(click the dots next to the question for which you'd like the answer)

••• Why use Roomie Match?

••• What are the membership options?

••• What is my password? How do I sign on? How do I see my profile?

••• How do I "search" for other profiles/people on the site?

••• How do I know if I have messages from other members?

••• I got a message (email or phone (if you provided your phone number)) from another member that says they got my profile from Roomie Match, but I didn't get theirs. Why is that and what do I do to get it?

••• How do I know these matches I've received are current?

••• Why do you email the roommate matches, instead of just putting them up somewhere online?

••• Is there a money-back guarantee?

••• I am writing to people and some people are not writing me back! Why is that?

••• I just want my profile listed, I do not want to receive other profiles.

••• How many people do you have in my area?

••• I subscribed to your service, got some matches, then paid my fee, but some of the folks I read about in my first set of emails aren't included in my next set with contact info. Why is that?

••• What does the $19.95 fee cover? Do I have to pay that at all/how many times do I have to pay that?

••• I've been getting some "spam" in my e-mail inbox. Did you guys give my email address to some marketing organizations?

••• My email address has changed, but I still want to receive matches from you, but at my new address. What should I do?

••• How do I change my matching criteria?

••• Can I have all my current (still active) roommate matches resent to me?

••• How exactly are matches determined?

••• I'm not receiving enough matches. What should I do?

••• I'm receiving TOO MANY matches. What should I do?

••• My matches don't "match" me well enough. What should I do?

••• I subscribed a while ago, found a roommate, but I'd like to get some more matches now. Do you still have my old profile?

••• My matches are all from a nearby city, and I'm in a suburb/surrounding area.

••• Why can’t you match specifically for my suburb only?

••• I want to know exactly where these people offering rooms live in my city, and the profiles don't say exactly where. Can you give me their address?

••• Do you do credit checks on your members? How do I know these people can really pay their share?

••• I have a question not answered here.

••• Why do you NOT recommend use of email addresses on Hotmail?

••• I have a question about a "roommate scam" someone told me is floating around the internet.

••• Terms of Service

••• Confidentiality Statement

••• Legal Disclaimer

Why use Roomie Match? (back)

• finding your best possible roommate
• your time (we don't waste it)
• your privacy (we never compromise it)

Finding your best possible roommate

Our roommate matching profiles are more detailed than most ways you could find a roommate . . . since they include info on lifestyle and personality factors as well as household preferences. And with our experience roommate matching (since 1998!), we know we ask the IMPORTANT questions to ask when looking for a roommate. You could ask how many minutes it takes to fill out our roommate matching profile - OR you could ask yourself how much time, money, and emotional energy you have to WASTE on the roommate from hell, or another roommate search right away.

With detailed roommate profiles, since everyone answers you won’t waste time asking a bunch of questions one-on-one or contacting anyone you wouldn’t like.

Do you want to improve your skills in dealing with difficult roommates, or learn ways to resolve conflict with your roommate? Or, would you rather find the best roommate match and avoid aggravation from day one? Will you share a residence happily with your new roommate, or will every household detail become a struggle? If you try to find a roommate without considering the qualities of the ideal roommate (or the roommate from hell), you’re begging for trouble.

What are the qualities of the ideal roommate?
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. But usually, the qualities of the ideal roommate for YOU would be someone similar to yourself. Our roommate matching profiles contain the information to find a roommate that will be ideal for YOU – so you’ll know in advance if you’re getting the ideal roommate or the roommate from hell.

Your time

• the most current and valid roommate matching information
• getting new roommate matches is effortless
• longer questionnaire “weeds out” less worthwhile roommate prospects
  

-- The most current and valid roommate matching information.

We REQUIRE a valid email address to start roommate matching, then stay in touch, deleting anyone as soon as they let us know they found their new roommate or their email address becomes invalid. We also revalidate everyone periodically via email (requiring a response to stay active). Despite best intentions, many people would forget to delete themselves from a roommate site once they found a roommate if they weren’t reminded. Other roommate services allow online-only profiles, or leave people up some random period of time, not bothering to 'check in' to see who still needs to find a roommate. Remaining in touch keeps our roommate profiles as current as humanly possible, making it less likely you will waste your time trying to get in touch with anyone not sincere enough to provide a valid email address and/or already finished roommate matching.

-- Getting new roommate matches is effortless
You don’t have to repeatedly visit this site to find new roommate matches, we let you know at an email address you would normally check (not just something within our system).

