Please be aware we will not accept applications from potential members that have failed to complete a profile. Applications will be rejected if it is felt that your intentions are not sincere or decent. Don't be afraid to contact us and complain. We want your experience with us to be pleasant, successful, hassle free and enjoyable. If any member sends you an email containing anything you feel is inappropriate or offensive please click Contact Us to inform Admin. Inappropriate or offensive behaviour will not be tolerated on this site.

Below you will find the answers to some commonly asked questions, simply click the question and the answer will appear below the question. If the answer you are seeking is not here please read our Help page or simply contact us and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have.

• What is Country Couples and who is it for?

  Country Couples is an online friendship and dating service for like-minded people over the age of 18, who live, work or simply enjoy rural life in the UK. You can search for other people in your area with similar interests and lifestyle, who are also looking to widen their social circle or find that special someone.

• How does the CC website work?

  When you register with Country Couples you will be asked to complete a profile. This will include your email address which is not visible on your profile and is only used by administrators of the site to communicate with you. You will also be asked for your date of birth, this is used to calculate your age and only your age in years will show on your profile and will update automatically when you have a birthday. All other information you provide when registering will show on your public profile, this can be viewed by other members of the site and guests to the site. Only other registered members can contact you, by viewing your profile and sending a message or flirt. Members can also leave comments on your photos and profile but if you prefer to only receive private communications you can turn these functions off by using My Settings. When you receive contact from another member you can then view their profile and decide if they are someone you would like to get to know better. We would encourage you to respond to all contacts, even if you simply say 'Thank you for your contact but I do not feel we are well suited', this is much kinder than simply ignoring someone.

• How do I navigate the site?

  Country Couples is packed full of features and can seem a little daunting when starting off. We have tried to make the site as logical as possible, so that it takes the fewest clicks to get to your destination. When you log in you will automatically be taken to your Members Page, this is the equivalent of a personal control panel and will show new messages, links for your settings, etc. Pressing the Members button at the top of each page will take you back to your Members page. In order to go to the main website home page, where the links for Help, Advice, Pricing, etc are, press the Home button at the top of the screen. All information regarding the site is on the main home page, by using the links on the left you can find out everything you need to know about Country Couples. To begin with we suggest that once you are registered you login and press every button you can find, don't worry you can't break anything. Try clicking on photos, click all the links (anything with green or brown text), just explore. Links - these can be pressed to take you to another part of the site. If you have any questions or can't work anything out, just use the Contact Us tab at the top and we will help you.

• How do I search profiles?

  There are a few ways to search profiles. From the main Home page you can do a quick search, simply state whether you are looking for a man or woman, who is seeking a man or woman, age range, area (this can be entered as Any), if you are only interested in seeing profiles with photos tick the 'with photos' box, then click the search button. Profiles without photos will also be displayed but will come after profiles with photos. Members can submit an advanced search. Go to your members page and you will see two search options under the Home button. You can choose advanced search or Latest Members. For advanced search you need to fill in the search criteria, if you are not concerned what colour eyes a person has or their hair colour simply leave these areas blank. Once you submit a search a page showing all matching profiles will be shown. From this page you can save the search, meaning that in future you do not need to input the search criteria, simply save as an appropriate name (eg women 4 friends or men 4 dating), this will save time in the future and if you have selected alerts in your settings then if a new member joins that matches your search criteria you will be sent an alert by email. You can search by photo's. Click the Photos button at the top of any page and you can search by Newest Photos, Most Voted Photos or Most Discussed Photos. On the right you will see a brown link which says More Photos, this will show all photos uploaded to our system. If you are looking for a particular member you have seen in the forum you can press advanced search, at the top left it you will see an entry box which says Name. SImply type in the username of the profile you are looking for and all profiles matching that name will appear (eg if you are looking for bill4444 you can type in bill and enter, this will show all profiles with the word bill in the username).

• Are all the profiles real?

  Our aim is to provide a genuine service for people seeking friendship or a relationship, we do not "create" profiles in order to exaggerate the number of members or to equal out the number of male and female members. We cannot guarantee that members have been honest in their profiles but we can guarantee that each profile has been created by an individual member. Our staff also have profiles on the system, this is in order for you to see when we are online and to make it easier to contact us directly.

• Why won't my photo upload?

  Usually this is due to file size or type but don't worry we are here to help you. If you are a computer whiz ensure your photo is saved as a .jpeg or .gif file and is not over 100kb in size. If you are not a computer whiz then simply contact us and we can arrange to upload your photos in the right format.

