Intelius Reviews: Why People Complain, and What to Check Before the Trial

Maybe it's a line on your card statement that reads "PCH*INTELIUS" and a number you don't remember agreeing to. Or maybe you're one click away from a $0.95 trial and something made you stop and search for reviews first. Either way, you want to know what you're dealing with before any more money moves.

Short answer: Intelius is a legitimate US people-search service, founded in 2003, that sells reports built from public records. Its reviews split almost evenly between very happy and very unhappy customers, and most of the unhappy ones are about billing: trials that turn into memberships, several subscriptions to cancel separately, and charges already pending when people cancel. All of that is described in Intelius's own help center, if you know where to look.

This page goes through what review platforms show, the billing mechanics behind the complaints, what Intelius costs on 9 November 2026, how accurate it says its data is, and what it can and can't do when your question is about a dating app.

Before the details, one distinction. Intelius tells you who a person is. If what you need to know is whether someone has a Tinder profile, that's a different search. CheatEye, our own tool, does that one from a first name, an age, a gender and a city, for $17.90 paid once. Search Tinder with CheatEye, or keep reading about Intelius.

What the reviews say, platform by platform

Trustpilot, read on 9 November 2026: a TrustScore of 3.7 from 871 reviews, 357 of them in the last twelve months. The split is the telling part: 44% five stars, 41% one star, and very little in between. Trustpilot also notes that Intelius has no recent history of asking customers for reviews, and that the company replies to all of its negative reviews, usually within 48 hours.

What the five-star reviews praise: helpful and patient phone agents, quick answers, and in some cases a refund handled without a fight.

What the one-star reviews describe: a charge after a trial or after what the buyer thought was "one month", trouble finding where to cancel, and billing terms that felt unclear at the time of purchase.

BBB: Intelius's home page says it holds "an A rating from the Better Business Bureau". We didn't open the BBB profile, so we don't quote a complaint count. The figures you'll see repeated in other reviews differ from one page to the next.

Reddit: the autocomplete suggests "intelius reviews reddit", but no Reddit thread came up in our searches. If you look there, sort by recent and remember that old threads describe pricing that no longer exists.

So the reviews don't say Intelius is a scam. They say a lot of people were surprised by how it bills. That's worth understanding before you sign up.

Why most complaints are about billing

You don't need to rely on angry reviews for this. Intelius's help center explains its billing in plain words, and four points account for most of the trouble.

The $0.95 trial is the start of a membership

The pricing page offers two trials: "$0.95 5-day trial" then "$35.30/mo" for reverse phone lookup with people search, and "$0.95 7-day trial" then "$34.95/mo" for address lookup with people search. The monthly price is printed right under the trial price. It's just much smaller than the big friendly 95 cents.

Intelius's help article "I Wasn't Expecting To Be Charged By Intelius" puts it directly: "Most Intelius services are only offered as a recurring membership fee. If you don't request a cancellation of your Intelius services, your services will continue to renew and you will continue to be charged."

Several subscriptions, cancelled one by one

The same article adds: "When canceling online, each subscription must be canceled individually." If you started with a phone trial and added something later, cancelling one doesn't cancel the other. The cancellation steps take you to "My Account", then "Membership Settings", where each active subscription has its own "Cancel Subscription" link.

Cancelling doesn't stop a charge already pending

This is the one that catches people. In Intelius's words: "Cancellation requests made when charges are in a 'pending status' will not prevent the pending charge from processing. If you are calling to prevent a pending charge, you must ask to be reimbursed." And refunds aren't automatic: its billing policy says that if you cancel mid-cycle, "you will not receive a refund (with few exceptions)".

Disputing with your bank has consequences

Many people's first reflex is to dispute the charge with their bank. Intelius's terms warn that "Reversals and chargebacks may be treated as potential cases of fraud and/or theft of our services", that a chargeback can lead to suspension of your account, and that it "will prevent us from issuing refunds on the disputed transaction". Calling customer care first is usually the faster route. You keep the right to dispute a charge you never authorized.

Put together, it looks like this. Say you start the five-day trial on a Monday evening to look up one number. You get the name, close the tab and forget about it. The following Saturday, the trial ends and $35.30 is charged. On Sunday you notice and cancel online, but if you'd also opened a second subscription, it's still running, and the charge already pending goes through anyway unless you ask for it back. Nothing in that story is hidden. It's just spread across a pricing page, a help article and the terms.

Statement lines are another source of confusion. Intelius says its charges may show as "PCH*INTELIUS" followed by one of two phone numbers. If you're trying to work out what an unfamiliar charge is in the first place, our guide to what Tinder shows up as on a bank statement walks through how to read these descriptors.

What Intelius costs on 9 November 2026

What the pricing page showed when we read it (its title still says "2025 Pricing Guide"):

• People search: $25.11 a month, or $42.69 every two months (shown as $21.35 a month).

• Reverse phone lookup with people search: $0.95 for a 5-day trial, then $35.30 a month.

• Address lookup with people search: $0.95 for a 7-day trial, then $34.95 a month.

• Downloadable report files: $3.99, one-time fee.