-- Longer questionnaire “weeds out” less worthwhile roommate prospects
With more questions we do “weed out” some folks who couldn’t be bothered spending about 10 minutes on a roommate compatibility quiz. But what sort of roommates would they be? The folks who take the extra few minutes to sign up for Roomie Match are more serious, expect good results, so are more likely to be good roommate prospects themselves. We have found that this requirement, along with requiring valid email contact info and periodic updating increases the 'sincerity' of our roommate profiles.

Your privacy

• We don’t sell, share or rent your information
• All roommate information is NOT STORED ONLINE
• We don’t use “affiliates” to promote ourselves
• We exist to help you find a roommate, nothing else
  

-- We don’t sell, share or rent your information.
Any information will only be used for the purpose of roommate matching via this service. It will neither be shared, sold, or rented to anyone outside of Roomie Match under any circumstances.

-- All roommate information is NOT STORED ONLINE.
Unscrupulous marketers use programs (“spiders”) to ferret out personal information. NONE of your personal information will ever be available online as a result of Roomie Match, it’s all transmitted securely to us then stored OFFline. Businesses that post personal info online expose you to spam or other unwanted contact. Even if your info is behind a “password-protected” area, the spiders are usually one step ahead of “protections.”

-- We don’t use affiliates to promote ourselves.

With “affiliate” marketing you’re dealing with unrelated people marketing the same service. This often results in unscrupulous (spam) marketing by the affiliates, who can be less committed to stated privacy rules than turning a fast buck.

-- We exist to help you find a roommate, nothing else.

We are all about roommates. You won’t get advertisements from us for any other service, -you’ll hear from us when you have a roommate match, not ever for any other reason.

We also won’t be contacting you about any “partner” offers or anything of that nature.

What are the membership options? (back)

BOTH Membership Options

Roomie Match is cheaper than placing an ad most places (cheaper for the “CHEAP Roommate Search” memberhip, free for the “FREE Roommate Search” membership). You also don’t have to pay anything upfront (or ever) unless we find a roommate you like and you want to contact them. However, joining “CHEAP Roommate Search will speed your roommate matching process by getting you the contact info of preferred candidates right away (giving you a “head start” over members who choose to review their matches first or those who stay within “FREE Roommate Search.”

FREE Roommate Search Membership

You stay in this category unless you choose
“CHEAP Roommate Search.” You sit back and wait
for interested potential roommates to contact you.
Since you'll only be matched with folks that meet
your criteria and they will have access to the
preferences you supplied, all/most of those
contacting you should be a good match.
However, the only members that will
be able to contact you will be
“CHEAP Roommate Search” members
(other "FREE Roommate Search" members
won't have access to your contact info).
You can switch to the
“CHEAP Roommate Search” option now,
anytime in the future, or never.

OR

CHEAP Roommate Search Membership

You’re in charge! You pay our subscription fee of 19.95,
good for up to ONE YEAR. You can do that now, or you
can wait until you receive roommate matches you like,
your choice. This fee is good for up to an entire year.
While the vast majority of subscribers find a roommate
much more quickly than that, this means that if you
subscribe, find a roommate, then for whatever reason
need to find another in the same 12-month period, you
profile will be upgraded again for free.
With this membership you get the contact info
for all matches, so you’re in charge of who to contact
and when.
You also get your own unique client number
and a complete copy of your profile, so you can
easily identify yourself to those members who are still
“FREE Roommate Search.” This means
anyone you contact can know who you are
and how you described yourself.

What is my password? How do I sign on? How do I see my profile? (back)

You don't, because you don't need to do so. You don't HAVE to sign on and continually check our database for new profiles (in fact, we think that requiring you to keep "signing on" over and over would be a dorky and unnecessary waste of your time), we send them to your email box as they arrive. Again, all the information about the matches comes via email, no need to get anything else off of the website after filling out your profile. If you want to change your profile, please do so via the updating area on the site. The profiles are NOT accessible via the website, yours OR anyone else's. This is true for contact info as well, everything comes via email. This is also better for your personal privacy, your personal information (and that of other members) is not now and never will be available on the site itself, it's stored securely and OFFLINE. This means it's NEVER available to/vulnerable to 'spambots' or other unscrupulous marketers that might contact you if it were online. If you need to change your matching criteria please use the editing area.

We do provide client numbers to paid (“Cheap Roommate Search”) subscribers. This is a way for those members to easily identify their profile to those they might choose to contact, paid subscriber or otherwise. This is one of the benefits of a paid subscription.

