DateMyAge Review: I Tried the Over-45 Dating Site for a Week

DateMyAge makes it clear straightaway that it caters to singles over 45. This isn’t a place for quick hookups and playing the field while you find yourself. Instead the focus is on core values and mature relationships.

The tagline sums it up nicely: “Mature singles, young at heart.”

The site proudly showcases its testimonials and boasts of over 65,000 user reviews. It may not be the biggest dating site, but it’s clearly struck a chord with some people.

A respite from swiping games with 20-somethings sounded pretty nice to me. So I gave it a go and created an account to test how it works.

Signing Up

The registration starts as all dating site registrations do by asking what gender you are and what gender you’re seeking.

DateMyAge has a male-female gender binary, but it does allow users to look for both men and women or seek same-sex matches.

I was required to provide my email address, birthdate, and first name. Only the email address was verified. I uploaded one photo that was immediately accepted.

Then I filled in two write-in prompts: A Few Words About Myself and How I’d Describe My Ideal Partner.

I decided to embrace the international spirit of the site with my bio. I wrote: I’m an avid traveler (been to 15 countries and counting). I like to talk to people who have different perspectives and life experiences from mine. Open to friendships across borders!

Last of all, I was invited to select my hobbies and interests from a set list.

This completed my profile. All I had to do was open an email to gain access to the site’s dating pool

Very little information is required to sign up to DateMyAge. You can get through the registration process in a couple of minutes, depending on how much you want to write in the prompt sections.

Looking at Profiles (So Much Reading!)

I’ve joined hundreds of dating sites at this point, for work and for pleasure, and I’m used to a certain familiar layout. A main picture, a short one-sentence bio, and some demographic information, usually kept pretty brief.

DateMyAge is not like that. The profiles tended to have longggg paragraphs in the bio, several pictures with varied backgrounds, and completely filled out demographics that included height and zodiac sign.

I was not nearly that thorough when filling in my details, but my three-sentence bio seemed to be the outlier on DateMyAge. I didn’t realize an essay submission was required until I started browsing!

Check out a snippet from this bio from an artist from California as an example:

“I am hot-blooded and warm-hearted. Since I was little, I have been a man in search of positive opportunities, my family did not have the best economic position, but thanks to my efforts and the support of those around me, I managed to achieve a better lifestyle. I have decided to bet on love, hate is too heavy a burden to bear.”

It went on after that to describe his love for traveling and adventures.

My gut tells me not all DateMyAge profiles were written off the cuff. Since AI has come into vogue, I often wonder if what I’m seeing or reading online was manufactured by an algorithm. 

Polling suggests that roughly half of young online daters are using AI to help them write their online dating bios. So that’s something to be aware of as a modern dater.

The profiles on DateMyAge tend to talk in platitudes. Maybe that’s partly a cultural difference, or maybe it’s something DateMyAge fosters because the example bio text when signing up is quite flowery.

It felt to me like a classic “telling not showing” issue where so many people described themselves as adventurous or loyal or passionate, but they offered little to no specific examples in their lives as evidence of those grand ideals.

User Impressions

The platform promises mature dating, and the profiles reflect that. I saw a lot of working or retired professionals over 40. Widowers and divorced singles were commonplace.

What’s interesting and truly unique about DateMyAge is its embrace of international matches. I saw profiles in China, Israel, Brazil, Italy, and other countries around the world. 

I would say of my messages, about 50% came from the U.S., and the rest were international pen pals.

The site has translation services to ensure there’s no language barrier between people of different nationalities.

Handsome faces with chiseled jaws were also the norm on DateMyAge. The photos seemed very polished (not a bathroom selfie in sight!). A lot of headshots and travel photos. 

One guy in Shanghai had a series of model-quality photos of himself posing at what appeared to be a hotel. His profile said he runs a company. So fancy.

I’m a huge skeptic when I’m online, so I was planning to pepper these profiles with follow-up questions once we got into a chat.

What My Messages Said

I got a slew of messages. Profiles here seem to be very active and willing to chat. I did notice that messages tended to come in at a more rapid rate while I was actively online.

All told, I received 28 greetings within my first week. Most were written messages. I received 7 invitations for a video call (without chatting first, not likely!), and one person left me a voice note.

The greetings were all polite: 

• “I hope this letter brings a smile to your face.”
• “A big greeting from the majestic city of Geneva.”
• “Singing is my way of communicating my soul, so I’ve left a video for you.”

Some chats seemed quite random. One opening message just said, “Do you like naps?” A 48-year-old restaurateur was really going outside the box with that one.

A Londoner named Gilbert asked, “Do you believe in friendship between men and women? Yes or no?” I wrote back a resounding yes.

I liked reading (and judging) the messages that came my way. Some were pretty long and seemed to be taken straight out of a romance novel. Much of it was complimentary, but very little of it felt specific to me.

