marriage services, plenty of fish, pof.com, plentyoffish.com
marriage services, a foreign affair, loveme.com

The reason online dating has grown so rapidly in the last five years is highly due to advancements in technology. With computers becoming more readily available, internet access becoming more widespread, and online communication like email becoming more common, people are embracing the online dating world with much more trust these days.

But regular, domestic dating is not the only online dating that has grown with technology. The international dating industry, previously and more commonly known as the "mail-order bride" industry, has been growing rapidly as well. A Foreign Affair, found at www.LoveMe.com, is one of the leaders in this industry and has continued to find success and connect singles around the world since 1995.

Technology allows us to communicate with people anywhere in the world as long as they have a computer or a smartphone, so why should people limit their options? A Foreign Affair allows men who want to meet women outside of the United States to do that, and also gives foreign women the chance to meet men from America. In the international dating industry, A Foreign Affair is the outright leader when it comes to reliability, comprehensive services offered, and customer satisfaction.

Transparency 2.0 / 2.5
A Foreign Affair obviously strives to make their company and website as transparent as possible. If you scroll down to the bottom of the LoveMe.com home page, you will find the address of the main A Foreign Affair office, as well as a phone number where you can reach them. Most dating sites these days do not post a contact phone number, office address, and don't give you the option to simply call to ask about questions or issues. www.LoveMe.com even posts the names of the owners of A Foreign Affair as well as the employees working for the company. A Foreign Affair also makes their pricing options easy to find and posts them throughout the site. If you want to know about the price of a certain feature or tour, just click the link to that specific feature and prices will most likely be posted. Their pricing system can be a bit confusing, but that is mainly caused by a confusing explanation of the features they offer.

The one thing A Foreign Affair doesn't gain points for in the Transparency category is the clarity of their services. A Foreign Affair offers tours, phone services, translation services, Visa services, membership options, pay-per-letter options, and more. At most dating sites, there is a clear process with a clear series of features, but LoveMe.com gives you so many options, it can be hard for men to know where to start. Offering so many features is not a bad thing, but A Foreign Affair could explain those features in a much clearer way on their website. At www.LoveMe.com, you can browse the women's profiles, view all of their pictures, and even add your favorites to a "Hotlist," all for free. All you need to do is sign up for a free account at www.LoveMe.com.

Reliablity 2.5 / 2.5
A Foreign Affair receives a perfect score from MarriageServices.org in the "Reliability" category for many different reasons, most notably their grade with the Better Business Bureau. A Foreign Affair has an "A" with the BBB, a difficult grade to achieve in an industry that fully involves the emotions of singles looking for love. AFA's near-perfect grade with the BBB proves their dedication to customer support and satisfaction. When you search for information and discussion threads about A Foreign Affair, like with almost any other dating sites, you will find reports of scams. In this case, however, any report of A Foreign Affair scamming its customers is met with two reports of AFA doing a fantastic job and living up to its promises. Many comments point out the high cost of using the site, but that has nothing to do with scams. Most of the scam reports likely come from men who simply did not find success with the company, or have simply never used the site and are relaying reports they have heard elsewhere. Many people simply attack all international dating companies because they don't agree with what they are doing. As noted above, negative comments about A Foreign Affair are usually outweighed by positive ones. As always, do your own research before making your final decision on which dating site to choose.

www.LoveMe.com posts hundreds of text and video testimonials from men who have used the service. When you see these videos, which are obviously authentic, you will get a better understanding of what A Foreign Affair can do for single men interested in women around the world. Yes, the guys explain what they did on their tour and what they liked, but the real reason to watch these testimonials is to see how happy they look. The men on these testimonials act like they have visited heaven and don't want to go back. The only thing these men seem to regret is not joining A Foreign Affair sooner. Other dating sites offer testimonials, but none as convincing as the ones posted on www.LoveMe.com. A Foreign Affair clearly posts their privacy policy and terms and conditions on their homepage; just look down to the bottom of the left menu bar. Finally, A Foreign Affair uses an SSL security feature to ensure the safety of your payment information when you enter it. Overall, A Foreign Affair is probably the most reliable international dating site you can use.

