BeenVerified Review 2020

You can learn a lot with a Google search these days, but there are still a few questions a search engine can’t answer. If you need specific information about an individual (whether it is a potential roommate or potential date), you might get further with a background check.

BeenVerified scours public records to collect information so you can access it in one convenient report. If you need more information than a search engine can provide, you might want to try this service. Keep reading to learn more about what BeenVerified can—and cannot—offer.

A one-month BeenVerified membership costs $26.89. If you plan to use the service for more than a month, you can save money with a three-month membership. It costs $52.44, which comes out to $17.48 per month.

Both memberships include a bunch of services:

It’s ironic that most public records are really hard to find. Your public data might be scattered across a number of local governments and corporate entities, making it truly difficult to track down. BeenVerified aggregates public information from across government and corporate entities, essentially doing the hard work for you.

BeenVerified doesn’t claim to offer perfect data. There’s always the chance for missing information and non-digitized records that don’t show up in the BeenVerified database. But overall, the data you’re getting is as accurate and comprehensive as it gets.

Not all public files and records are digitized. To get access to those analog records, BeenVerified sends court runners to retrieve any relevant files and documentation. Court runners are familiar with the court system and can work quickly with county clerks to retrieve public information for you.

BeenVerified offers an app for Apple and Android users that lets you search for people, phone numbers, email addresses, and property records. The app interface is much easier to use than trying to navigate a browser window on your phone. The app even works with the Apple Watch so you can perform reverse phone lookups on recent callers.

Positive reviews of BeenVerified focus on how easy it is to process all the information.

We also found quite a few negative reviews, but we should note that almost all of these negative reviews complain about receiving inaccurate, incomplete, or out-of-date reports. While these are valid frustrations, they don’t necessarily represent something the company has done wrong. You’d run into the same issues with any other company in the industry because they’re all dealing with the same set of restrictions.

BeenVerified is transparent about the fact that its reports are based on public records and that this information may not be correct.

Background checks are allowed to include only information that is available in public records. BeenVerified gathers information from court records, mortgage deeds, utility bills, magazines, and other public documents to compile your reports. Of course, BeenVerified doesn’t provide sensitive information like credit card numbers, financial account numbers, or anyone’s Social Security number.

The results of your search will depend on what information is publicly available. If you run a people search, you may find someone’s age, address, phone number, criminal records, and email address. The report could also include photos, social media profiles, court records, criminal records, and names of their family members.

BeenVerified is a good provider if you want to quickly look up basic information about another person you don’t know. It’s geared toward more casual use than intense investigation.

• Find out what a background check reveals about yourself
• Look up an address to send out holiday cards or important announcements
• Check out a potential date to make sure they’ve been honest with you before you meet in person
• Get verification about potential roommates before you move in with them (unless you are a landlord)
• Check out people who are selling something online
• Check out someone who is buying something from you online

Many situations require you to use a consumer reporting agency instead of a background check company. Here are a few things you can’t use BeenVerified for:

• Screening someone for employment or a promotion
• Hiring household workers like nannies or landscapers
• Screening tenants
• Evaluating someone’s eligibility for an educational program or scholarship
• Determining someone’s eligibility for insurance or credit

Background checks have limitations, but if you want to learn more about people in your life and protect yourself from the unknown, this service makes it easy to check out all the publicly available information in one place. We especially appreciate that BeenVerified makes it extra easy to access this information on your phone with a mobile app.

We wouldn’t recommend signing up for a subscription unless you plan on running multiple background checks on a regular basis. But if you’re trying out online dating, selling things online often, or looking up contact information for a large group, the subscription could be a great deal.

Otherwise, you’re probably better off paying for individual reports when you look up your own information, check out new roommates, or make a one-time purchase from a stranger online.

>> More about background checks:

• Want to see more of our favorite background check companies? Take a look at the best background check services of 2019.
• Learn more about background checks.