Contributed by: Editor on Friday, March 21 2008 @ 11:38 am
Last modified on
There are two main types of dating services free trial memberships. The first and most popular one usually allows singles to create a members account and a dating profile plus perform searches for other members. You most likely will be able to view these profiles in detail as well but the main thing you can't do is communicate with other members. This would include emailing, instant messaging, chatting and usually winks.
The second type of free trial allows the dating site member to do everything the first trial offers plus the ability to communicate. They usually have the run of the entire dating site for free with the only exception of it being limited, is by time. These trials usually last either 1, 3 or 7 days. Most of these types of free dating site trials require you to enter a credit card number before you can receive the trial membership. The dating service doesn't bill you for anything during the trial but once it is over they will then bill you for a membership (usually a one month membership).
Are these dating trial memberships worth it? The first type definitely is since it allows you to see how the site works and view what members they have. The second type is as well in most cases, since it allows you to see how active the members are in communicating. It also helps to get a week free if you plan on signing up anyways to the service. With this type of time limited dating trial membership you should read the billing details and/or terms of service carefully to see how to terminate the membership, if it doesn't meet with your expectations. With most of the major dating services this usually requires you to visit the membership's accounts page and either clicking off auto renew or clicking a resignation checkbox or button before the expiry of the free trial.
What you have to be concerned with sometimes is some dating sites (none do this that I know of in which we have currently listed in our reviews) can sometimes make you jump though hoops to cancel a trial membership. This can include things like having the membership cancel button in a hard to find spot, actually calling a certain number, too one instance that I heard of having to actually fax in your cancelation. By reading the terms of service before hand of the dating site and by doing a little research on the net into the dating site itself should help you avoid these few bad apples.
The major dating sites like Match.com, Date.com and Yahoo! Personals do require you to enter a credit card number for the full free trials but they do make it simple to opt out of the membership if you want to cancel.