How do I "search" for other profiles on the site? (back)

You don't, because you don't need to do so (see previous question (above)). You don't HAVE to sign on and continually check our database for new profiles (in fact, we think that requiring you to keep "signing on" over and over would be a dorky and unnecessary waste of your time), we send them to your email box as they arrive. No tedious and repeated database searches required of you. You don't have to keep 'signing on' and navigating some system on our site, we just send the info straight to you. All the information about the matches comes via email, everything in their profile comes via email, no need to get anything else off of the website after filling out your profile. If you want to change your profile, please do so via the updating area on the site. The profiles are NOT accessible via the website, yours OR anyone else's. This is also better for your personal privacy, your personal information (and that of other members) is not now and never will be available on the site itself, it's stored securely and OFFLINE. This means it's NEVER available to/vulnerable to 'spambots' or other unscrupulous marketers that might contact you if it were online. This is true for contact info as well, everything comes via email. If you need to change your matching criteria please use the editing area.

How do I know if I have messages from other members? (back)

You just check whatever email address you gave us when you signed up. Or, check your phone messages if you provided a phone number within your profile. Any (Cheap Roommate Search subscription) roommate match that wants to contact you will do so using the contact info you provided when you submitted your profile. Simple? Yes, and there's no need to make it more complicated! No need to come back here and check for messages via some extra system we'd force you to navigate, everything comes right to you via email.

I got a message (email or phone (IF you provided your phone number)) from another member that says they got my profile from Roomie Match, but I didn't get theirs. Why is that and what do I do to get it? (back)

For each "roommate match" made, we send both parties the other person's profile. So, we actually DID send you the profile of your match. Other than not checking your email yet at the email address you were last using with us, there are 2 other possibilities (below). Please check out those, figure out which apply to you, then you can request a resend of all current matches whenever you're ready. You can do that by replying to an email we've sent you, or by updating your profile here.

1. You didn't have enough space available in your inbox to get the profile, so it bounced. Your profile will be deleted if this happens repeatedly, but there is a short grace period. Obviously we'd recommend checking your email regularly!

2. You had a "spamblocker" active on your email account that blocked/deleted the email we sent you containing the profile of your match. Does this site send spam or share your information in any way with anyone outside this service?  NO!  But does our email get spamblocked from time to time anyway?  Yes, much like any other large site that sends a lot of email in these "spam paranoid" times.

How do I know these matches I've received are current? (back)

Everyone in our database gets continuous mail from Roomie Match as new matches based on their selection criteria arrive. Each mail encourages its' recipient to tell us whenever they've found a roommate (or are no longer interested in finding one, for whatever reason), and we delete them as soon as they tell us to do so. In addition, we also delete profiles for folks whose e-mail addresses "bounce" (are no longer valid) after we send them mail. Finally, we delete the profiles of folks that fail to respond affirmatively to our required profile revalidations (which also come via e-mail approximately once/month). HOWEVER (and this is a BIG HOWEVER) you have to check your email often and respond to profiles you receive from us ASAP or they WON'T be current. We keep our database as current as possible, but each day you fail to respond to what we send you is a day less likely that person/situation will still be available. Finding a new roommate is a "you snooze, you lose" proposition, so in order not to miss out on any opportunities you have to stay on the ball and check your email often.

Why do you email the roommate matches, instead of just putting them up somewhere online? (back)

We REQUIRE a valid email address to subscribe, and then we keep in touch with subscribers via email, deleting any profiles that did not provide a valid email address upon entry and/or the email address becomes invalid. We have found that this requirement, along with our longer questionnaire, increases the 'sincerity' of the profiles in our database. Other roommate services allow the option of just having online profiles, with or without an email option. Often they just leave profiles up for a predetermined period of time, not bothering to 'check in' with subscribers to find out if they are actually still looking. However, we've found that validating email addresses before profiles enter the database AND continuing to email subscribers assists GREATLY in keeping our database valid and current. That's why we do NOT offer a 'no contact' (no profiles via email) option. Despite the best of intentions, a lot of folks would forget or otherwise neglect to delete their profiles from a roommate site once they were done looking if they didn't have our emails as reminders. In addition, we find out quickly if someone's email address has become invalid (making it harder or impossible to contact them) and we delete those folks immediately too (if they didn't give us a new email address in the meantime, of course). Finally, we do revalidate profiles periodically by sending out email requiring an affirmative response to stay active. Remaining in touch with our subscribers keeps our database as current as humanly possible, making it less likely you will waste time trying to get in touch with people who were not sincere or are no longer looking for a roommate. In addition, it means you don't have to keep visiting a site to check and see if anyone new has arrived, we will let you know. Yes, this might mean it takes a bit more effort to sign up for RoomieMatch, and a bit more effort to stay active, but we know it means the people we send you are more likely to end up as good roommate prospects.

