DateMyAge Review: Worth It for Mature Singles or a Costly Fantasy?

Overview

DateMyAge isn’t a traditional dating site where singles are looking for local dates. It’s more like an adult chat service marketed to the 45+ crowd. It has video chat, voicemail, and foreign language translation services to facilitate international matches. Free members have trial credits that they can use to start conversations, but it’ll cost money to send more than a few messages and actually connect. I gave DateMyAge a shot and found that it is positively packed with impressive profiles and attractive photos, but some of the too-good-to-be-true stories gave me pause.

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DateMyAge sounded like another fun assignment, and I was eager to see what kind of bachelors they attracted. Nothing I’d seen before quite prepared me for this place.

No sooner had I entered the small amount of personal info they required for a free membership than I was flooded with MEN. So. Many. Men. Midwestern surgeons appeared alongside foreign entrepreneurs. The most clickable ones usually had long, sincere profiles and albums of photos that showed the men off in different moods and outfits.

Wow, I thought. These men looked like world-class models, yet their profiles were humble and in some cases, downright poetic or philosophical, spinning out well-crafted sentences that read like romance novels rather than your typical dating ad. What gives? I’ll get into it.

Registering Was a Breeze

I was a bit psyched. The signup process was easy. Minimal information required, no lengthy questionnaires, no mention of costs or payment. 

Here’s the required information: 

• First name or nickname
• Gender
• Gender you’re seeking 
• Email address
• Birthdate 

Google signup is also available to speed things along. DateMyAge had three prompts inquiring about my background, my ideal partner, and my interests. All three of these questions could be skipped.

DateMyAge sent a confirmation email that I had to click on before I could browse any profiles. That was it. It took less than five minutes to get going with a free account.

An Overwhelming Browsing Experience

The DateMyAge homepage only has three tabs: Search, Inbox, and Upgrade Account. Couldn’t be much simpler.

Dozens of ads and ever-increasing numbers of chat requests were popping up all around me. It was overwhelming and very different from other dating sites where I’ve had limited profiles to view. DMA was PACKED!

I could adjust search filters by age range, city or country, zodiac sign, education, and interests (books, biking, nature, hockey, etc.), and I could specify if I only wanted individuals available for video chat.

Other free search filters included:

I took advantage of the opportunity to browse profiles and dream. If they were real, I thought, they were amazing! 

A 68-year-old man with a profile picture on a private jet said, “I’m an old-fashioned guy with old-fashioned values. I think men ought to treat women with dignity.”

A 40-year-old lawyer with photos on beaches and cliffsides wrote, ” Although I enjoy my work and everything it has allowed me to achieve, I also deeply value the freedom it gives me to explore the world.”

The profiles ranged from normal-looking local guys to GQ-style models. Meanwhile, my sidebar was rapidly filling with chat requests from over a dozen men.

I’d only been on the site for an hour or two. I didn’t have a photo up. I barely had a profile!  

Messaging: Some Limits & More Questions

I decided to message a man named Bastian. He was in his early 60s and looked beautiful for his age. He described himself as “a calm person, with my feet on the ground.” His profile made him out to be a very sensitive, romantic, and compassionate type.  

I saw that it was free to email men I liked. None of the silly games I’d seen elsewhere, where you had to heart photos for hours just to see profiles or earn mutual matches.

I wrote Bastian a thoughtful note introducing myself. He responded. “Hi! How are you? I’d really like to…”  And then, whomp: the rest of his email was blurred out! All I could see was that he seemed interested in me.

A pop-up appeared: “You’ve used up your trial credits! Upgrade your account to continue your conversation with Bastian.” A big orange button invited me to start paying for the privilege of chatting with him. 

Then emails started flying into my account. I got 32 emails in my first 36 hours. Some were chat requests and others were notifications. “Bastian is waiting!” or “You have new matches!” I saw a special offer for a 66% discount. The aggressive marketing campaign intensified on Valentine’s Day.

When it hit 100, I stopped opening them. What in the DatingMadnessHeck was going on? 

