What Information Is Needed for a Skip Trace?

The quality of information you provide directly affects skip trace success rates, speed, and accuracy. While searches can be run with minimal data, better identifying information means faster results, higher accuracy, and greater confidence that you’ve found the right person. This comprehensive guide explains what information is most valuable, what’s essential versus optional, and how to maximize your skip trace success rate with whatever information you have available.

📋 Information Overview

Skip tracing works by matching the identifying information you provide against database records to find current location and contact information. The more unique identifiers you provide, the easier it is to confidently match the correct person and find their current information. With excellent identifying information, searches complete quickly with high confidence. With minimal information, searches take longer and results may be less certain.

Think of skip tracing like finding a specific book in a massive library. If you know the exact title, author, ISBN, and publication date, finding the book is straightforward. If you only know “it’s a book about history,” the search is much harder and you might find multiple possibilities rather than one definitive answer. Skip tracing works the same way—the more specifically you can identify your subject, the better your results will be.

Different pieces of information have different value for skip tracing purposes. Some information, like Social Security Number, provides definitive identity matching that eliminates all ambiguity. Other information, like physical description, has little value for database searching since databases don’t contain height and weight. Understanding what’s valuable helps you prioritize gathering the most useful information before ordering a skip trace.

The time you invest in gathering good identifying information before ordering a skip trace typically pays off in faster results, higher accuracy, and lower overall cost. Rushing to order with minimal information may seem efficient, but often results in inconclusive results that require additional searching. A few minutes spent gathering SSN, DOB, or last known address can save hours or days of investigation time.

📌 Essential Information

Why Name Matters

The subject’s full legal name is the foundation of every skip trace. Without a name, searches cannot proceed—there’s simply no way to search databases without knowing who you’re looking for. The more complete the name, the better—middle names help distinguish between people with the same first and last name, which is essential for common name situations. Common nicknames should also be noted (e.g., “William” who goes by “Bill” or “Robert” who goes by “Bob”).

Name Variations and Aliases

If you know the subject uses different names, provide all of them. This includes maiden names for married women, former married names after divorce, nicknames that appear on official documents, and any deliberately assumed aliases that the subject may use. Subjects trying to hide often use name variations to avoid being found, so knowing these alternative names can be crucial for successful location.

Spelling variations also matter significantly for database matching purposes. “Stephen” versus “Steven,” “Catherine” versus “Katherine”—these variations can affect search results and may cause you to miss the right person if only one spelling is searched. If you’re uncertain of spelling, note that and provide your best guess along with alternatives you’ve considered.

⭐ Highly Valuable Information

Social Security Number

If you have the subject’s Social Security Number, provide it. SSN is the gold standard for skip tracing because it uniquely identifies a single person and links to credit records, employment records, and other databases that reveal current and historical information. With SSN, searches typically complete quickly with high confidence.

SSN traces reveal everywhere the subject has used that number—every credit application, every employer, every utility connection. This comprehensive history makes finding current information straightforward in most cases. The only limitation is that some people have stopped using their SSN for new activities, which may indicate deliberate evasion.

Date of Birth

Date of birth is the second most valuable identifier after SSN. Why? Because combined with name, it dramatically narrows the search. There may be thousands of “Michael Johnson” records in databases, but far fewer match both the name and a specific date of birth. For common names, DOB is essential for confident identity matching.

If you only know the approximate age rather than specific DOB, that still helps. “Born around 1975” narrows the search considerably compared to no age information. Month and day are helpful even without year. Any partial information is better than none.

Last Known Address

Last known address, even if years old, provides valuable starting point for investigation. Addresses appear in databases and help confirm we’re finding the right person by matching address history. Even an address from 10 years ago appears in records and helps verify identity.

Old addresses also provide investigative leads. Relatives may still live there. Neighbors may know where the person moved. Utility records may show forwarding or transfer of service. Geographic context helps narrow nationwide searches to likely regions.

📝 Helpful Additional Information

Phone Numbers

Any phone numbers associated with the subject—even old or disconnected ones—help with skip tracing. Phone numbers link to subscriber records and may appear connected to other current information. Cell phone numbers are particularly valuable because people often keep them when moving.

