Harmony in Love. * FAQ. * Matchmaking. * FAQ 21-30.

Frequently Asked Questions.

21. Do you match on income?

We match on compatibility with your unique personality and not according to income, as that has not proved to be an effective criterion for marital success.

Occasionally users ask "Why can't you match me with a great person, and then cut off all people below a certain income level, so that I will only be matched with those who meet my financial requirements?" Introducing income, as a primary matching factor, may exclude from your matching pool people who would otherwise be wonderfully compatible with you. Additionally, income does not necessarily indicate how well someone saves money, budgets, or spends money responsibly, which is where many users' financial concerns lie.

However, we do match on a variety of other factors, many of which have direct correlation to income and financial security. These factors include your levels of energy, ambition, organization, and perhaps most importantly, education. Though this information doesn't specify what your income is, if two people are similarly organized, share similar levels of ambition and education, and have similar energy levels, it is not unlikely that they will have similar incomes, or financial goals. I hope this answers your concerns.

22. Do you match on appearance?

We do use physical appearance as a factor in our matching process, but our goal is to balance that characteristic with the other 29 dimensions that determine your compatibility. We know that physical attraction is important, but studies have shown it to be less important, in the long run, than characteristics like intelligence, conflict resolution and energy level among others.

We want to encourage you to get to know each and every match with an open mind. How a person perceives physical beauty can vary dramatically based on the inner connection that has occurred between them. After getting to know a person, his or her inner beauty often makes the outer beauty shine all the more radiantly.

Have you even known an attractive person, but then shown a photo of him or her to friends who couldn't see in the photo what you had seen? Conversely, have you ever seen a photo of someone attractive, but then in person, he or she seemed rather plain?

Take care not to make a snap judgment based on a photo, in either direction. Spend the time learning who your match is and determining if you share the special spark that may help you create a life together, and work hard to prevent physical attraction from hijacking your decision making process.

23. Increase Your Matches.

We match you based on 2 kinds of criteria. One is our 29 Personality Dimensions. You took an in-depth Relationship Questionnaire to help us learn about you and perform this complex matching service. The second group of criteria is your Self-Selects. You are in complete control of these criteria. It includes ethnicity, religion, geography range, smoking habits, drinking habits and several more.

It won't surprise you that by choosing a narrow range of self-selects you can make matching you very difficult. For instance, if you chose:

A 30 mile geographic range,
To only receive matches from an ethnicity that is rare in your area,
To only receive matches from a religion and/or denomination that is rare in your area,

It would be very difficult to find matches for you.

We suggest you visit your MY MATCH SETTINGS page and think hard about each self-select. We would never encourage you to change something you feel strongly about, but in some areas, like geography, even a small move can have a dramatic impact. We always suggest that people choose their geographic range and then widen it one level.

In areas such as smoking and drinking there are details that you should consider. It is difficult to match someone who indicates that they are a smoker and will not accept a match that smokes.

If you select not to be matched with a drinker, this will disallow ALL drinkers. A person who has a glass of champagne at a wedding or a glass of wine on New Years Eve is a drinker and will not be available to you. Currently 85% of those using eHarmony indicate that they drink alcohol.

Choosing whether or not to accept matches with children is a deeply personal choice. As you probably imagine, once the age of your matches exceeds a certain point the likelihood that they have children from a previous relationship increases greatly. If this issue is not a strong conviction for you, you may want to consider accepting matches with children as it will probably increase the number of matches we can provide.

There are other changes you can make but they are all contained on your My Match Settings page. To visit it:

-- Log In at www.eHarmony.com
-- Click on ABOUT ME at the top of the page
-- Click on MY MATCH SETTINGS at the top of the page
-- View your selections.
-- If you make any changes be sure to click SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page.

24. How do I initiate Fast Track communication with my match?

- What is FastTrack? -

FastTrack communication allows two matched users to proceed directly to Open Communication, bypassing our guided communication steps. In Open Communication you can send complete emails within eHarmony's anonymous communication system.

By clicking on the FastTrack button your match will receive an offer to meet you in Open Communication. This offer and your first Open message are sent immediately. If they accept, you are on your way. If they prefer to stay with the paced, guided communication, you will receive a reply letting you know and you can continue with the guided process.

- How does FastTrack Work? -

You can either offer FastTrack to a match or receive an offer to FastTrack.

- Offering FastTrack to a Match -

When you receive a new match and decide to Start Communication, you will see a blue FastTrack button in the right hand margin. Whenever it is your turn to send guided communication questions to your match you will see the FastTrack button.

By clicking this button you will first see our Open Communication Primer, which has a great deal of important information to consider when taking your email correspondence outside eHarmony's anonymous communication system.

You will click Continue and compose your first Open Communication message for this match.

Your request for FastTrack is sent. You will wait to receive an email notice that your match has made a decision. Once you have received this notice, you will return to the site and either:

a) Learn that your match is ready to FastTrack and has replied to your first Open message, or

b) Learn that your match would rather continue with the guided communication system. In which case you will send over the next set of guided communication questions. The Open Communication message that you sent over with your FastTrack request will be deleted.