I didn’t end up getting into any very interesting conversations because it was all too surface-level to really draw me in.

Setting cynicism aside. Online dating isn’t always such a polite picnic. I’ve seen some pretty lame, rude, and even graphic opening messages on other apps. DateMyAge struck me as rather tame and respectful in comparison. No sexual innuendos to be found.

Credit System Explained

The free membership has its limits. I could read all introductory messages, and I could send one response, but I could only read a short blurb of the message sent back to me. Then all communication was paid only.

DateMyAge has a credit system to unlock premium features, including video calls, audio messages, and virtual gifts.

The way it works is you buy a bundle of credits and then spend them on the features you’d like to use.

These are monthly bundles, so they will auto-renew until canceled. There is a one-time, no-penalty refund policy for first-time users who cancel within three days.

And what do you spend credits on? So glad you asked. Credits unlock quite a few features, ranging from essential (messaging) to just for fun (virtual stickers).

As you can see, it can get pricey for anyone wanting to keep up a long, intimate chat, especially over video. But for a few casual conversations, it isn’t too bad.

I used my 150 block of credits mainly on instant messaging because it seemed like they’d be eaten up quickly by one video. And I don’t see much point in virtual gifts.

I didn’t find it super easy to keep up with all the conversationalists in my inbox. Old conversations were easily buried by new ones. The inbox had tabs for “read and unanswered” and “unread,” but I needed a separate folder for “you emailed this person and they’ve messaged back so don’t ghost them.”

Responses to my messages came quickly. Almost too quickly? I can’t help but be a little suspicious of a pilot or restaurant owner who has time to chat at 2 PM on a random Tuesday.

I listened to an audio message out of curiosity. It was like a love letter meets Audible, but it felt impersonal and scripted like he’s sent the same thing to all the girls.

It was pretty easy to go through all 150 credits within a couple of days of active chatting. Between being charged to open my emails and having to field requests for video and audio chats, it all added up quickly.

One last thing to note: Credits expire at the end of the month. Any unused credits will not roll over into the next month.

Customer Support

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the DateMyAge team is very accessible. There’s a Live Support chat function for paying members and a contact form that anyone can use. 

The customer support number (+1 800 291-5025) welcomes calls 24/7. Emails can be sent to support@datemyage.com.

And if you’re old-fashioned and want a physical address, here it is: 

Dil Mil Inc.
200 Townsend St., Unit 43
San Francisco CA 94107, USA

Not a lot of dating sites these days offer so many ways to get in touch. I have to give DateMyAge its flowers for providing so many ways to give feedback and get customer support.

Safety Considerations

All online dating apps deal with security in different ways. Some ask users to take a live selfie to verify their photos, while others use text verification to eliminate the possibility of duplicate catfish accounts.

DateMyAge relies primarily on email verification. The upside to this is accessibility for users (some seniors may not be savvy enough to take a selfie or use the text verification) because anyone can create an email address.

That’s also a downside for security though because anyone can create an email and anonymously join the site.

DateMyAge allows users to choose their name, and it doesn’t have a required verification system for identities. Though the Terms of Use state that any credit cards used must have the same name as the profile to be approved.

An optional profile verification asks for a government ID and photo. A checkmark badge shows up on the profile if a member takes this step. I did see a lot of badges, so it seems pretty common for users to take that extra step.

Pretty much all dating sites have report and block tools available for users to hold each other to account. DateMyAge is no exception there. If you click the three dots in the upper right of the chat, you’ll see options to Block User or Report a Violation.

You need to give a reason when reporting a profile, but you don’t need to give any reason for blocking communication. Moderators follow up on reported profiles and take action based on the information provided.

DateMyAge is also proactively vetting profiles and looking for falsified details. The team says, “If we consider information you provide inaccurate or incomplete, we will suspend your account until identity verification has been satisfactorily completed.”

DateMyAge has the basics in terms of online safety precautions, but I wouldn’t say it goes above and beyond here. The responsibility falls on the user to question any claims made and verify the person is being truthful. Take everything with a grain of salt and do reverse image searches on your match’s photos.

DateMyAge Sparks Conversations

DateMyAge has an easy-to-use interface that offers an abundance of new profiles from all around the world. Location isn’t a limiting factor here, so even if you live in a small, rural area, you can chat with folks in Paris, Amsterdam, or Dubai.

The profiles are not hastily put together. They are lengthy, detailed, and thoughtful. Some struck me as almost “too good to be true.”

Given the lack of photo verification on the site, I would be careful to vet any matches and make sure they’re who they say they are (just as you would on any online dating app).

I liked how the credit system let me decide what features were worth it, and the basic bundle was enough to get some decent chats going. The bank of 150 credits would quickly be drained by one video call, though.

I’d recommend starting with a free membership and using the free introductory chats to see if someone truly seems worth investing in a full conversation.