Employer Information

If you know where the subject works or has worked, this information is valuable. Employment databases track where people work, and payroll records can reveal current addresses. Even knowing the general field or industry helps—”works in construction” or “is a nurse” provides context that may help verify identity.

Relative Names

Family members are powerful skip trace resources. Parents, siblings, children, and spouses all create data trails that link to the subject. When the subject can’t be found directly, tracing relatives often reveals current information. Database records link family members together, so searching for a parent may reveal the adult child you’re actually seeking.

Associate Information

Roommates, business partners, or other close associates may lead to the subject. People often maintain contact with associates even when avoiding others. Co-residents at previous addresses appear in utility and credit records together.

📁 Information by Scenario

Different scenarios typically involve different available information. Understanding what you likely have and what would help most for your specific situation helps you gather the right information before ordering a skip trace.

Debt Collection

Creditors typically have: name, SSN, DOB, last known address, and possibly employment at time of credit application. This is excellent information for skip tracing—essentially the best starting data available. Provide everything from the original credit application—it’s often the best starting data available.

Credit card issuers and lenders collect detailed information when accounts are opened. If you’re working with collection accounts, request the full original application file if it wasn’t provided. The information the debtor provided when seeking credit is usually accurate (they wanted to get approved) and complete enough for effective skip tracing.

Process Service

Process servers typically receive: name and last known address from court filings. SSN and DOB may not be available in the filing. Request any additional information from the attorney or plaintiff—case files often contain more identifying information than appears in the formal court filing itself.

Attorneys often have additional information from their investigation or from their client that didn’t make it into the court filing. A quick call asking “do you have any other identifying information for the defendant?” may yield DOB, SSN, employer, or other valuable data that speeds the skip trace.

Judgment Collection

Judgment creditors have information from the lawsuit: name, address at filing, and any information discovered during litigation. Post-judgment discovery may have revealed SSN, employment, and other details. Review your entire case file for all available identifying information—answers to interrogatories, deposition transcripts, and documents produced in discovery all may contain valuable identifiers.

If you haven’t conducted post-judgment discovery, consider whether the information you’d obtain justifies the cost. Supplemental proceedings or written interrogatories can compel the debtor to reveal SSN, employment, and asset information—though this requires the debtor to cooperate, which is why skip tracing is often necessary.

Missing Persons (Personal)

When searching for lost relatives or old friends, you may have limited formal information but valuable personal knowledge: approximate age, places they lived, schools attended, family members, former employers. All of this contextual information helps skip tracers verify identity and find current information.

Gather information from family members, old photographs (which may have dates or locations), letters or cards with return addresses, school yearbooks, or any other source that might provide identifying information. The more personal context you can provide, the more effectively we can search.

Background Investigation

For background checks, you typically have information the subject provided: name, DOB, SSN (for employment), current address. This high-quality information makes verification searches straightforward. The question is usually verifying the information provided, not finding someone who’s hiding.

When subjects provide their own information for background checks, it’s usually accurate—they know their background will be checked. The challenge is ensuring you have the right person (not someone with a similar name who has a clean record) and finding information the subject might not have disclosed voluntarily.

Heir Location

Heir searches typically start with information from estate documents: the deceased’s records may list children, siblings, or other relatives. Death certificates, wills, and other estate documents contain identifying information about the deceased that helps identify and locate potential heirs. Genealogical research may be needed to identify heirs before they can be located.

Insurance Investigation

Insurance claims contain information the claimant provided: name, address, DOB, SSN, and details about the claim. This is usually sufficient for skip tracing if the claimant has moved since filing. The application and claim files contain the starting information needed for investigation.

👥 Handling Common Names

Common names present special challenges for skip tracing that require additional identifying information to overcome. There are millions of “Michael Johnson,” “Jennifer Smith,” “Jose Garcia,” and similarly common name combinations in databases across the country. Without additional identifiers, searches may return multiple possible matches rather than one confident result.

