How to run a background check without a sales call

The sales call exists because pricing is opaque and setup is treated as a project. Neither has to be true. vID is $25 a check. It is self-serve. Setup takes about five minutes.

Why vendors want the call

A demo lets a vendor sell seats. It lets them sell minimums. It lets them sell a package you cannot compare on a public page.

HireRight's March 2024 survey of 1,275 respondents, reported by SHRM that September, found buyers putting accuracy back above cost and speed. If accuracy is the criterion, you can evaluate a product by whether identity is confirmed and whether the consumer reporting agency is accredited. You do not need a kickoff call to ask those two questions.

Accuracy Regains Top Spot as Crucial Factor in Background Screenings. Accuracy first among 1,275 respondents in March 2024.

The Professional Background Screening Association runs the public audit program for U.S. employment-screening consumer reporting agencies. The current U.S. employment screening standard is version 3.0, required as of July 1, 2024. vID's checks run through PBSA-accredited partners.

PBSA Accreditation Program. Accreditation is a public standard. It is not a slide in a demo deck.

Compliance is a sequence of documents

The FTC's employer guidance is a sequence. It is not a conversation.

Before you get a consumer report you must tell the person, in writing, in a stand-alone format, that you might use it for employment decisions. That notice cannot sit inside the job application. You may add a short description of consumer reports only if it does not confuse or detract from the notice.

You must get written permission. The FTC says this can be part of the same document as the notice. If you want permission that lasts throughout employment, you must say so clearly and conspicuously.

You must certify compliance to the company supplying the report. That certification covers notice, permission, FCRA compliance, and a promise not to discriminate or otherwise misuse the information under applicable equal opportunity laws.

If you later take adverse action based on the report, more steps apply. Before you reject an application, reassign or terminate someone, deny a promotion, or take any other adverse employment action based on the report, the FTC says you must give the person a notice that includes a copy of the consumer report you relied on, and a copy of "A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act."

The FTC states the reason. The advance copy gives the person a chance to review the report and tell you if it is correct.

After you take the action, you must give a notice of that fact, orally, in writing, or electronically. That notice must include the name, address, and phone number of the consumer reporting company. It must say that the company did not make the decision and cannot give specific reasons for it. It must tell the person they can dispute the accuracy or completeness of the information, and that they can get an additional free report from that company if they ask within 60 days.

vID collects disclosure and consent in the candidate flow before searches run. A calendar link does not add a legal step that the flow lacks.

Using Consumer Reports: What Employers Need to Know. Notice, then permission, then the report. The sales call is not one of the steps.

The five-minute setup

Go to /start. The screens follow a fixed order. Industry. Annual volume. Base package. Add-ons. Contact. Organization. Payment.

Industry is a routing question. The list includes education and childcare, volunteer and nonprofit, sports leagues, home services, hospitality and retail, and an 'other' path. The answer points the package at the right audience. It is not a contract.

Volume is a range: 0 to 25, 26 to 100, 101 to 500, or 500 and up per year. The range is used for pricing. It is not a minimum you must hit.

The base package is Standard or Plus. Standard is a national criminal search, a sex offender registry search, and a Social Security number trace, plus identity confirmation. Plus adds a 7-year county criminal search.

Add-ons are optional. Motor vehicle records. Drug screening. Employment verification. Education verification. Continuous monitoring on a six-month cycle. You can skip them. You can add them later.

Contact comes after the package is built. The ask is framed as saving the setup, not as a gate on the door. Email is required. Phone is optional. SMS only with consent.

Organization details mirror a basic business-verification set: legal name, EIN, address, plus people, website, and phone. Payment is card or bank through Stripe. You are not charged until you order a check.

They photograph a government ID. They take a live selfie. Identity capture is typically under a minute.

You pay $25 per check. Shared volume across a 28-provider network is what holds that price without a subscription or a seat license. A subscription exists if you want one. It is $500 a year for up to 25 checks, with a unit price as low as $20, monitoring, and a dedicated care team. You do not have to pick it.

What each setup screen is for

Industry tells the product which audience you are. A youth-sports league and a staffing agency buy the same identity-confirmed baseline. They do not buy the same add-ons. The question exists so the package screen can be short.

Volume tells the product whether pay-per-check or a subscription is the better door. A range is enough. You will not be billed for a number you typed as a guess.

Package is Standard or Plus. Standard is the national baseline plus identity. Plus adds the 7-year county search. Pick Plus when the role needs the courthouse file, not because a salesperson upsold it.

Add-ons are named. Motor vehicle records for drivers. Drug screening where a rule requires it. Employment or education verification when the resume is the risk. Monitoring when people stay. Skip them when they do not apply. You can add them later.

Contact is a save point. The package is already built. Email lets you pick the setup back up if you drop off. Phone is optional.

Organization is how the consumer reporting agency knows who is ordering the report. Legal name, EIN, address. The field set mirrors a basic business-verification record. It is not a credit check on your company.

Payment is a card or a bank account through Stripe. The screen is a placeholder for the method. You are not charged until you order a check. There is no 'free trial' that converts.

When a human is still useful

High volume can be worth a conversation. A custom package can be worth a conversation. An integration can be worth a conversation. The default path does not require one.

What a kickoff call cannot fix

Stolen-identity hiring is not a thought experiment. In April 2026 the Justice Department announced sentences in a laptop-farm scheme that used at least 80 stolen U.S. identities to place North Korean IT workers at more than 100 companies, including Fortune 500 firms, and generated more than $5 million for the government of North Korea. Victim companies spent at least $3 million on legal fees, remediation, and other damages.

The camouflage was domestic. Employers shipped laptops to U.S. bedrooms. Facilitators attached keyboard-video-mouse switches so someone overseas could type. Shell companies cashed the payroll.

Two U.S. Nationals Sentenced for Facilitating Fraudulent Remote IT Worker Scheme. April 15, 2026. Identity was the hole. The missing kickoff call was not.

The FBI's July 2025 IC3 alert lists a detail that belongs in this article. U.S. facilitators have helped purchase background check programs for use by the North Korean workers. A sales-engineered form will process those names. A live face against an ID portrait is a different door.

IC3 also says not to grant system access until the background check is completed, and to ship equipment only to the address on the identification documents. Those are operational rules. They do not require a demo. They do require that the check be about the person who will sit at the machine.

North Korean IT Worker Threats to U.S. Businesses. Alert I-072325-4-PSA, July 23, 2025. They have been known to buy the background check too. Identity confirmation is the part the purchase cannot fake as cheaply.

What you still need a person for

Counsel. The FTC page is a process map, not your policy. State limits on credit reports, ban-the-box timing, and fair-chance assessment rules are not something a five-minute setup can decide for you.

A custom integration into an applicant tracking system, if you have one that must be the system of record. The default path is the vID flow. It does not require that integration to send an invite tonight.

A package that is not on the add-on list. Watchlists, exclusion lists, and fingerprint clearances through a state agency are examples of work that may sit outside this product. The home-care industry page on this site says OIG and SAM exclusion screening is not part of the standard package. Where a state requires its own fingerprint pipeline, that pipeline still runs in its official channel.

None of those conversations is the door. The door is /start. The first invite does not wait on them.