best latin dating sites (not agencies)?

[RJS]

I posted this yesterday but it got lost in the crash. Does anyone have any opinions on the best sites to use? So far I'm looking at match.com international, cybercupido.com, and latinamericancupid.com. I think those are the big ones. For those of you that use the sites, which do you think has the most attractive women? It's tedious to go through them without being a full member b/c you can't filter searches. I'd like to pick 2/3 for a 6 month subscription.

[sean126]

I can't remember if it's right...but I think a few were talking about latincupid.com.  a while back.

[pan de bono]

Im not sure if there are any agencies or services that could be called the best. These agencies come and go all the time, its hard to grade them. Also one guy may like a certain agency but another guy will hate it, to each their own.

[Patrick]

What's the cost for joining each one?  If you can join them all for less than $100 or so, I'd do that.  The entire process of finding, courting, marrying, and immigrating a foreign woman is most likely going to make that amount look very small.

[utopiacowboy]

I met my wife on amigos.com but from what I've heard it is no longer the deal it used to be. When I did it, you could join for a month at $9.95 and you could write to any woman who interested you regardless of whether she was a full member or not. You would send her your real email address and then you'd correspond that way. Papi says that it's changed and that the women who are not full members can't be contacted - I don't know whether this is true or not. I highly recommend the web dating sites.

[RJS]

What's the cost for joining each one?  If you can join them all for less than $100 or so, I'd do that.  The entire process of finding, courting, marrying, and immigrating a foreign woman is most likely going to make that amount look very small.

I took three months of each of the sites I listed, but not amigos. I'm just gonna sit back for a while and see which gives me the most hits.

[EbonyPrince]

IMO the whole game is hit/miss (dating sites and marriage agencies).  I personally think that your chances are better with an agency, but I would still caution on this.

From my experience Westerners have gotten a bad name down in Colombia.  I have heard this from a number of Colombians, so agencies have gotten a bad name from state-side and in Colombia.  A lot of guys have abused agencies, and a lot of Colombianas have abused clients of agencies.  I think that what is needed is an agency that is serious about bringing good, honest, and serious people together from different backgrounds with both side's well-being in mind.  I have seen a lot of women in these internet cafes corresponding with people on the internet, so I think there are a lot of women out there waiting to take advantage of an unsuspecting gentleman.  So these dating sites can be just as costly without any guarantee of success.  I would suggest exercising all methods and getting out there and meeting typical Colombians, which is what I have been trying to do. 

[RJS]

I wonder if the opinions of westerners are different in Peru, which is where I'm focusing my first search since I had been planning a vacation there anyway. Everyone here seems obsessed with Colombia. I can understand why, because there seem to be more really good looking girls from there than peru, and i suppose that they also have good support in the form of Jamie and his agency, which by all accounts is top-notch.

[jediknight]

i remember when i was using amigos.com that i would get a lot of women from peru writing me emails, more than from colombia. it got to the point where i started thinking that they were giving free gold memberships away in peru because the interest was so much greater from the women there
JK

[jm21-2]

I would guess that Colombia, which seems to be the focus of the majority of marriage agences in LA & SA, probably has a different opinion of westerners (in relation to marriage) than countries that don't have as much of that business going on in them. In a country where a lot of western guys go to meet girls, you'd also find more girls who had heard about scamming, or who had been sold a load of agency BS about how western men are. You'd be more of a rarity in other countries I would think.

Also, guys, especially American guys, have WAY different opinions on what "beautiful" is. I don't think you're going to get any good advice relating to the beauty of the girls, heh.

On a side note, Jame always sounded like a used car salesman to me, and not a very good one at that. No way in hell I would trust that guy to help me with something like marriage.

I knew a Korean girl who used Koreanfriendfinder, and if you said you were a girl from Korea you got some sort of free membership or reduced price membership, forget which...so girls from other countries might get a better deal than we're getting. Also consider that very few girls pay for online dating services, so it's in the service's best interest to not charge the girls, and rob the guys blind.

[RJS]

I think the way it works is that they can just join as standard (free) members on most sites, and guys by paying for a certain level of membership enable the girls to contact them. It's not a bad system. You certainly can't argue with it since I doubt there'd be a lot of girls on the sites otherwise.

[jm21-2]

I think the way it works is that they can just join as standard (free) members on most sites, and guys by paying for a certain level of membership enable the girls to contact them. It's not a bad system. You certainly can't argue with it since I doubt there'd be a lot of girls on the sites otherwise.

Nope, there wouldn't be practically any, if any. Wasn't saying it was a bad system, at least in this context.

[michaelb]

If I remember right, you are more interested in Peru, but even if you don't want Colombia, some people do (and/or have no country preference) so even if you don't use it, maybe somebody else will. IF your Spanish is up to speed, try www.caliescali.com. It's free of charge for anybody (man or woman) and has a lot of ladies signed up (some with pictures, some without, some young, some TOO young, some not so young). It's not intended to be an international site, more for people in Cali and the nearby area, but they won't prevent you from joining just because you're an out-of-towner, and the ladies will be pleasantly surprised when they are contacted by a foreigner. Hey, it worked for me (for whatever THAT'S worth). Nice fringe benefits too, that site has a very good "what's on in town this week/where to go, what to do" review of restaurants, clubs, social events etc. (Not to mention their "Las Calenas" eye candy section).

[RJS]

I've got to say, I love these latin dating sites. I've never been so inundated with IMs and emails in my life. I have no interest in most of them but I've started communicating with three potentials so far. Go me!

EDIT: amigos really milk you. they charge you a membership fee AND another free to allow girls to contact you which they charge monthly.

[Patrick]

amigos really milk you. they charge you a membership fee AND another fee to allow girls to contact you which they charge monthly.

RJ,

How much are these charges?  Are we talking $15/month or some low monthly amount that allows you unlimited contact?  If so, I think you're worried over nothing.

Have you traveled to South America yet?  Paid a phone bill after having hour long conversations almost daily with a novia?  If you end up spending $15-50 thousand dollars on the total search, a little monthly fee to a contact site is not going to matter at all.

[RJS]

It's more a question of utility than cost for me, but it always depends on the length of subscription. For example, Cybercupido is cheapest at 10-13/mo. I've gotten several messages through it but haven't responded to any. The pics there tend to be of lower quality. In a couple days i've gotten 15 emails but not one has interested me in the slightest. For whatever reason the girls have all been high-school only and not very pretty. On latinamericancupid, however, I get both quantity and quality for whatever reason, and I think that site was ~20/mo and worth every penny. Today I got interest from ~15-20 girls, and maybe 10 emails. Of those 15-20, I've started corresponding with a few. Match.com is also in that price range and I get similar utility from it. Amigos on the other hand, is 20-25/mo for membership and then if you want girls to be able to write you, another ~25/mo. So it's basically 50/mo. I've got a profile on amigos but so far I've only gotten one interested girl, with no picture at that. I probably won't both with it since i've got my hands full with the other 3 sites. So far, latinamerican and match.com have been worth the cost. Cybercupido and amigos, haven't been.

Of course I haven't been on these sites long enough to draw any definite conclusions, but those are my initial impressions. Latinamericancupid.com and match.com = good. Cybercupido & amigos = not so good.

[Patrick]

Nice synopsis.  I think these type of sites are going to be the major part of the market going forward.  IMBRA will be putting the American-owned agencies out of business.  It'll be a foreign-owned agency, or something like what you're using in the future.  Since I always tried to keep my association with any agency to a minimum when I was in the hunt, I'd be doing it much like you are if I were still looking.

Thanks for the review.