I found a button in my settings that said “Get Matches Instantly” that shed some light on the situation. DateMyAge offered to send an icebreaker to any man who met my criteria. The site said: “Your introductory message will be sent to hundreds of online members, and they will start responding to you.”

So that was likely why my inbox was constantly blowing up despite my relatively bare-bones profile.

What You Actually Get: Cost Breakdown

Now let’s get into this “upgrade account” situation.

The credit system works like this: you can create a profile, browse for free, and send initial messages. Everything else costs money.

Or to be more specific, it costs credits. DateMyAge is a pay-per-action site, so you buy a bank of credits and use those to unlock specific features, like sending a direct message or listening to a voicemail.

Opening a single blurred email, like the one Bastian sent me, costs 10 credits. Sending him a message back would be one credit. Video chat costs 12 credits per minute. And an audio call is two credits per minute. That 150 gets drained down to zero very fast.

Viewing private photos is 15 credits. Listening to voice messages costs 10 credits. And virtual gifts can vary in cost depending on what they are. DateMyAge will also facilitate the delivery of a present…but it’ll be thousands of credits.

Even watching a video on a profile would cost 15 credits per viewing.

Active users reported spending $300-400 per month on the site. That seems like an astonishing sum to me. But then I don’t know how many messages they sent or video calls they enjoyed. Nor do I know how explicit those conversations got. 

I would call DMA a softcore site for romantic (but not necessarily sexual) fantasies. It is designed for lonely 55+ people looking for love and happiness. It could appeal to people who don’t have to worry about spending some cash to have charming fantasy relationships with attractive people.

I can confirm that lots of older people are not ready to jump into bed with ANYONE — but romance and mutual affection are often still urgent needs for quality of life in general.

A female who left a positive review of the site acknowledged that DateMyAge is selling fantasies of being desired by young, handsome, interesting men. She found it to be fun and a loneliness-buster. She didn’t mind supporting her online beau financially, since it wasn’t a big amount.

She saw it as a harmless hobby and had a subscription for monthly chat credits, the lifeblood of DMA’s revenue stream.

The potential pitfall is when people expect DateMyAge to be a typical dating site where in-person meetups happen quickly.

They spend credits on conversations that feel intimate and real, paying more and more as their feelings grow. They may even splurge on virtual gifts.

They think it’s leading somewhere. Perhaps they need to believe that the surgeon, concert violinist, or GQ model is dying to meet someone 40 years older than them. I mean, it CAN happen, right?

Sometimes the connections do go beyond the platform. But, as I learned from user reviews, it’s more likely that any chats will stay on DateMyAge.

Safety Considerations & User Reviews

Normally, I form my impressions on the dating site itself, but DateMyAge forced me off-platform. I spent hours searching the internet just to understand what was actually happening here. 

No big surprise:  DateMyAge has less than stellar review scores across major review platforms, including Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and the crankiest reviews site I’ve ever seen, PissedConsumer. 

It’s not uncommon for the saltiest of online daters to go vent their gripes and frustrations on review sites like these. Match has a 1.2-star rating, and Bumble has 1.3 stars on TrustPilot, despite the fact that both of these apps have led to millions of dates and relationships.

Most of the negative reviews on DateMyAge were left by people who didn’t like that they were paying to chat and not landing dates. Some also complained about seeing fake profiles or suspecting some photos were AI-generated.

DateMyAge does not have photo-verifying tools that I saw on the front end. Indeed, I share their suspicions that not all photos were on the up and up.

DateMyAge responded to accusations of fake profiles with a direct appeal: “Please contact our Customer Success Team. They can review suspicious profiles, investigate unusual activity, and help ensure your experience is safe.”

“We take reports of fake or misleading profiles very seriously. Accounts that misrepresent themselves violate platform policies.” -DateMyAge team

It struck me that DateMyAge is more about selling fantasies of romance, rather than actual encounters. But some of their users apparently pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars before figuring that out. 

Not all reviews are negative, though. The positive ones come from people who understand what they’re buying. They talk about enjoying international pen pals, finding the video chat quality good, and appreciating the “slower pace” compared to swipe apps. 

