I signed up to Match.com mainly because of the events evenings that were advertised as I thought that this would be a good, informal way to meet people. Not one event has been anywhere near me! So unless you live in one of the larger cities, such as London, Birmingham etc, then don't bother!This information would have helped me with my decision, but they don't tell you this when you sign up! I have had some nice chats with genuine men and even went on a date. So in this case it is good, but I have found that you need to be very proactive; I get an average of one reply per 10 - 15 messages I send out. I will not be re newing once membership comes to an end.

The investigated quota on Match is one male per seven females. So women are always in a shop window and high risk of being picked by 'players'. Got plenty messages from day one but high quantity were sexual and 'body pix'. Women, make it very clear in your profile if you DON'T want that behaviour, or it is just assumed you do. Had 5 super matches in 4 months but all were multi-dating (you can ask) so don't fall in love too fast. Wait maybe 6 dates then check your feelings. Was victim to one player and one 'ghoster' but you can learn about the 'red flags' of these on many websites. Learn them! Generally ok for a few months fun but keep your emotional guard up and don't automatically expect to meet a husband, regardless of the profile bait. Also, if you do start to commit to only one person for dates, still monitor who is doing the most chasing and if it changes. You can't relax your attitude on your site if you're female.

I've been on a few dating sites and this is the least worst of a bad bunch. A difficulty is that there are so many matches that its sometimes difficult to plough through them. It's easy and quite pleasant to use but sad to see that most men 30-45 state they want ladies 21-30 in their age preference. You can't copy and paste when sending emails so this is likely to weed out the fakes.

I have used Match, Guardian Soulmates and eHarmony. Out of the three Guardian Soulmates was the best, then Match, the other is useless. I was on each for an avaerage of 6 weeks, but I have a friend who has been online for four years so I am basing this review on both our experience. The good bit is that two years later I am still with my date from GS. I had a good success rate with Match too. ( a brief relationship and a reasonable amount of offers and dates, I chose the wrong guy though) However with Match I had far to many emails, to the point where it was irritating, as most were from unsuitable men who had not read my profile but just clicked on the photo. Match and GS were value for money as I was taken out to dinner by around seven men on each site before finding a bf. I was grateful as I had paid to join so it was like getting my money back and I tried to be fun and friendly with them all as I didn't want them to feel that they had wasted their money and time taking me out even if there was no chemistry. I would say that most men on dating sites are looking for a pretty girl who is young and has a good job, (they don't mind paying but you must show that you are also self-sufficient) if this is you - you're in luck, if not forget it. If you are over 37 you must have a healthy bank account even as a woman to score. Over 40 and a woman? You had better be hot. The women are looking for a guy who is tall (5'10 and above, preferably 6'2") and has a good job, also good looking-ish, if that's not you, forget it. Sorry to sound harsh but that is my experience and lots of my friends. Save your money if you don't fit the above criteria and try the local pub, work etc where at least you can speak your case before being turned down. It all sounds shallow because unfortunately internet dating is shallow. People are usually on there as the people in their 'real life' aren't doing it for them so they go online to look for a prince or princess. Also before going online, toughen up, as you are in for a rocky ride before finding 'the one.'

Due to the career I have. I decided to joined Match on a 3 month basis which cost around £58. From the experience I have witnessed over the last 3 months, Match is only worth the money, if you live in well known parts of the UK. This dating site is not recommended for the people in rural areas, such as myself. You are lucky to find someone within 30miles of yourself. This is fine if you have a 9-5 job but not for the people that work throughout the evening or night. I wouldn't advice anyone under the age of 22 to join the site. I would also like to stress that if you are a man looking to join this site be fully aware that the majority of the time you'll be doing the chasing. Finally, there are some fakes, still laying around on this site but mainly from oversea's. I've gave this site 3 stars on the basis of I have chatted to nice women, however like i said above this site is only suitable for people who live in major parts of the UK such as London, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and possibly the areas of Plymouth and Bristol.

Match.com is an ok site. I met my partner on it so I do like it. The people who are moaning about the auto renew obviously didn't pay attention when registering. It tells you on the PAYMENT PAGE!! And you get an email once you have bought it WHICH TELLS YOU ABOUT AUTO RENEW. Duh! It is in the t& cs too and you can click on the payment section. Easy peasy.

The actual site is full of flaws and they need to work on that.

Good Points:

1.Easy to navigate.
2.Easy to hide you profile, enabling you to search anonymously or if you just feel like taking a break without de-activating your account.
3.The polite "I'm not interested" canned response facility to winks and emails is a nice idea ~ personally I'd rather know than not know if someone's not interested ~ more sites should sdopt this function.

Bad Points:

1.The recurring payment system. You can stop this but they don't make it very clear!
2.Their profile matching is not all that accurate.
3.They want you to pay extra for email read notification!
4.No way of knowing whether the person you're trying to contact is subscribed and can hence reply.
5.Lot's of dormant profiles, but this could be down to users not hiding or removing their profiles when not using the site. In any case if someone's not logged on for over 3 weeks it's probably a safe bet that this is the case.
6. 1 months subscription recently gone up from £22.80 to £34.99!!!

Well despite the above I can't say my experience of match.com has been a bad one. However I won't be re~subscribing mainly due to point 6 above.
I've met up with half a dozen or so people from the site ~ having a 5 month relationship with one lady. All those I met were nice people and not frauds. But I think as is the case with lots of these sites, as they've become more popular they attract more flaky timewasters, attention seekers and players. This can be frustrating for people like myself looking for a serious relationship, but I guess that's life.