Quality 2 / 2.5
Although www.LoveMe.com is not the most modern or advanced dating website you can find, it includes all the features you will need to meet the woman of your dreams in Asia, Latin America, or Eastern Europe. The key feature of using A Foreign Affair is access to their massive database of women's profiles. When you combine this with their comprehensive search engine that lets you seek out every detail of the women you are looking for, you can see why A Foreign Affair has found such success for so long. Not only can you find exactly what you are looking for in a woman, not to mention her location in the world, but you can do it all without paying a cent to A Foreign Affair. Once you are ready to communicate or go on a tour, you will need to start paying for the services.

When you sign up for a free account at www.LoveMe.com, you will gain access to your own personal home page. Again, the technology at www.LoveMe.com is not the most modern and the website feels a bit outdated. However, your personal home page will definitely give you the features you need whether they look flashy or not. The best part about the free personal home page at A Foreign Affair is the "Hotlist," a way to keep track of the women you are interested in. Like we mentioned, A Foreign Affair has thousands upon thousands of single women's profiles, and a fantastic search engine to match, so having access to a Hotlist to keep track of the women you like is an incredibly useful tool. A Foreign Affair also receives full points for the extra features and services they offer. Beyond just tours, AFA offers both phone and letter translation services, a gift delivery service, and helpful information about details of international dating. Some of their features are a little costly, but it will probably be worth it if you need that specific feature. A Foreign Affair also receives points for their customer support. Although there have been some complaints regarding the customer service when fixing problems, their dedication to supporting its clients through the entire process is very apparent. Each tour is hosted by an AFA employee, and often by one of the co-owners of the company. They provide 24-hour support on their tours and help the men feel comfortable during such a unique process. A Foreign Affair loses points in the "Quality" category for the simplicity of their women's profiles. Men who are seeking the woman of their dreams will not be satisfied seeing only a small description paragraph and a short list of details. The women's profiles could definitely include more information to help shorten the search process and give men a better idea of what each of these women are really like.

Cost 1.5 / 2.5
The cost of using A Foreign Affair is affordable, but it all depends on how you want to use their services. A membership at A Foreign Affair, called a "Platinum Membership," will cost you $29.99 per month with a $95 activation fee. This is an acceptable price, considering the features you will have access to. With a Platinum Membership, you will gain access to up to 100 virtual email addresses per month. When you get a woman's virtual email address and send your message, it will be relayed through her virtual email address and sent to her personal email address. This exists simply because companies like A Foreign Affair cannot legally give out the personal email addresses of these women. If you become a Platinum Member, you will also gain access to discounts on phone translation services and their Express Mail services. A non-platinum member will have to pay $7.49 per Express Mail letter, as opposed to $9.99 for non-members.

A Foreign Affair does not receive points for affordability when it comes to their extra services and membership options, but it's important to remember that dating internationally will cost more no matter where you choose to date. AFA allows for multiple payment options and doesn't seem to have any hidden charges, but using the site is still a bit expensive in general. Although their platinum membership option makes the extra features affordable, they are a bit too expensive for non-platinum members. As mentioned above, sending an Express Mail costs $10; not mentioned above is the fact that you have to pay to open the response letters as well. A lot of work goes into relaying emails and translating them as well, so we can understand why the prices are a bit on the high end, but the cost is definitely enough to dissuade certain men from using the site. If you plan on using A Foreign Affair to contact women from around the world for the potential to meet them, definitely go with their Platinum membership for $30 per month. It will give you the chance to communicate with as many women as you want (you shouldn't be talking to over 100 women at one time anyway) and will give you a real opportunity to meet the foreign woman of your dreams.

In reality, if you want to find success with a site like A Foreign Affair, you should simply use their tour service. Although it might seem expensive at first, just do the math; you would spend the same amount, and probably more, if you planned the same trips on your own. A Foreign Affair tours are trusted by thousands of men who have experienced them first hand, which you can see in their video testimonials. A Foreign Affair will set up your hotel stay, city tours, socials, introductions, and even your airfare if you so choose. The costs are all-inclusive, so keep in mind these details when choosing a tour. They might seem too expensive at first, but most men say that they're worth twice as much once they go.

Total Score     8.0 / 10