Is there a money-back guarantee? (back)

No, we do not offer refunds to subscribers who have paid and received contact info, yet say they found a roommate via other means. This term of service is very clearly explained in our Terms of Service, the mail we send out, the instruction page on the site, and on the credit card payment page. Your agreement to these terms is required and acknowledged via the forms as you subscribe. However, we do offer a guarantee that most ways you could find a roommate do NOT offer. We offer continuous service for up to a year for only 19.95 . . . and our fees are cheaper than placing an ad in most newspapers . . . and newspaper ads only run in the paid issue, and offer no guarantee of continuing service! Newspaper or other internet ads also contain much less info than you can put in/get from others via our service. Please understand that we couldn't run a business that stayed afloat if we paid people back after receiving contact info, because (and while this is certainly not meant to question or insult any individual subscriber) anyone could theoretically use our info to settle down with a new roomie, then contact us for a refund anyway. We are not interested in nor realistically able to investigate what you did or did not do with our info, nor do we make any attempt to monitor what our subscribers do. However, if you did subscribe to Roomie Match, paid your fee, then quickly found a roommate via other means anyway, please contact us and tell us about that, we'll rematch you for FREE the next time you are in need of a new roommate.

I am writing to people and not everyone is writing me back! Why is that? (back)

Unfortunately, our employees are not in the sort of all-knowing, Godlike position that would enable us to know exactly how you come across to other people! (That is something all humans must ultimately work out for themselves, you know.) However, we do have some general tips, please apply them to yourself to the extent you have not already:

1) Make sure the emails you send out present you in as flattering a light as possible. Be friendly, nice, and polite. Profanity or other vulgar language may be perfectly acceptable to you, but understand it may NOT be to others. Use proper spelling, grammar and punctuation to sound as intelligent, educated and sane as possible. Make your initial communication as interesting and detailed as possible, make it something that would most likely invite a response. ( Just writing something like, "hey i saw yer ad and im writing cuz i need a room," may not qualify as inviting for many folks.) First impressions mean a lot to many people. To the extent you do not make a good one, your response rate will probably suffer.

2) Check your email every day and respond IMMEDIATELY to any profile that interests you. The profiles are current when WE send them out, but every day YOU fail to check and respond to your email is another day less likely any particular match will still be available. Finding a new roommate is a "you snooze you lose" proposition, if you are in a hurry to do so you must devote the time and effort to keeping up with it, or your response rate will suffer.

3) If the person(s) of interest supplied a phone number with their profile, try calling. (Maybe they are failing point #2.) In general, for anyone that interests you, contact them in as many different ways as he/she supplied, and do so as quickly as is possible for you.

I just want my profile listed, I do not want to receive other profiles. (back)

Are you crazy? :) Wouldn't you WANT to know the personal characteristics of anyone with whom you might share a residence? If you REALLY don't care, you've obviously signed up for the wrong service . . . maybe you'd rather just go to your local bus station and bring home whoever is lounging around! That would be a pretty quick way to get a new roommate too, and probably a better one IF you really don't care who you end up with! At any rate, we do NOT offer "listing only" as an option, because most of our subscribers are more discriminating than that.

How many people do you have in my area? (back)

We can't tell how many people we have that meet your needs until you fill out a profile and get your matches. That's because matches are based on a larger number of criteria than JUST geographic area. Matches are based on all the criteria described in another question here (below). You have the option of filling out a profile then waiting to pay until you see a match you like, but in doing so you do risk that another subscriber will snatch up that person in the meantime (although, you'd still get contact info right away for future matches). Your choice! Also, new folks sign up constantly.

I subscribed to your service, got some matches, then paid my fee, but some of the folks I read about in my first set of emails aren't included in my next set with contact info. Why is that? (back)

Sometimes the roommate-finding process moves pretty fast! If you entered a profile, then got some matches . . . then waited a few days or more, then paid your fee, it is more likely than not that some of the folks with whom you were originally matched have since found a roommate and requested to be removed from our database. We delete profiles of people (and don't subsequently provide contact info for them to other subscribers) as soon as they tell us they are no longer in need of a new roommate. (If you have the client number of someone that interested you we'd be happy to doublecheck, but unless there was a problem with your email service or your mailbox got too full, not re-receiving someone means they're no longer available.) However, until you tell us you've found a roommate, you'll be in queue to receive future matches with contact info. We've found that the subscribers that are happiest with the service check their e-mail at least every other day. We would strongly recommend that if you need to find a roommate as soon as possible, that you make every effort to do so as well, or you may lose some opportunities.

