What is a background check? Types, prices and your rights under the FCRA

A background check, or bg check, is a search of records about a person, such as criminal cases, credit history, driving records, education and past jobs, usually ordered by an employer or a landlord from a screening company. Checkr and GoodHire both list packages at $29.99, $59.99 and $94.99, and Checkr says employment checks typically take three to five days.

Types of background checks

A screening package bundles several searches. These are the common ones:

Employers can look beyond records. The FTC lists employment history, education, criminal or other public records, financial or credit history, and public social media activity among the things an employer may check.

Background check services and their prices: Checkr, GoodHire, Sterling

Checkr and GoodHire publish the same three packages at the same prices; Checkr announced it was acquiring GoodHire in April 2022.

The listed prices are starting points. Checkr adds third-party court and database access fees, passed through at cost, and GoodHire's fine print says additional third-party fees may apply. Checkr's add-ons include an extra county criminal search at $25, a motor vehicle record at $9.50, employment verification from $12.50 and a pre-employment credit report from $8. Checkr also sells checks to individuals, from $49.99.

Sterling, now a First Advantage company, doesn't publish package prices; its pricing page carries only a notice of a roughly 2% price increase. Its client FAQ says a background check can cost anywhere from under $50 to several hundred dollars.

Checkr background check

If a new employer has told you to expect a Checkr background check, the package they chose decides what's in it, and Checkr says 89% of its criminal checks finish within an hour. If the report gets something wrong, you can dispute it with Checkr, which produced it. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), the agency has to investigate unless the dispute is frivolous, and inaccurate, incomplete or unverifiable information must usually be corrected or removed within 30 days.

How long a background check takes

So a fast background check is realistic for criminal and public record searches, which Checkr and Sterling mostly finish within an hour or a business day. The slow parts wait on people: a county search that needs a court visit, or a school or former employer answering a request. Our guide to how long a background check takes breaks this down by type.

Free background check sources

You can run parts of a background check yourself on official sites at no cost:

• Sex offender registries. The Justice Department's NSOPW searches the public registries of all 50 states, the District of Columbia, the US territories and Indian Country, free and without membership.
• Court cases. Some state courts publish dockets online: Iowa Courts Online shows case titles, parties, criminal charges and dispositions at no charge. Federal cases are on PACER, where fees are waived if you spend $30 or less in a quarter.
• Your own credit reports. Each nationwide credit bureau lets you check your report once a week for free at AnnualCreditReport.com.
• An email address. CheckMate.bio's free search, three a week, shows which categories of sites an email address has accounts on.

Other parts cost money. A degree check through the National Student Clearinghouse is $19.95 plus any school surcharge, and Checkr charges $25 for an extra county criminal search. Our public records guide lists the official sources and their fees.

Background checks for employment: what the FCRA requires

The FTC treats employment background checks as consumer reports, and a company that regularly assembles or evaluates information about people to furnish reports to others for a fee is a consumer reporting agency under the FCRA. When an employer uses one, the FTC describes these steps:

1. Tell you in writing, in a stand-alone notice, that it may use a report about you, and get your written permission.
2. Before turning you down because of the report, send you a notice with a copy of it and a summary of your rights.
3. If it does turn you down, send an adverse action notice that names the agency, says the agency didn't make the decision, and explains your right to dispute the report and to get a free copy if you ask within 60 days.

Time limits apply as well. In most cases an agency can't report negative information more than seven years old, or bankruptcies more than ten years old. The federal statute carves out criminal convictions, which can be reported regardless of age, and the time limits don't apply to a job paying $75,000 a year or more.

Where an email check fits

If you're hiring an employee, screening a tenant or extending credit, an email footprint scan is the wrong tool. Third-party reports used for those decisions fall under the FCRA, so use a consumer reporting agency that complies with it, and for employment, get the candidate's written permission first. CheckMate.bio is not a consumer reporting agency, and its Terms of Use prohibit using its results for these decisions.

An email check answers a narrower question: which online services an address is registered on. CheckMate.bio checks 2,500+ sites, 298 of them by the address itself and the rest by the username before the @. That helps before a first date, or before you send money to a seller or business contact you only know by email. Checking someone before a date walks through it, and people search by email compares it with name-based people-search sites.

The FTC has enforced this line against a people-search site before. In 2012 Spokeo agreed to pay an $800,000 civil penalty to settle FTC charges that it marketed consumer profiles to human resources professionals and job recruiters while operating as a consumer reporting agency without following the FCRA. Spokeo now says it is not a consumer reporting agency.

Questions people ask

What is a bg check?

Bg check is short for background check: a search of a person's records, such as criminal cases, credit, driving history, education and past jobs. Employers and landlords usually order one from a consumer reporting agency, and an employer needs your written permission before getting one.

Can I get a free background check?

You can do parts of one free. NSOPW searches every public sex offender registry at no cost, some state courts put dockets online, PACER waives fees under $30 a quarter, and you can check your own credit reports weekly at AnnualCreditReport.com. A full screening report with county court searches and job or degree checks costs money: Checkr's packages start at $29.99 plus court fees.

How much does a Checkr background check cost?

Checkr lists three packages: Basic from $29.99, Essential from $59.99 and Complete from $94.99, plus third-party court and database fees passed through at cost. Add-ons include an extra county criminal search at $25 and a driving record at $9.50. GoodHire, which Checkr acquired in 2022, lists the same three prices.

How long does a background check take?

Checkr and Sterling both put typical employment checks at three to five days. Criminal searches are faster: Checkr finishes 89% of criminal checks within an hour. Manual county searches can take 3 to 30 days at GoodHire, and education or employment checks take 3 to 5 business days at Sterling.

Do employers need my permission for a background check?

Yes, when they use a background reporting company. The FTC says employers must get your written permission before running a check through one, after telling you in a stand-alone written notice that they may use the report.

What shows up on a background check for employment?

Whatever the employer orders. The FTC lists employment history, education, criminal or other public records, financial or credit history and public social media activity. A package usually starts with an SSN trace and criminal searches, and adds driving records, education or credit if the job calls for them. Negative items older than seven years generally can't be reported, except criminal convictions and checks for jobs paying $75,000 or more.

What the results actually mean

CheckMate.bio groups findings into categories ('Social Media', 'Gaming', 'Dating', 'Finance', 'Business' and more) and attaches a confidence score to every match. A score of 80% or higher means the email is almost certainly linked to that service. A score between 50% and 80% is a likely match. Anything below 50% lands in the 'Possible matches' section and should be treated as a weak signal, not a verdict.

• Categories show the kind of accounts that exist: the shape of someone's online footprint.
• Per-service fields (usernames, display names, bio text, last active dates) help you confirm whether the match is really the person you care about.
• Confidence scores help you separate solid matches from noise. Treat low-confidence hits as leads to investigate, not as proof.

A note on ethics

CheckMate.bio indexes public and breach-derived data. It does not grant access to private messages or full passwords (passwords from breach records are always masked), or to anything you wouldn't be able to find with enough patience and the right search queries. Use it for the same reasons you'd Google someone: safety, due diligence, re-connecting with people, or simply knowing what a public profile says about you. Be honest about your reasons, and respect the answer you get.