• Does everyone have to see my photo?

  At the moment we have the function to make a photo private, this will stop other members from seeing it. Our programmers are currently working on feature that will allow you to only share private photos with people you choose. Currently if you wish to show someone your private photo you need to make it public for a short time and then rehide it, we apologise for this and shall let you know as soon as the new feature is installed. Please be aware that administrators of the site can view private photos and we do not allow nudity at Country Couples, any photos of this nature will be deleted.

• What is the forum and how do I use it?

  The forum is a general meeting place for all members to chat about various topics. The forum cannot be seen by anyone other than registered members of CC. Simply press the Forum button at the top of the page and you will automatically be logged into the forum. Search through the categories of topics to find anything you are interested in, then click that category. You will be shown a list of conversations and choose any you wish to join in. Do not be afraid to simply jump into the middle of a conversation, the more people that discuss an issue the more interesting it becomes. Right underneath the banner picture at the top of the forum page are the words 'Show unread posts since last visit' - this is a particularly useful tool, as it will show you all of the discussions you have joined in and anyone has responded to, meaning you do not have to remember where you have posted comments in the past.

• I have a seperate profile in the forum, what is this for?

  The forum profiles are simply there in order for you to change your settings and are not intended to replace or enhance the main site profiles. You will be able to see your email address in your forum profile but do not worry, no other member can see this, they will simply see the word 'Hidden' where you can see your email address, this is done automatically by the system. If you are unconvinced about the email address being hidden simply click on the username of any forum member that has posted a comment and their profile will show, you can see the word Hidden where their email address would show to them. The only exception is the profile for Sally, that is my profile and I allow everyone to see my email address to make it easy to contact me with questions.

• What is the Shoutbox in the forum for?

  The shoutbox is a form of instant messaging and can be seen by any registered member who visits the forum. It allows you to say hello and have a conversation with anyone else logged into the forum at the same time. The conversations in the shoutbox remain visible even after you log out, so please do not be tempted to have a 'private' conversation with another member or reveal any personal contact information about yourself in the shoutbox.

• There are many online dating sites that do not charge, so why do you?

  As a new site all features of the site are currently free to registered members, however when our database builds up a small charge will be introduced and all members will be given a months notice prior to the introduction of membership fees. There is much truth in the saying "you get what you pay for" and this is true when it comes to online dating sites. Free sites make their income from advertising on their site and they do not care who joins as long as they click the adverts (creating revenue for the site). By charging a small membership fee we seriously limit the number of spammers, scammer and serial philanderers that are prepared to pay for their unpleasant activities. We do not allow any advertising on our website but must pay a monthly fee to stop automatic advertising showing on our site. We must also pay for the website server, feature programming/maintenance and marketing the site to bring in new members. With an industry average of £15 per month we hope you will agree that our monthly fee of £6.50 is well below the norm and worth the cost to find genuine, like-minded people without being bombarded with advertising or unpleasant spam.

• What about my credit/debit card details, are they safe?

  Country Couples never sees or has access to your credit/debit card details. Payments are made through a secure third party collection agency. All we receive is a notification that 'Username' at 'email address' has paid 'this amount' for 'number of months' membership.

• What will you do with my personal details?

  Contact you if there is any issue with your profile, your use of the site, you have a problem with another member and to send you Newsletters. That's it, full stop. The system will automatically send you notification of new messages or comments on your profile but these can be switched off in your profile. At Country Couples your profile details are not sold, loaned, hired, given, shared, distributed, etc., with anyone. We do not use your information for "demographic studies". You will not receive spam from us, your privacy is paramount to Country Couples.

• What if I want to cancel my membership?

  As a new website our membership is quite small, so you may not currently see any profiles that interest you but we have new members joining all the time. As the site is currently free for all features we would encourage you to consider leaving your profile active and checking in every now and again to see our new members, perhaps that special someone has joined since your last visit? However, if Country Couples simply isn't the right site for you then cancelling membership could not be easier. Log into your Members page, at the bottom left of the page you will see a large green buttom which says Cancel Membership, press this button. It will ask for confirmation to ensure you did not press it by mistake, confirm cancellation and all of your details will be removed from our database, including your profile and email address. Once you have cancelled you will never hear from Country Couples again unless you choose to rejoin.

• Profile approval

  In order to protect the site members and stop offensive behaviour, all new profiles and changes to existing profiles must be manually approved by site administrators before they will become visible on the site.