What does the $19.95 fee cover? Do I have to / How many times do I have to pay that? (back)

You don’t have to pay it at all unless you want to upgrade from “FREE Roommate Search” to “CHEAP Roommate Search.” (see previous question for detailed info on both membership options) But if you do decide to upgrade, you pay that only once, and then you get continuing e-mail containing profiles that match you until you let us know you no longer need new matches. That fee is good for up to a year, so in case you find a roommate but it doesn't work out, you can be rematched for no additional charge.

I've been getting some "spam" in my e-mail inbox. Did you guys give my email address to some marketing organizations? (back)

As per the guarantee on the questionnaires, we NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER!!! give your e-mail address to any marketing organization . . . or any other organization of any type. Once again, that would be NEVER! The only people that get your e-mail address, or any of the other contact info you provided for potential new roommates in your questionnaire, are other folks who have paid to subscribe to Roomie Match and match you according to your matching criteria. If you are receiving junk mail, it was (and we solemnly promise) NOT sanctioned or encouraged by us in any way, shape, or form. We are definitely a NON-SPAM organization, and we never mail you anything other than your matches or responses to e-mail or phone questions you submit to us yourself.

We feel so strongly about this that not only do we solemnly promise not to share your personal information to anyone outside Roomie Match, we encourage you to boycott any site that does not have a similar policy.


My email address has changed, but I still want to receive matches from you, but at my new address. What should I do? (back)

Please edit your profile via the updating area on the site and give us both your OLD e-mail address (the one you originally used to subscribe) and your NEW one, and we'll change your profile accordingly in our database. It is important that you provide us with your OLD e-mail address as well, because that's how we categorize the profiles, as proper names are not necessarily unique. We don't want you to miss out on any new matches!

How do I change my matching criteria? (back)

Visit the updating area on the site and fill out that form.

Can I have all my current (still active) roommate matches resent to me? (back)

Absolutely. Either visit the updating area on the site and fill out that form (you can request a resend there) or if you have a recent match from us handy, just reply to that asking to have all current matches resent, and we will.

How exactly are matches determined? (back)

How we decide which matches to send you is not based on everything in the questionnaires, it's based on a subset of those questions, as determined by the criteria (below). However, we DO give you information in every single profile about how well you 'match' your matches on every single variable in the questionnaires, so we're sure that will be helpful information for you. Here is a detailed description of the criteria on which we base which matches you receive:

City: If your indicated desired/current city is not the same, it's not a match. Your city used for matching must be one on our multiple choice form. If not, please see below for the question on "suburb/surrounding areas."
Moving Status: If you indicated you HAVE a place, you only get matched with people looking for a new place. If you're looking for a new place to move, you can get matched with folks WITH a place already, or also with folks looking for someone to look for a new place with collectively . . . your choice (as you indicated via your questionnaire).
Gender: You can select males only, females only, or that either are fine. You should only get matches based on your gender, the gender you preferred (if you specified), and then other folks that are agreeable with your gender as well.
Sexual Orientation: You only get matches from folks who say they are what you say you are, or folks that say they have their horizons open to all. Open-minded folks get the most matches. If you say you are heterosexual, and only want to live with other heterosexuals, then you should only get other heterosexuals. If you said you were homosexual or bisexual and do NOT want heterosexuals, then you should not get heterosexuals as matches. Similarly, whatever orientation you selected for yourself, you should not get matches from anyone who has said they do NOT want matches of folks identifying as that.
Smoking: We allow a certain amount of compromise on this variable, as we've found that even folks who are adamantly opposed to smoking can get along with folks that do smoke, but are willing to smoke outside only (and vice versa). We only exclude matches based on the outer smoking variables.
Age: If you said you are ONLY willing to be matched with others in your own selected age range, then that's what you get. If not, you get all age ranges. We can't match on a certain age range you might specify, we have to match based on one of the multiple choice options in our questionnaire. However, if you selected that you only wanted other folks from your own age range, this would seriously restrict you, since the age ranges are pretty specific.
Pets: Similar to smoking, only an exclusion based on the outer variables.
Rent: We allow one category "play" on this variable. That's because we've found that some clients, if other variables are to their liking, are willing to compromise and/or split the difference on this variable. Rent is categorized in $99 increments according to the questionnaire . . you are free to indicate something more specific in your "essay," but that's how it's calculated. If you are looking for someone to move in with you, you get matched with folks willing to pay up to one category below ($99 less than) what you asked, plus everyone willing to pay more. If you're looking for a new place, you get matched with folks willing to pay/offering a place one rent price category above you ($99 more than), plus everyone willing to pay/offering a place for less. ATTENTION RE: RENT: If you are experiencing difficulty and reading this, you may want to reconsider your rental amount based on how realistic it is for your geographical area. If you're looking FOR a new place, please consider if the amount you requested to pay is generally considered reasonable for that area. If you're looking for a place in Manhattan or San Francisco, $300/month is NOT going to attract a lot of folks with a place to share. Similarly, if you're looking for someone to move in with you somewhere in the Midwest or South or someplace similarly cheaper to live, most folks aren't going to be willing to pay $700/month or more, no matter what the amenities. Please understand that this is not any judgment based on who you are what you have to offer, it's just the nature of the rental market.

