by admin
Owed Money?
Single parenting is tough, and it’s much easier when the other parent contributes financially for living expenses. Some parents lose touch with their children during or after a divorce and subsequently refuse to provide any support.
State child support agencies have become more efficient in finding deadbeat parents. As the custodial parent, you can help the agencies, and even do a lot of the work yourself to track down deadbeat dads. If you are owed child support, there is help for you and your children. The very first step is to contact the child support enforcement in your state, or Province.
Some states work hard to track down deadbeat dads, at no cost to you, but you need to help the agencies as well. The child support agencies have the necessary tools and experience that you do not have. Many agencies also maintain websites to publicize information about the elusive parents.
Be proactive! If he doesn’t pay, help them to help you!
You must provide information to help them: Date of birth, social security number, driver’s license number, photo, and where you think he may have moved to. In the meantime you should also do some legwork yourself. Even if you end up working with professionals, you can save time and money by checking the Internet yourself for information.
Start by checking search engines by typing in the parent’s name in quotes. If the person’s name is common, your search may return too many matches. In that case, include more information, such as a middle name, or the state where you think the person may be living.
Also check social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. Your ex may be brazen enough to create a page on a social networking site. Law enforcement professionals often use this resource to find wanted criminals.
You could also hire a professional investigator to track him down. The advantage to this is because he is working just for you, he may accomplish the objective faster than the child support agency.
Other Options.
Public Records Searches.
Since hiring a private investigator is generally cost prohibitive for most mothers with limited resources, a public records search may yield good results.
What you will be doing is searching public records databases, these may be useful since they often provide last known addresses, employment records, and many other archived records on individuals. Information is collected from a wide variety of sources such as newspaper archives, county court records and a lot more. If you are searching for someone, this is an excellent resource. It’s not free, but it is very reasonable for the information you can get, and a lot cheaper than hiring an agency.
One of the most common questions people have is whether or not free records search databases actually exist on the Internet. Unfortunately, the answer is no. If you’re looking for completeness and accuracy, you will need to pay a small fee to access the record.
Also it is worth mentioning that if you search for free reverse phone, or other records search directories. You will find some pseudo-directories promising to allow access to free information. The truth is that these websites will just return very basic information (such as the name of the cell phone carrier) without any real and useful information provided unless you pay for the service.
We have included links to a few of the paid resources that we feel provide the most up to date and accurate information from our own experiences. The cost is very reasonable, and if you fail to locate the desired information by using these services, refunds are available.
General Person Search Database
Marriage/Divorce Records Search
Unpublished Phone Number Search
A few other tips..
If you find him, DON’T contact him! As much as you may want to make your feelings known, it’s best to just pass the information along to the child support office you are dealing with.
Keep an accurate record of what he owes you so that if you find him, you’re prepared to collect.
Also, please be aware of the many so called child support collection agencies you find on the Internet. They may look and sound official, but many of them aren’t. Check them out thoroughly using resources such as the Better Business Bureau. Make sure you check the reputation of the organization and read the fine print before you make a decision.
