How Do You Get a Free Background Check with No Credit Card?

Most people like to have free things unless you are paranoid and think there are strings attached. Nowadays the moment you suspect that something is not right, you can turn into an investigator thanks to information readily available on the internet. Of course, if you have money, you can hire a private investigator to dig deeper and follow a person around while you go on with your regular duties. There are many ways of finding out everything you can about a person, so how do you get a free background check with no credit card? Although credit cards carry a lot of information about a person, you do not need them to conduct searches. Below, we will tell you how you can find out all you can about a person without accessing their credit cards.

Running Free Background Checks

Chamber of Commerce enlightens us of a few ways of conducting free background checks without a credit card:

Using Search Engines

If you have the person’s full name, and address, all you have to do is type it in the search box in Google or any other search engine and hit the search button. Such a search will take you to anything regarding the specific person’s information be it an arrest that happened a few years ago, a business deal, inappropriate photos or social media accounts. The website informs us that for you to get better results, putting the person’s name in quotes yields more accurate results while adding anything more regarding the person also helps to narrow the search in case there are other people with similar names.

Dig Through Social Media Accounts

Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, William Evaniva said in 2016 that the ability to collect and review publicly available information through combing social media would help find out if those supposed to keep the government’s secrets were doing so. The background check through social media accounts has become part of many governments’ policies when determining who is worth getting a visa. Employers also can check the social media profiles to see whose posts are not in line with the company’s policies. While people can lie on their resumes and in interviews, their true lives portrayed in social media account will not.

Government Websites

Smore adds that we have the power in our hands in determining who is worth letting in our lives and who is not through a simple background check. The government has availed lots of information through its websites in which we can collect all the public information. Those who have had a run-in with the law can be found on Arrest.us while birth records and property ownership information is available on SearchSystems. While some of these sites can be accessed online for free, some demand using a special portal that is only accessible from government buildings.

However, while most sites claim to offer free background check, they only say that to lure you in to increase their traffic. Along the way, you will be asked to part with a small fee for the check to be completed; the amount can be as high as $19.99. Such sites will, however, inform you that the payment is worth it, considering the hustle you will go through accessing government portals, which is true. Conducting your background check will take even two weeks while commercial services can take much less, thus saving time. Some sites are also not reliable because they have fake county pages to keep you clicking and waste your time. Therefore, always carry out due diligence before starting your free background check.

Are Background Checks Important?

Even without accessing credit card information, employers can still get a full picture of the prospective candidate by carrying out different background checks. Entrepreneur details a few reasons why background checks will always be relevant:

Capturing Employment History

Nowadays, by simply going through a person’s LinkedIn profile, you can know of their professional background and even have the benefit of having people vouching for them. By affirming the employment history, an employer is sure of the person’s job competence. After all, no employer wants to hire a person whose abilities are still questionable, yet the company’s reputation is on the line.

Safety

Conducting a background check for personal reasons like knowing the person you want to marry helps to guarantee your safety. Criminal records detail out why a person was arrested. It would be dangerous to welcome a pedophile in your home when you have kids. As for professional reasons, a person who has a record for committing fraud will not be trusted with the company’s finances.

Liability Avoidance

Imagine failing to check someone’s background only to find out that he crashed into a car and killed someone while driving under the influence. Your company will be in a tough position explaining why someone with a history of alcoholic abuse was allowed to drive the truck.

You Can Do Your Own Background Check

You do not have to wait until you are seeking employment or planning to apply for a visa to have relevant agencies conduct a background check on you. Proactivity helps in discovering errors that may prevent you from accessing certain services. You can find out that you have been wrongly recorded as a sexual predator; hence no tenant wants to rent you an apartment. Besides, even if you find that you have a few skeletons in your closet that have been made public, you will be mentally prepared to handle any questions. According to GoodHire, any information regarding your personal life should be availed to you because it is your right. You can therefore ask to see your personal records to know what can turn in a background check, whether you have a credit card or not.

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