I'm not receiving enough matches. What should I do? (back)

If you are not getting enough matches from Roomie Match, it is very likely that the criteria you selected are too restrictive for your area at this time. EXPAND YOUR HORIZONS! We would be very happy to continue looking for matches for you based on whatever of the matching criteria you would like, but if you need to find a new roommate as soon as possible, it is advisable for you to consider opening up your horizons (and your criteria). We get thousands of new subscribers each month, and it's likely that you'll eventually find roomies based on whatever you select via this service, but it's just the nature of reality that the more restrictive or unusual your criteria, the less folks we will be able to find to "match" you quickly. If you'd like to consider changing your criteria, please refer to the description of the matching criteria in the question above, then edit your profile via the updating area on this site. Please make sure the e-mail address you used to sign up is included in this request.

I'm receiving TOO MANY matches. What should I do? (back)

Too many? You like to RESTRICT your options in life?? :) Well, if that is really the case, you can restrict your number of matches by making your criteria more specific or exclusive. Please review the matching criteria above then edit your profile via the updating area on this site.

My matches don't "match" me well enough. What should I do? (back)

We do our matching on a subset of the questions you filled out in your questionnaire, not the whole thing, because that would be virtually impossible. Please refer to the previous two question/answers for more info on that.

I subscribed a while ago, found a roommate, but I'd like to get some more matches now. Do you still have my old profile? (back)

We delete profiles as soon as their authors tell us they no longer need a new roommate, because we don't want new subscribers to get outdated matches. However, we'd love to rematch you, so if you'd like to fill out a new profile reflecting your current needs, we'd be happy to send you our current matches. If you paid anytime within the last year, we'll be happy to rematch you for free, but you do need to email us reminding us of your paid status for your new profile. We also need the email address you used to pay previously in order to validate that payment, so if you are using a different one now, tell us what the old one (the one you used to pay) was as well.

My matches are all from a nearby city, and I'm in a suburb/surrounding area. (back)

As per the instructions in the questionnaires, we do matches based on major metro area ONLY. We do matches based on the multiple choice questions . . . not on the freetext area. This is because even when given the opportunity, most folks looking FOR rooms don't indicate/prefer anything more specific than that. Thus, anyone we match you with will have entered your nearest major metro. We've found that persons living in suburbs or surrounding areas often can get good matches from our service . . . they may just have to contact a few more folks to do so. Meaning . . many folks are willing to move farther out if other conditions and compatibility factors are to their liking, but sometimes you can't always figure that out until you contact them. If you'd like to select another urban area for yourself (one ON OUR FORM) that would better meet your needs, let us know by updating your profile via the site (please also see the following question for more information on regional/suburban matching).

Why can’t you match specifically for my suburb only? (back)

As far as living outside a major metro, we’ve experimented with various ways of dealing with that, and came to the conclusion our way works best for the largest number of people. The unalterable reality is that it’s always a bit harder to find a roommate outside of a major metro than within one, no matter how you look for one. That’s not just Roomie Match, that’s reality overall. There are two approaches, both with pluses and minuses:

1. Match only for actual areas (meaning, specifically for the suburbs as well as the cities). Good in that matches are more specific, but overall pretty bad because those farther out get much fewer matches, ultimately ending up missing folks who would have been interested in moving a bit farther out if they’d only heard about the opportunity.

2. Match on major urban area only. Good, everyone gets more matches and is exposed to the greatest number of interesting choices. But the drawback here is that some folks won’t want to move to the ‘burbs.

We go with #2, because we’ve found it makes for the greatest possibility of suburban people finding matches. Folks actually open to a wider variety of areas will pick the center (the urban area), and folks in the ‘burbs can often entice a person who thought they only wanted to live in the city into considering moving farther out for better amentities, a lower price, or a really cool roommate!

I want to know exactly where these people offering rooms live in my city, and the profiles don't say exactly where. Can you give me their address? (back)

Many folks indicate something more specific about where they live or would like to live in their freetext area, as is recommended on the form. However, if one of your matches did not provide anything more specific in their freetext area, we don't have additional info we're "holding out" with regard to specific geographies. You'd just need to contact them and ask!

