was largely accurate, although there were occasional inaccuracies regarding previous addresses and licenses. The criminal record is given a probability score, which is a good reminder that Instant Checkmate is not guaranteed to be correct.
Mobile app
Instant Checkmate has an Android app, but not an iOS app, which is a miss for not including the other popular smartphone platform. Google Play Store users give it high marks with a rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars with praise for the ease of use and accuracy of the data, with the occasional frustration when logging in and a lack of in-depth information found.
Support
Instant Checkmate offers phone and email support from 10:00 am to 10:00 pm EST Monday through Friday. If you are having trouble registering for the service or finding a report, you can go to the online Help Center to view video tutorials and answers to common questions. One thing we liked is that it's easy to unsubscribe from Instant Checkmate at any time.
We would have preferred other support options as well. We couldn't find an email, chat, or support portal option.
It's also worth noting that Instant Checkmate allows you to easily opt out of its searchable database. Most other "people finder" tools hide this option, but it can be found right in the footer of the Instant Checkmate website. As a general rule, your data is deleted within two days of sending an unsubscribe request.
Security
The Instant Checkmate website is secure with Norton Symantec and all payment details are transferred using 256-bit encryption. Since all site data is available through public archives, relatively little emphasis is placed on reporting security. The connection is also a secure SSL connection using a "private and secure 128-bit encrypted connection."
Competition
Instant Checkmate is one of the most trusted person search tools available. However, it is a bit expensive compared to competitors like US Search. Searching in the US is only € 19.86 per month for unlimited reports. However, we recommend Instant Checkmate if you can afford it, as we have found the information to be much more accurate than what you get with US Search.
If you need a Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) compliant background check, consider another service like GoodHire or Checkr. Both platforms are significantly more expensive and charge per search, but the data can be used to make decisions about job applications and hiring.
Final verdict
Instant Checkmate is an affordable person finder that provides relatively accurate information. One of the best things about this service is that you get a great variety of data compared to similar research tools. Searching with Instant Checkmate is quite frustrating as you have to click over a dozen pop-ups before you can see the final report, even as a paid subscriber. For those who can ignore this annoying flaw, Instant Checkmate is relatively easy to use with complete results.
We have also pointed out the best people finder and the best background check services.
Price - Checkmate and Instant Checkmate: ▼