| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 8/4/2008 2:03:59 PM | Yes they are, and I am proof. I am engaged to someone I met on Match and we're having a baby.
I had no luck here or any other site. Match had a good selection of people and the sheer cost of the site eliminated many "sex trolls" (men looking for sex who populate free sites).
And I met my life's love on Match. POF is better for friends/hookups/casual dating. Match attracts more serious people and I would say that it was the best money I ever spent in my life! | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 8/4/2008 2:57:08 PM | | I prefer the pay sights to the free ones. Here, when I click on my matches, lol, they are not even close. I use match as well, and I really like the delete a profile feature. Once I email them and nothing comes from it, I can delete them and not waste the space. I do think they take it more seriously then the free sites. Just what I have noticed. Response and meeting rate is much higher then on here. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 8/4/2008 3:08:22 PM | | In my very limited experience you get the same level of attention that you get here... only you pay for it. Not worth it. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 8/4/2008 4:34:05 PM | Pay sites are a waste of $$. I've tried Yahoo (when it was free), Match, True and Singles.net, each has their own gimmick and their own rates but I've had limited luck/no luck on all of them.
I just joined POF a few weeks ago, but at least here I'm not wasting $$ to get no responses.
Possibly of rejection, but with deeper pockets.  | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 4:07:57 PM | Pay dating sites like Match, Ya-hoo and I assume Eharm allowing people to post profiles for free is inherently deceptive. Shouldn't a paying member be allowed to know who has paid and who has not? Those who don't pay can't read emails or respond. That is so wrong on so many levels. If it's on the menu it should be available.
It would be interesting to know how many of the profiles on those sites are not those of paying members. Half? If any information about it ever got out, the pay sites would be history (why doesn't someone come forth anonymously?). I think the numbers would be high based on my response rate on Match about five years ago being 5% to initial emails while at POF it is well over 50% (everyone here can read and respond to emails). Of course, you could proffer the argument that it's because of the quality difference between the sites, but I don't think so.
Also, I think most of the non-paying profiles would be those of women. I don't see guys taking the time to make a profile and then not pay, as you can surf the site for free without setting up a profile. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 4:21:00 PM | I wouldn't spend money on a pay site to date because I heard somewhere that money can't buy me love ... :P
I'd also imagine the people are the same on all these sites ... pretty much. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 5:55:35 PM | | Don't know what paid sites are like in the US, but here in OZ I get far better responses in both quality and number with the same profile on a paid site. The reason is simple, the paid site has a big advertising budget, and therefore there are more women on it. POF is great but there were only 5-6 profiles I was interested, now there is nothing to do but log on to the forums. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 7:31:40 PM | | I would agree that sites like Match spend far more than any free site. That's part of the deception. Sites advertise to come on and review your matches for free. But if you want to communicate you have to pay. That is a big stumbling block to a lot of people. So, although there are more women on match than there are on here, that doesn't mean they are paying members and can read emails and respond back. It's enticing, yes. I don't know, maybe I need to be a sucker again and go pay for match. Maybe it's changed in the last five years. Hmmm. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 8:49:29 PM | | match sounds like a crap site. But on rsvp i've been on heaps of dates and never bought a stamp to contact anyone. Do you have rsvp in the US? | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/6/2008 9:23:41 PM | I've done the 'free trials' of many a pay site. Most, including the big ones seemed to mean paying for spam messages from russian bride outfits and the like. Most have fake 'women' that are nothing more than software. These fembots send out messages and the like to get a guy to sign up and pay. I know they were bots because my initial profiles were generally blank or I would blank them out and the messages would keep rolling in.
After that I had no interest in actually paying for a subscription.
Eharmony.... hmm... matched me with the opposite of what I wanted... that is when it said I wasn't matchable.... oh and then there's the billion steps and questions before pictures and communication... total waste of my time for that free trial. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 5:09:07 AM | For me they are worth it. And I'll tell you why. My sweetie was on Match several months back, and a woman he met there told him about POF. If he hadn't come to POF, he wouldn't have found ME. So yes, pay sites are worth it.  | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 5:12:47 AM | | The McGuffin, I agree with you about the pay sites allowing people to post profiles for free. Especially on one like Eharmony. I did a month there (to the tune of $60) a long time ag0, and they were only sending me something like two or three new matches a day. And I think that 90% of those were unpaid members, so what was the point in me even being there? | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 6:50:12 AM | OP,
most of the same people on POF are on pay sites also.
I have tried, udate, singlesnet, eharmony is a freakin joke..and always return to POF..
yahoo singles has many local folks but again are the same people on POF..so why pay? | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 7:01:46 AM | I'll give a similar experience to others in this thread. I've had as many replies from the paid site I tried (Dateline) as I have had from the free sites (i.e. very few!  ).
I wouldn't bother with a paid site again, and to be honest I've more or less given up on the online dating scene in general. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 7:40:18 AM | It all depends!