Do you do credit checks on your members? How do I know these people can really pay their share? (back)

At the low fee we charge, it would never be possible to do credit checks on any of our subscribers. In addition, in order to do a credit check, you must have the permission of the person whose records you would be accessing, their social security number, and pay a fee ranging from $40-100, via most services. However, if you still want a credit check performed on a subscriber, that is something that you and he/she are always able to pursue independently. There are some agencies that do that over the internet, and probably others available in your local area, perhaps in your Yellow Pages. Roomie Match is not in a position to recommend or endorse any credit checking agency, but if this is something that interests you, it should be pretty easy to find one. In addition to that (or as a less expensive/easier way to "check up on someone"), you could collect and follow up on some employment and/or previous landlord references from a potential new roommate as a way of easing your mind.

I have a question about a "roommate scam" someone told me is floating around the internet. (back)

We're received word of a "roommate scam" that's been circulating around the internet. We're not aware that any subscribers to Roomie Match have fallen for this, but since it is possible someone might, we wanted to post this warning as a public service. No, this is not reason for widespread or undue panic, or non-specific worry about finding a roommate on the internet or anywhere else. The vast majority of folks you could possibly meet from Roomie Match are law-abiding citizens who are not out to illegally "scam" you or anyone else. What this IS is a reminder that with this and all of your other adult endeavors you should exercise good common sense. If you can do that, you need not worry at all about this.

In general, if someone you don't know gives you a check/money order/cashier's check for a large amount of money, don't ever assume it cleared your bank as a valid payment until your bank assures you the deposit was good. Money orders and cashier's checks are forms of immediate payment AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT FORGED. If you're not extremely familiar with the issuing bank, assume you don't know what one of theirs would look like, no matter how "official-looking" it might seem to you. In addition, sending a relative stranger large amounts of money unnecessarily or as an unnecessary and unrequested "overpayment" is very odd behavior in and of itself. If someone seems to be doing something a reasonable person would find suspicious, don't trust them completely and immediately, especially with large amounts of your own money. This is good advice for roommate seeking and really, pretty much anything else in life.

More specifically, the details of the scam are reportedly as follows: Someone contacts you with an interest in renting your room, and would like to secure the room from afar by sending payment in advance. Then they spin a "Tall Tale" (the reasons vary, but all are equally "fishy" and should arouse suspicion in and of themselves) about how they need to send a check/cashier's check/money order for hundreds of dollars MORE than the required amount. After you receive it, you must immediately and with great urgency and speed (meaning, before your bank would be able to completely process the deposit) refund them their "balance" by getting it back to them somehow (mailing them one of your checks back, wire service, etc.). The scam is that the form of payment they sent turns out to be forged, so the money you sent back as their "balance/refunded amount" just comes out of your own pocket, and then you never see or hear from this would-be roommate ever again. If any of your roommate matches say anything vaguely like this to you, tell them you don't want any form of payment that's for more than the amount required for first month's rent, deposit, etc. Let them know as well that if they ignore your request and send more than the amount required anyway for any reason whatsoever, you'll not be able to refund them any balance until:
1) Your bank has assured you the payment cleared, and this applies to cashier's checks and money orders as well as personal checks and
2) They can pick up their balance in person when they show up at your house.

If whoever is a legitimate room seeker, they should have no problem with either, and you can tell them we said so.
If they do have a problem and/or continue insisting upon some ridiculous scenario along the lines of that described above, let us know about it immediately and we'll delete their profile. We are also on the lookout for this, but we'd appreciate your assistance as well if you notice something we might not yet.

I have a question not answered here. (back)
It’s faster to read about the service on this page than to email us and wait for a response, but if you really do have a question not covered here, please email us via this form.

Why do you NOT recommend use of email addresses on Hotmail? (back)
This is a long story that is difficult to make short, but since you're apparently reading here for more details, we'll try to satisfy your curiosity. We became aware of a problem on Hotmail when almost 100 subscribers, some of them with upgraded accounts, began complaining that they were receiving SOME but not ALL of their email. Some of the missed email was from us regarding new roommate matches, other missed emails were from other roommate seekers who read their profiles and wanted to get in touch with them. Subscribers who chose not to provide phone numbers could never have become aware other roommate seekers were attempting to contact them via email and failing, but some that did were phoned and told they'd been sent email they apparently never received. We initially imagined the problem was probably confined to a few individual accounts or merely a temporary glitch, but as the number of complaints and the number of days since the first one piled up, we had to wonder otherwise.