A user identifying themselves as Kino wrote, “For me, the real value in the experience was personal growth. I became clearer on what I want, what I won’t tolerate, and how to protect my heart while staying open. Would I recommend DateMyAge? I’d say uh…yes, with the caveat that you go in informed. Know the costs.”

I didn’t see any positive reviews mentioning actually meeting anyone in person. They mostly describe ongoing chat relationships. 

And that is the real value you’ll find on DateMyAge. It’s about fantasy fulfillment through online companionship.  

Who This Works For (And Who It Doesn’t)

This service might work for you if you enjoy chatting with attractive people and understand it’s entertainment.

Most matches will be long-distance, perhaps with someone in another country. Local dates will be tougher to come by, and you’ll need a comfortable budget to pursue any type of conversation.

Data Breakdown

User Base: Mature Singles

DateMyAge markets itself to singles who are over 45 and seeking midlife dating adventures.

Popularity: 128,000

While it isn't the most popular app out there, DateMyAge has plenty of active users and chats are not hard to come by.

Gender Ratio: 43% M : 57% F

Women slightly outnumber men in this mature and international dating pool.

This site could work well for someone who is fascinated by the idea of making international connections without the complications of real dating.

The pay-per-message model is similar to what you’d find on other adult entertainment services, and the price starting at $19.99 a month is certainly in line with mainstream dating apps like Tinder and Match.

The difference is you’re paying for every chat you send on DateMyAge.

It definitely won’t be a good fit if you can’t afford ongoing monthly costs or would feel resentful about paying to chat. 

The fundamental question is: Are you buying entertainment and companionship or looking for a local date? If the former, you might genuinely enjoy DateMyAge. If the latter, you might be disappointed.

The Marketing Problem

As a sex-positive person, my takeaway is that DMA would be a lot more enjoyable if I’d adjusted my expectations in the beginning.  

There is nothing wrong with those of us with disposable income to go ahead and spend it on romantic or sexy entertainment. We have male strippers now. We have hookup sites. We have OnlyFans.  

And there is no shame in running a business based on younger people making decent money by treating older individuals as desirable and pleasurable to spend time with. Why not? Paid companionship is a luxury common to rich people. 

Unfortunately, it markets itself as a dating site for love. That sets the wrong expectations. That’s why reviews were frightful. Not because the site’s services are bad (they aren’t), but because this is not really a local dating site in the way we usually think of them.

DateMyAge dates are more like watching someone show you the delights of his town over video or having someone listen to all your problems via chat.  

DateMyAge operates in a gray area. Some users figure it out quickly and either leave or decide they enjoy the service for what it is. The problem comes when users expect a love story and end up feeling breadcrumbed by their chat partner.

I Gave Them One Final Chance

Before handing in this article, I wanted to run one final test. I browsed again and settled on someone closer to my age, neither a model nor a surgeon, but a small business owner named Dale. 

When I clicked his profile, I saw there was already an email from him waiting for me in my inbox.

He didn’t go into personal specifics, but I was encouraged by his words, “I admire people who show up authentically, listen deeply, and approach life with openness and integrity.”  

Sounded promising! But, darn it, I am a stickler for facts. So I used the handy-dandy Google Lens search to see if this guy was real. Unfortunately, he was a real fraud!  

A reverse image search revealed his photo belonged to a gym instructor in Canada. Possibly stolen! And that was that. I logged out of DMA and do not plan to go back.

The Verdict: Know What You Can Reasonably Expect

My lovely editor requested press access from DateMyAge for this review. They provided a test account login that was an entirely different profile and registered as a man. 

That wasn’t exactly helpful for my purposes, so be aware that this review’s point of view is based largely on my experience with the free membership. 

I didn’t meet any matches in person, so I cannot speak to their credibility.

I think you get how this site operates by now. If you want to meet fascinating men — or at least the personae projected their profiles — it will cost you money. 

Caveat Emptor: Before signing up, you might want to ask yourself what you’re looking for and what your budget is. Does paying to chat bother you? Are you hoping to meet someone in person right away, or are you turned on by all the what-ifs of an online fantasy?

DateMyAge has no shortage of good-looking profiles. It’s all about companionship, flirtation, and low-key chatting with profiles that definitely deserve some scrutiny.