Why Common Names Are Challenging

Database searches match records by name. A search for “John Smith” might return hundreds of thousands of records nationwide. Even with geographic limitation, a search in California might return thousands of “John Smith” records. Sorting through these to find your specific John Smith requires additional identifiers or accepts uncertainty about which is correct. Without additional data points, there’s simply no way to determine which John Smith is the one you’re looking for.

Solving Common Name Problems

With common names, additional identifiers become critical rather than just helpful. Date of birth is essential—it reduces thousands of matches to perhaps dozens. SSN narrows to exactly one person. Last known address, combined with DOB, often identifies the correct person with high confidence even for very common names.

If you lack these identifiers for a common name, searches may return multiple possible matches. You may need to review these matches and determine which is your subject based on other factors you know about the person. This is a legitimate outcome—it provides you leads to investigate rather than leaving you with nothing, and often one of the matches will clearly be your subject based on other details.

⚠️ Working with Limited Information

Sometimes you have very little information about the person you need to find. While this makes skip tracing harder, it’s not necessarily impossible. Here’s how to maximize results with minimal information and what to expect when working with limited data.

Name-Only Searches

Skip traces can be run with just a name, but expect limited results for common names. Unique or unusual names may still produce good results even without additional identifiers. If you have only a name, tell us anything else you know—even seemingly minor details might help narrow the search and identify the correct person from multiple possibilities.

Name-only searches for common names typically return multiple possible matches. This isn’t failure—it’s the reality of searching for “John Smith” without additional identifiers. You may need to review these matches and determine which is your subject based on other factors you know about them.

Gathering More Information Before Searching

Before ordering a skip trace with minimal information, consider whether you can gather more. The time spent gathering better identifying information often saves money and produces better results. Sources of additional information include:

• Original documents: Contracts, applications, correspondence may contain DOB, SSN, addresses that weren’t initially extracted
• Court filings: Lawsuits, judgments, bankruptcies are public records with identifying information that can supplement what you have
• Public records: Property records, marriage/divorce records, voter registration may reveal additional identifiers
• Social media: Profiles may reveal DOB, locations, relatives, employers without requiring database access
• People who know the subject: Relatives, former employers, mutual acquaintances may provide identifying information
• Original creditor files: For collection matters, the original creditor’s files often contain more information than what was provided to the collection agency

Partial Information Value

Partial information still helps more than you might think. Even approximate date of birth (year only, or “born in the 1980s”) narrows searches significantly. City or state of last known residence limits geographic scope. Partial SSN (last four digits are sometimes available on documents) helps verify matches. Former employer name or industry provides context for verification. Don’t dismiss partial information—provide everything you have and let us determine what’s useful.

Information That Seems Unimportant

Sometimes people withhold information because it seems irrelevant or embarrassing. “He had a DUI five years ago” might seem unimportant, but criminal records contain identifying information and addresses. “She worked at a strip club” might seem like gossip, but it’s employment information that could help locate someone. Provide everything without filtering—professional skip tracers use all available information discreetly.

📁 Where to Find Identifying Information

If you don’t have the information you need, here are common sources where additional identifying information can often be found.

For Debt Collection

Credit applications contain SSN, DOB, and addresses at time of application. Employment information on applications provides workplace data. Co-applicant or guarantor information provides associate leads. Payment history may show addresses used for correspondence. Original creditor files often have more information than collection agencies receive—request the full file.

For Legal Matters

Court filings often contain DOB and sometimes SSN (though courts increasingly redact these). Previous cases involving the party may have additional identifying information. Deposition transcripts may reveal employment, addresses, relatives. Attorney work product files may contain more information than the formal filing.

For Missing Persons

Family members may know SSN, DOB, or can provide old documents containing this information. Old photographs may have dates or locations noted. Letters or cards may have return addresses. School records, marriage certificates, military records all contain identifying information.

Public Records Sources

County assessor records show property ownership with owner addresses. Court records (civil, criminal, family) contain party information. Business filings show officers and registered agents with addresses. Marriage and divorce records contain DOB and often SSN. Voter registration records contain DOB and address. These public records can supplement the information you already have.