I'd recommend trying the free sites first, of course. If you're not finding people to date after several months, then check the pay sites to see if they have a different set of people to consider. If all the same people are on the pay site, you're not likely to have more success - but if there are different people or more people, it may be worth a try. Some towns and areas have poor membership on this site, for example, compared to pay sites.
Virtually everyone I met was from a pay site - very few were from free sites. It seemed to me that the pay sites had a higher percentage of people who were seriously interested in dating and meeting. If it's free, there will be more "window shoppers". | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 8:24:44 AM | | amen brother. I am about done with this site. I have had the same experience. I keep hearing there are more out there - keep trying, but come on, after a while you just want to say forget it. I have contacted much nicer people on Yahoo personals, I am going back there. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 8:37:06 AM | | amen brother. I am about done with this site. I have had the same experience with non-serious women who apparently are browsing the catalog without ever buying. I keep hearing there are more out there - keep trying, but come on, after a while you just want to say forget it. I have contacted much nicer people on Yahoo personals, I am going back there. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 10:18:47 AM | | I agree with everyone. These online dating sites are waste of time. I been using online dating site for 5 years now. I even been with several pay dating sites and I get the same result NOTHING. I get no one to answer my e-mail I sent to them. If I send a e-mail they just delete it and that hurts my feelings. I don't think there is any good pay or non paying dating sites. These dating site are just a scam of taking people money or waste people time looking. This site is no different. Why do women sign to these sites if they don't show a interest in a person. I hope everyone on this site read this and think about it. Yes, I'm piss off about online dating sites. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/7/2008 11:22:13 PM | Someone sent me an Icebreaker on eHarmony a while back. I went in and paid for a one-month subscription to respond to her... and she never answered. Every site I can think of allows you to send an Icebreaker, Wink, greeting, or whatever they want to call it for free -- but unless both people pony up some cash, that's all there will be.
eHarmony has "free weekends" from time to time where people can communicate back and forth without paid accounts for a few days. A match and I got to the last step of guided communication before the weekend ended, and we got cut off. A few days later I found her profile here on POF! And she hasn't written me back.
Match didn't do me any favors either. None of the women I wrote to responded, and the only one to write to me had a Master's thesis to finish over the course of the next six weeks and quickly forgot I existed.
So yeah, it's been said a dozen times before. You get the same lackluster results from POF, but at least it's free. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/8/2008 4:29:14 AM | | No. I had thought people on a paid site would have more motivation toward meeting and developing a relationship with someone, but they turned out to be just as unmotivated as anyone I could've met for free. No responses, no follow-through, tag-and-run. The only difference is that I was paying for it. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/8/2008 9:29:15 AM |  have to say I love plenty of fish, I was a member of a couple of other sites, and still have wonderful friends from them, basically I feel the format for the dating sites are pretty much the same, you meet the same people too, the forums make this site the best, as the subject matter is so wide and varied,
don't waste your money on paid up sites, this one has all you need, in my opinion
light and love, Good Luck too
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/8/2008 10:30:58 AM | | pay sites are no different than free ones. in fact once you sign up for them and later cancel, if you recieve male after u have canceled and you click on it to read it, you will automatically be charged and signed up again without knowing it. they did it to me and I called them and raised 10 kinds of hell. I told them cancel me agian and do not sign me up without my knowledge. I told them to never send me another email from their site. Its strickly a money thing with them. Your chances of meeting that special person is the same ...pay site or free site. I just got married two weeks ago today and he is from pof. So you have to go threw a lot of bad to get to the good. but in the end it will work out as it did for me. took me little over two yrs in here. my profile is hidden becuase i enjoy the forum. thats the only reason im here. not to mention most people are in both free and pay sites. so you dont need to pay to see them. I myself was in many diff sites. so most in pay sites are probably in free sites too. | |
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| Are pay dating sites worth it?
Posted: 11/8/2008 10:47:19 AM | I suppose it depends on the person but I don't think so. Eharmony is expensive and my "matches" that were supposedly specifically matched for me were completely not my type or lived far away. I think I had one date in the 6 months I was on there. This site would probably be better for those who live in a big city. There is no search feature, so you are just stuck with the matches they send you. I have friends in my area and they would get the same matches so that "personality matching" they do doesn't seem so tailored for you after all . Plus, like others have said, you don't know if they are a member or not or when the last time they even logged in. The guys on there did seem more serious about long term relationships though.
On match, you have more selection to choose from but it seemed like the guys were more casual to me. I had lots of dates off there, but they were weird or just no chemistry. I expected POF to be way below the quality of the paying sites since it was free, but I think its better. I have had way more contacts, plus I like how you can restrict ages of people who contact you so you aren't getting 19 year olds or guys old enough to be your dad emailing you. I don't think match has that feature. I also like how it says up front what they are looking for - whether it's a hookup, friend, dating, long-term etc., so you do not waste your time with something you are not looking for. It's cool how POF has singles events posted, which the other two sites did not have. I do know one married couple that met off match and eharmony each but I'm sure it's just luck of the draw. It seems like it's lots of the same people on the paying sites versus here so you might as well start with POF. If that doesn't work for you, then I would try the others. javascript:smilie(' ')
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