We knew this was coming. It was mentioned in the June (?) notices about selfies...  

 
Got an email this morning announcing Seeking price increases for 2026.  Here's the text. And I have attached a link to the Seeking Blog post with the same info.  

 
Note that "If you’re currently subscribed or renew before January 1, 2026, you’ll keep your current pricing for as long as your subscription remains active. But if your subscription lapses after that date, the new pricing applies."

 
I'm not clear on how my current level of "Premium" at $289.99 every 90-days will be treated. Will I be a new Platinum or Gold tier?  The new prices for those are either $330 or $380.  

 
Life is good (but now more expensive)

 
The Cat

 
TEXT:  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We're writing to inform you of an upcoming change to our membership pricing, effective January 1, 2026. Additionally, our Premium membership tier will be renamed the Platinum membership tier or Gold membership tier, depending on your membership level and eligibility.

 
What's Changing:
Platinum Subscription (30-day): $130 → $150
Platinum Subscription (90-day): $330 → $380
Diamond Subscription (30-day): $325 → $375

 
Important: Current members who subscribe or renew before January 1, 2026 will continue to enjoy current pricing for as long as their subscription remains active.

 
Those who still have their pre-July 2025 rate are still eligible to maintain that rate into 2026.

 
If your subscription lapses after this date, new pricing will apply upon reactivation.  

 
Why This Matters (and Why It's Good News):
We're building the most exclusive and authentic database of eligible singles on earth. Here's what your investment yields:

 
Price as a Quality Filter: Higher pricing eliminates non-serious, low-intent, and disrespectful members from our platform. For you, this means less competition for quality matches and less competition for the attention of our most desirable members. Your time becomes more valuable when everyone in the room is equally invested.

 
Enhanced Verification for Desirable Members: Your membership directly funds stronger verification requirements for our member base, including selfie liveness checks, optional ID verification, and advanced fraud prevention. This additional step is intentional: it ensures the quality of our database and guarantees that the people you're meeting are genuine and serious.

 
Strategic Investment in Innovation: We are always working to bring you the experience that you are investing in; this will enable us to spread the word even further. We will reach a greater audience, bringing in some of the most eligible individuals you can hope to meet, across the globe. On the tech side, we endeavour to bring you smarter matching algorithms, improved customer service, and value-added features. In the end, we have a shared goal: helping you find the match of a lifetime.

 
Our Promise:
We will continue raising the bar on verification, safety, product quality, and community standards. We will guard your privacy and never compromise on security. And we will keep building a platform where the best can meet the best.

 
If you believe love should be extraordinary, not average, you're in the right place.

 
Read about this announcement on our blog.

 
Thank you for continuing to be a part of Seeking.

 
Warm regards,
Brandon Wade and Dana Rosewall
Founder & Co-CEOs
Seeking.com

Or will it just empower girls to demand a higher allowance.  If you can afford $150/ month subscription you can give it to me!

I haven't been on in a bit since my rotation is full.  Not sure if it's gotten better with cutting fake profiles and scammers or worse.

For me, the biggest weird decision on Brandon Wade's part is that the girls don't know we have to pay for membership.  
Every single time I've informed a female member of the site of the fact that guys have to pay more than a thousand dollars a year to be on it, they have been totally surprised.  I think they should know.  Otherwise they have zero clue as to our investment in their arrangement.  As long as they think this is a free/cheap website for all members, they are apt apt to treat it as such.  

Herb, you and I are both grandfathered in at the pre July 2025 rate of $289.99 per 90 days.  The rate for new male subscribers since that date has been $330, if I read this correctly, and after 1/1/26 will be $380.  So if we quit, and rejoined at the new rate, our yearly cost would jump from $1160 to $1520. Basically an extra dollar per day.

Hate to say it, but most of the newer 'enhancements' seem to be a smart move.

Oh, btw, there are also two new blog posts by Brandon that go into more detail than this notice.

Obviously, Seeking has the numbers, so whether the increased fees is a good business model or not, it appears to be working for them.

They are promising more sophisticated searching methods, so for me, that will be an important feature.

netnoy,  

 
I can't really say definitively that the number of scammers is lower since the mid-summer changes (ex: selfie verifications) started. But I can say that I have been able to find perhaps 20% more hits on reverse-image searches (up from 5% -10% to now around 8% - 12%), with most of those hits pointing to an IG post. Once I can find her IG, I can generally find more online footprints that tend to confirm she is who she claims to be.  But as always, confirming identity does not mean she's not a GPS queen or ROB.  

 
And I still see random views, likes and messages from POT's in other countries (Venezuela, Colombia, China/Hong King, etc.).  But I can't recall seeing any straight up catfishes, other than very old pics for POT's shaving years or decades off their real age.  

 
Papa Sweet,  

 
Point well taken. There are still only a handful of POT SB's who pay for membership. And I get the sense that the age-range curve has skewed up from a mid-point at 24-28 to a new mid-point of 32-36.  Out of 6 SB's split between my A-List and B-List, 4 are over 30.   Is the older average age an unintended consequence of the latest (and now newest) changes?  As my strong preference is for SB's between 18-24, this is concerning to me.  Is it concerning enough to let my membership lapse? Not while I can still enjoy the legacy rate. But like all of us I am reanalyzing that decision with every 90-day rebill.  

 
BTW: As my rebill just popped 5 days ago, I can confirm that the site still auto-flips all my settings to Visible (from Hidden) at rebill.  I found myself with 7 views, 2 favs, and 2 messages within 12 hours. Sadly, none were viable,  

 
Life is good

 
The Cat

It's amusing to see how they tell us that raising prices is good news for us!
Yes it's not a massive deal but... it will filter out some borderline members, making the pool of SDs smaller, which in turn will make it more difficult for SBs, except the top tier who can demand higher prices. I see this as another step toward the end.
As for all the extra verification stuff, they should have been doing this all along, it would have improved the platform and kept more real people.
I suspect it will push more folks to other platforms.. SDM, the other dating sites, or even Reddit.

I scan Seeking regularly out of curiosity (I paused my membership since I'm happy with my one SB now) .. and frankly the quality of profiles has gotten worse and worse. Not sure why. Possibly fewer scammers (who use hot stolen pics) but I have a feeling the better ones have moved on for one reason or another. I used to find 20-30 percent of women on the site worth pursuing, now it's less than 10 percent. Given the return rate of less than 1 in 20.. you can do the math. So not sure I would go back after this situation ends.

We both live in the DC area, so we see the same SB profiles. The qualities have really gone downhill. Plus, they jacked up the price from 100 to 150. I still see several SBs once in a while. They are more attractive than most of them on Seeking now, so I doubt I will go back anytime soon.