Please note,
You can only offer FastTrack once to any particular match. If that match refuses the FastTrack offer, all FastTrack buttons will be removed from your communication pages with that match. However, even if you have offered FastTrack to a particular match and been declined, that same match can offer it to you later during guided communication.

If you do not have an eHarmony subscription and click on a FastTrack button, you will be taken to the Membership page where you will need to choose a subscription option.

- Receiving an Offer to FastTrack -

If one of your matches decides to offer you FastTrack, you will receive an email notice. Upon returning to the site you'll see the FASTTRACK Invitation indicator next to the name of your match. By clicking on READ MORE you will be able to either accept or decline the FastTrack offer.

If you accept, you will see our Open Communication primer and this match's first Open Communication message. You have just FastTracked to Open Communication!

If you decline, your match will be notified via email. They will then be responsible for sending over the next set of guided communication questions.

Please Note,
Once this match offers you FastTrack and you decline it, they cannot offer it to you again. However, if you change your mind, you can offer FastTrack to them.

If you do not have an eHarmony subscription and accept a FastTrack offer, you will be taken to the Membership page where you will need to choose a subscription option.

25. Can I put my subscription on hold?

Unfortunately, it's not possible to place your account on hold. However, you can turn off your matching at any time by selecting the ABOUT ME tab from the top of the My Matches page. Then click the MY MATCH SETTINGS subheading link and select "No, please do not send me new matches until I say otherwise." This will stop us from finding new matches while leaving you free to communicate with those you've already received. You can turn this function on or off at any time.

26. Is eHarmony a free service?

We're happy to help clarify eHarmony's membership program for you.

Being part of the eHarmony community is absolutely free. After completing our in-depth questionnaire, you receive a Free Personality Profile to better help you understand who you are and what you need in a long-term relationship.

In addition, once you're matched you can view introductory information about your matches at no charge. You only pay when you are ready to take the next step and communicate with the matches you've received.

We believe that considering the service we provide, and the success of our matching model, eHarmony's pricing is a substantial bargain. There are many free dating sites on the web, but eHarmony is searching for your Soul Mate, someone to love for the rest of your life. This task is much too important to go to the lowest bidder.

Our membership terms and pricing are available in our FAQ as well as the Membership Options page, which is available by clicking SUBSCRIBE NOW from your My Matches page. We believe it is important to give interested members all the details about the service we provide.

We hope this answers your questions. We wish you the best, and look forward to helping you find the love of your life.

27. What are your renewal rates?

Memberships renew in one-month increments. Below is a schedule of current renewal pricing.

Membership, Regular Price, Renewal Price.
One Month, $49.95, $39.95/month
Three Months, $99.95, $29.95/month
Six Months, $159.95, $24.95/month
Twelve Months, $249.95, $19.95/month

28. Why can't I see all my matches?

Only the five most active new or ongoing matches are shown on the front page of the My Matches page. To see additional pages of matches, click the appropriate page number link in the upper right corner of either the "New" or "Ongoing" match lists.

Ongoing matches are organized like this:

Read New
Open Communication
Send Reply
Awaiting Reply
On Hold
Closed

Within these categories, matches are listed newest to oldest. For example, if your very first match closes you, it will always be the last match listed.

29. How do I change my age preferences?

eHarmony uses a complex mathematical algorithm when determining your matches' age range. It is based on your age and the range our matching research has shown is optimal for long-term compatibility. You can view the age range we have pre-selected for you by

-- Logging in to your eHarmony account.
-- Clicking on the ABOUT ME tab at the top of your Matches page.
-- Clicking on the MY MATCH SETTINGS subheading link at the top of the page.
-- Scrolling to the bottom of the page. You will see two boxes containing the upper and lower age limits for your matches.

We also give you the flexibility to WIDEN the suggested age range. Please note, you cannot NARROW this range.

To widen the age range of your matches:

-- Increase the maximum and/or decrease the minimum age of your matches by double-clicking on the number in either of these boxes and typing in a new value.

-- Click on the "Save Changes" button at the bottom of this page.

Please note: For a match to be created both parties must have compatible age range settings.

30. How do I view my match's photos?

When you can view your match's photos depends on these factors.

1. Whether your match has posted a photo.
2. Whether that photo has been approved by eHarmony.
3. When they've chosen to share their photo.
4. Whether you have purchased an eHarmony membership.

If you have become an eHarmony subscriber and your match has posted 1 or more photos that we have approved, the first photo will be available in the upper right corner of their Match Profile page. This is the first page of information that you receive about a match.

If a photo is available you will see a VIEW ALL PHOTOS link underneath it. By clicking on VIEW ALL PHOTOS you can see and zoom in on all the photos this match has uploaded.

eHarmony encourages members to share their photos whenever they feel comfortable doing so. This means that a photo may not be available from the beginning of communication for every match. When a match is ready to share their photos they will appear on the Match Profile page.

For a more detailed description of the ways you can share your eHarmony photo, visit our FAQ and type in "Sharing Your Photos".

If a photo has not been made available to you by the time you reach Open Communication with a particular match, we believe you have every right to politely request that a photo be posted.

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