✅ Information Quality Matters

Not all information is equally valuable, and accuracy matters as much as quantity. Here’s how to assess and improve the quality of information you’re providing for skip traces.

Accuracy Over Quantity

One accurate SSN is more valuable than a dozen guessed addresses. Before providing information, assess your confidence in its accuracy. Information from official documents is more reliable than remembered details. Recent information is more valuable than old information (though old information still helps).

Source Quality

Consider where your information came from. Information from court records, credit applications, or official documents is high quality. Information from memory or secondhand sources is lower quality but still useful. Information the subject provided about themselves may be intentionally false if they were trying to hide. Note your source and confidence level when providing information.

Recency

Recent information is more valuable because it’s more likely to reflect current circumstances. An address from last year is more useful than an address from ten years ago. However, old information isn’t worthless—it appears in databases, helps verify identity, and provides historical context. Provide both recent and historical information when available.

Consistency

When you have information from multiple sources, note whether it’s consistent. Matching information from multiple sources is high-confidence. Conflicting information may indicate errors, name confusion with another person, or deliberate misinformation. Let us know when information is inconsistent—that itself is useful data.

🔒 Privacy and Legal Considerations

When gathering and providing information for skip traces, be aware of privacy and legal considerations that apply to how information can be obtained and used.

Legitimate Purpose Required

Skip tracing is legal for permissible purposes: debt collection, legal matters, licensed investigation, and other legitimate needs. Simply wanting to find someone out of curiosity or for harassment is not a permissible purpose. We may ask about your purpose for the search to ensure compliance with applicable laws.

How You Obtained Information

Information you provide should have been obtained legally. Information from documents you legitimately possess is fine. Information obtained through deception, theft, or unauthorized access creates legal problems. If you’re uncertain whether you can legally provide certain information, ask before providing it.

Protecting Information

SSN and other sensitive information should be protected in transit and storage. Submit information through secure channels. Don’t email unencrypted documents containing SSN. Retain skip trace results securely and dispose of them appropriately when no longer needed.

📤 How to Submit Information

When ordering a skip trace, organize your information clearly to ensure nothing is missed and the search starts promptly.

Organizing Your Submission

Present information clearly with labels. Don’t make us guess whether “123 Main St” is current address, last known address, or something else. Indicate confidence levels where uncertain. Provide context where helpful (“this was her address when we made the loan in 2018”).

What to Include

A good skip trace request includes: subject’s full name with any known variations, SSN (if available), DOB (if available), all known addresses with dates, all known phone numbers, email addresses, employer information, and relative/associate names. Add any additional context that might help—the more we know, the better we can help.

What to Expect

After submission, we may contact you with questions if anything is unclear. Searches begin once we have sufficient information to proceed. Results come back according to timeline for the service level ordered—see how long does skip tracing take for details.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

✅ Skip Trace Information Checklist

Use this checklist when preparing to order a skip trace. Gather everything you can before submitting your request for best results.

Essential (Required)

• ☐ Full legal name (first, middle, last)
• ☐ Any known name variations, maiden names, aliases

Highly Valuable (Provide if Available)

• ☐ Social Security Number
• ☐ Date of birth (full or partial)
• ☐ Last known address (with approximate date)
• ☐ Previous addresses (with approximate dates)

Very Helpful (Provide if Known)

• ☐ Phone numbers (current or former)
• ☐ Email addresses
• ☐ Current or former employer name
• ☐ Occupation or industry

Useful Additional Information

• ☐ Relative names (parents, siblings, spouse, children)
• ☐ Known associates (roommates, business partners)
• ☐ Vehicle information (make, model, plate)
• ☐ Property owned (current or former)
• ☐ Professional licenses held
• ☐ Schools attended
• ☐ Military service

Context and Notes

• ☐ Reason you’re trying to locate this person
• ☐ Any reason they might be deliberately hiding
• ☐ Geographic areas where they might be located
• ☐ Confidence level for each piece of information
• ☐ Source of information (official document vs. memory)

Don’t worry if you can’t check every box—provide what you have and note what’s missing. Even partial information helps, and professional skip tracers are skilled at working with incomplete data.