So, we then set up 15 test accounts ourselves at Hotmail. Since these accounts were ones we created ourselves, we knew we'd put Roomie Match's email address on the Safe List ahead of time, as per Hotmail's instructions for making sure you do not miss email from a particular sender. We were also absolutely certain the accounts in question had more than enough space to receive the email. We sent email to those accounts at various times using various connection methods over a period of several days. We found the complaints we'd heard from some of our subscribers to be completely valid. Most of the email just wasn't showing up. It was not just delayed, it was disappearing. Even more disturbingly, the email in question was not even showing up in the Junk Folder, it just disappeared entirely. Remember, these were even accounts with our email address Safe List'ed in advance. Wrongfully identifying an email as Junk if a user did NOT Safe List us in advance might be considered understandable, but if they DID Safe List us and STILL didn't get the email EVEN in the Junk folder, the end conclusion for us had to be that is was some fairly abominable censorship. We can't speak to why Hotmail would do this, if it's intentional or a result of technical difficulty, but the end result was that email many users signed up to receive from us or wanted to receive from other roommate seekers was just disappearing entirely.

Wondering if the problem was with the email we were sending or just general email regarding roommates somehow, we also tested free accounts on Yahoo and Gmail (Google's free email service). No difficulties whatsoever were detected. We also tested paid accounts on AOL and mac.com. Again, no problems there either. While it is obviously not possible for us to test all email services out there, to the best of our knowledge ANY email address other than one on Hotmail is preferable for use with roommate seeking or anything else of any importance, because Hotmail is the only one about which we've received complaints, and this since we've been here since 1998.

We did contact Hotmail technical support multiple times about this problem, including detailed descriptions and extensive documentation for the problems experienced. They never responded. Since we do not pay them for any service, Hotmail is obviously not obligated to communicate with us or justify anything at all regarding their email service to us. Disclaimers on their site state that, and we do understand that that is the case. But in terms of having any faith that it will work properly, the extensive problems themselves combined with their lack of response suggests that any optimism at all here would NOT be logical. We also cannot say how long Hotmail has experienced significant difficulty delivering email to its subscribers or what might be fixed at any time, but to the best of our current knowledge based on our experience, the experiences of our subscribers that reported it to us, and the experience of other webmasters on the internet with whom we recently communicated about this issue, it is not fixed now.

Please do not write to us saying you have not noticed any difficulty with your Hotmail account. See, the thing is, with a service like Roomie Match that sends email and being in a roommate matching database where other subscribers might be trying to contact you to become their roommate, you more often than not would not be ABLE to know there was a problem. You would not be receiving all your email, but you would not know what you were missing, because you do not yet know some of the folks that might be trying to get in touch with you. If your Hotmail address is the email address they have for you, you might just miss out entirely. That's why we're recommending you use another email address for your roommate search . . . or really, for anything at all you find important.

Terms of Service (back)

Roomie Match is cheaper than placing an ad most places. You also don't have to pay anything upfront unless we find matches you like and you want to contact them, but submitting payment in advance will speed your matching process by getting you the contact info of preferred candidates (giving you a "head start") over participants who choose to review their matches first. We input your profile into our database of people either looking for a place or for someone to move in (you specify), and then you get (via email) the profiles of compatible others in your area of choice. If you want to contact those folks, the fee is $19.95. We have a variety of payment options (any VISA or Mastercard or associated debit card, or checks or money orders), and after payment you get contact info for all your profiles. However, if you pay your fee and for whatever reason those matches don't work out, we continue to provide more matches for no additional charge for UP TO A WHOLE YEAR! (This means that if you find a roommate, then need to find one again for whatever reason within the next 12 months, your profile will be upgraded again for FREE! After you submit your profile you will continue to receive new matches to your email address for as long as you like, but we will delete you from our database as soon as you instruct us to do so.

Confidentiality Statement (back)

The information we gather will only be used for the purpose or roommate matching via this service. It will neither be shared nor sold to anyone outside of Roomie Match under any circumstances. Participation will not lead to junk mail, spam, or unsolicited advertising in your e-mailbox or via any other means.

Legal Disclamer (back)

When you use Roomie Match, you understand and acknowledge the it is strictly informational in nature. We can't guarantee the accuracy of the information provided, endorse or recommend specific clients, or accept responsibility or liability for any events arising from the use of this service. While we DO offer continued matching for up to a year, we DO NOT offer a money-back guarantee should you pay, then stumble upon a roommate situation via other means. However, if you should pay to subscribe and find a roommate anywhere, but need another one during the next year, you can sign up again and be rematched for free. The information we provide is certainly intended to assist you. However, as with most things in life, the ultimate decision is up to you. Please conduct yourself with normal caution and good common sense, in this and in the rest of your endeavors. GOOD LUCK!