The terms of use, read the same day, gave different people-search amounts: $25.99 every 30 days and $43.99 every 60 days. Its billing help page says prices range "from $.95 for a 5-day trial to $34.95 per month", while the pricing page shows $35.30 for that plan. The differences are small, but they explain why reviews quote so many different prices. The figure that applies to you is the one on the checkout screen.

Intelius isn't free. Its FAQ answers "Why isn't Intelius Free?" with "we can't offer our service for free."

Is Intelius accurate?

Intelius's own answer, in its help article "How Reliable Is Intelius?": "Yes, Intelius data is generally reliable. However, due to circumstances that are out of our control, it is possible that incomplete or out of date information may sometimes present itself on our reports." It adds that some counties and states don't release their data publicly.

Reviews that complain about accuracy usually describe outdated or missing details rather than invented ones. The help center even has articles titled "There Is Information Missing On My Intelius Report" and "My Intelius Report Contained Information For The Wrong Person". When a report matters, check its key facts against a second source before acting on them.

Can Intelius tell you if someone is on a dating app?

Not directly, and Intelius doesn't claim it can. Its home page says it helps you "learn about the people you're dating", and its help center has an article called "Intelius Dating Background Checks". Read it and the use case is clear: checking out a date before meeting them. In its words: "if all you have is their phone number and first name ( say if you met on a dating app), then our reverse phone number lookup will be the most useful tool."

That's a sensible safety step, and it's how Intelius fits around dating: you start from a match and find out who they are. If that's your situation, combine it with our guide to spotting a fake dating profile.

The opposite question, starting from someone you know and finding out whether they have a dating profile, is a different job. Intelius reports may include "Social Profiles", but its help center names no dating app and doesn't say it searches inside Tinder, Bumble or Hinge. Dating apps don't publish member lists, so a records-based report has no direct way in. The same holds for its sister brands TruthFinder and Instant Checkmate, which belong to the same group, PeopleConnect, according to TruthFinder's help center.

An older chapter: the 2010 Washington settlement

Some reviews bring up past legal trouble, so here is the context. In August 2010, Intelius settled with the Washington State Attorney General for $1.3 million, without admitting wrongdoing. The state alleged that between 2007 and 2009 the company enrolled customers in paid memberships through confusing offers shown after a purchase, partly through a partner called Adaptive Marketing. The settlement required clear, express consent before any enrollment.

That's sixteen years ago and concerns a different era of the company. It's not evidence about how Intelius bills today. It does explain why "billing" and "Intelius" have been paired in reviews for so long.

Privacy: does the person know, and can you remove yourself?

The person isn't told. Intelius says: "The search subject will not be notified you searched for them."

What you can't use it for. Intelius "is not a consumer reporting agency" under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, so reports can't be used for decisions about credit, insurance, employment or housing.

If you're the one in the reports, Intelius has a removal process in its help center, with extra rights for residents of California, Virginia, Connecticut, Utah and Colorado. Removal applies to Intelius only.

Arbitration. Its terms include mandatory arbitration and a class action waiver, with an opt-out process. Worth knowing before a billing dispute, not after.

Is Intelius worth it for you?

If you need a phone owner, an address history or a quick identity check on someone you've just met, Intelius does what it describes, and the practical advice is simple: note the trial end date, cancel each subscription separately, and keep the confirmation. Our page on BeenVerified covers a close alternative with a similar membership model.

If your question is whether a partner is active on dating apps, a people-search membership is the long way round. CheatEye, our tool, searches Tinder directly from a first name, an age, a gender and a city, with an optional photo, and Bumble, Hinge, Happn and OkCupid with the $12.90 option. If a profile is found, you see its bio, photos, last activity, Tinder subscription and last used location. The person isn't notified, and there's no trial to remember to cancel.

What it doesn't do, said once: no search by phone number or email, no messages, no live location, and no records or address history. A profile is something to talk about, not proof that someone is cheating. For the bigger picture, see how to find out if your husband is on dating sites, whether you can search people on Tinder, and our comparison of websites to catch cheaters.

Run a one-time Tinder search on CheatEye

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Intelius legit? Yes. Intelius LLC is an established US people-search company, founded in 2003, that sells reports compiled from public records. Most complaints concern billing, not whether the service exists.

Why are there so many complaints about Intelius? Mostly billing. The $0.95 trials turn into monthly memberships, each subscription must be cancelled separately, and Intelius says a cancellation doesn't stop a charge that's already pending.

Is the Intelius trial free? No. On 9 November 2026 the trials cost $0.95 for 5 or 7 days, then $35.30 or $34.95 a month unless you cancel.

How do I cancel Intelius? Log in, go to "My Account", then "Membership Settings", and click "Cancel Subscription" under each active subscription. You can also cancel by phone during business hours. If a charge is already pending, ask for it to be reimbursed.

Is Intelius accurate? Intelius calls its data "generally reliable" but says reports may sometimes be "incomplete or out of date", and that some counties and states don't release their records.

Does Intelius notify the person you search? No. Intelius says the search subject will not be notified.

Can Intelius find someone's dating profile? Its help center suggests using a reverse phone lookup to check out a date you met on an app. It doesn't say it searches inside dating apps, and it names none.

What does Intelius show up as on a bank statement? Intelius says charges may appear as "PCH*INTELIUS", sometimes followed by a phone number.