What is skip tracing, and who is it for?
Skip tracing is the process of finding a person's current contact details, such as a phone number, email or address, when the details on file are out of date or missing. Real estate investors, debt collectors, process servers, law firms, private investigators and other businesses use it to reach people on a list.
Key facts
- Price
- a flat $0.03 a record at any list size from 50 to 100,000 records.
- Unit
- Priced per matched record.
- Minimum order
- 50 records
- Minimum charge
- Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches.
- Single search
- Single search: $0.10, charged only on a match, paid from prepaid credit ($10 minimum top-up).
- Prepaid credit
- Prepaid credit expires 12 months after your last credit purchase, single search or credit-paid list, and unused credit is refundable on request within 90 days of purchase.
- Free tool
- Check your list free at /tools/skip-trace-csv-checker. Check columns, split addresses and download a fixed CSV in your browser before tracing at $0.03 a record. No account needed.
- Subscription
- None. A list order is paid for on its own by card or prepaid credit.
- Max per order
- 100,000 rows or 50 MB per file
- Output
- Up to 10 phones per owner, each with its line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), plus emails where found
- Sources
- 3 core providers: idiCORE, Enformion and Delvepoint
- Not for
- FCRA uses: credit, insurance, employment or tenant screening
- Prices last changed
- Last updated
What skip tracing is
A person "skips" when they move or change numbers without leaving new details behind. Skip tracing is the work of finding them again. You start with what you know, usually a name and a last-known address, and a skip trace looks for a current phone number, email address or mailing address that goes with it.
The term covers a single person looked up by hand and a whole list traced at once. It is a way to find contact details, not a judgment about anyone, and what you do with the details is governed by the law that applies to your work (see legal considerations below).
Who uses skip tracing
Anyone who holds a list of people and needs a way to reach them. The table shows the main groups and what each one traces; each name links to a page on how that group uses bulk skip tracing with Skipmatch.
| Who | What they trace |
|---|---|
| Real estate investors | Property owners on absentee, probate, tax-delinquent and vacant-land lists, to reach them about their property. |
| Debt collectors | Accounts whose phone numbers or addresses have gone stale, to reach the person about the account. |
| Process servers | Batches of service requests, to reach the people named in them to confirm details. |
| Law firms | Heirs, witnesses and other parties in a matter, to contact them for a lawful purpose. |
| Private investigators | Client lists of witnesses, heirs and parties, for work done on a client's behalf. |
| Other businesses | Roofers, HVAC and solar companies and insurance agents, who put phone numbers on homeowner lists they already hold. |
How skip tracing works
- Input data. You supply what you already know about each person: a name and a last-known address, sometimes an old phone number or email. The more complete and accurate the row, the better the chance of a match.
- Database matching. Each row is matched against commercial data sources built from public and proprietary records. A match ties the name and address to a person on file and returns the phone numbers and emails recorded for them.
- Verification. Contact data ages, so results are best treated as leads to confirm rather than certainties. Skipmatch labels each phone as mobile, landline or VoIP and flags every row HIT or MISS, so you can see which rows came back with something and which did not. More on the data sources.
Legal considerations
Skip tracing is regulated by what you do with the result. The rules that most often apply:
- Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Covers using personal information to decide eligibility for credit, employment, housing or tenancy, or insurance. A skip trace service that is not a consumer reporting agency cannot be used for those decisions. Skipmatch is not a consumer reporting agency, and its results are not consumer reports.
- Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Regulation F. Set limits on how, when and whom a debt collector may contact.
- Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) and Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA). Restrict how some financial and motor-vehicle data may be used.
- Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and do-not-call rules. Govern calls and texts to the numbers you find. A number in a result file is not consent to contact the person.
- State law. Many states add collection, investigator-licensing and privacy rules.
Which of these apply depends on who you are and what you are doing. This is general information, not legal advice. Skipmatch accounts accept the permissible-use terms before the first order, and those terms set out what the data may never be used for.
Bulk versus single lookup
The two differ in how many people you trace and how you pay.
| Bulk list | Single search | |
|---|---|---|
| What you do | Upload a CSV or Excel file of 50 to 100,000 rows | Trace one person |
| What you get back | Your own file with phones and emails added, and a HIT or MISS on every row | The phones and emails found for that one person |
| Price | $0.03 a record, shown before you pay | Single search: $0.10, charged only on a match, paid from prepaid credit ($10 minimum top-up). |
| Best for | Lists of many people | One person you need to reach now |
Where Skipmatch fits
Skipmatch is a self-serve service for bulk skip tracing. You upload a list, see the price for the whole file before you pay, and download the same file with up to 10 phone numbers per person and up to three emails added. There is no subscription. It started with real estate lists, which is covered in what skip tracing is in real estate, and it is used by the groups in the table above.
It is not a consumer reporting agency, and it is not a people-search or background-check service for personal use. See pricing, the sample file or how it works.
Questions
What does skip tracing mean?
Who uses skip tracing?
Is skip tracing legal?
What is the difference between bulk and single skip tracing?
Can I use Skipmatch for credit, employment or tenant screening?
How much does Skipmatch cost?
Price your list before you pay for it.
Create an account, upload the file, and see your total before you pay. Records with no phone and no email are never charged.