Are Your Leads Costing Too Much?
Rated People, the lead site, has collapsed. Trades that paid up front for a year will lose their money. So, what are the terms of Checkatrade, Bark, TrustATrader and MyBuilder and do they give tradespeople fair and reasonable terms?
Tradespeople who were owed money by Rated People when it collapsed are unlikely to be repaid, according to the company's statement of affairs. The document, filed at Companies House on 1 October 2026, estimates that nothing will be left for unsecured creditors. A member who paid for a service they never received would normally have an unsecured claim.
Rated People closed its tradesperson memberships when it went into liquidation and was subsequently wound up in September 2026. Checkatrade Group bought the brand and website the same week. Jobs posted on Rated People now go to Checkatrade members. The old memberships did not transfer.
Local Ladder, which builds websites and runs local SEO for tradespeople, sent the figures to Installation Eye after it updated its UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker. The tracker now sets out the small print of the five biggest trade lead platforms side by side, taken from each platform's own terms and help pages and checked on 5 November 2026.
What the small print says
Checkatrade: most memberships run for a fixed 12 months and renew automatically. Members can only cancel by phone, in the month before the renewal date. Checkatrade's own help page says replying to the renewal email does not cancel, and that stopping the direct debit alone will not end your contract. Credits for its new Opportunities Board expire after six months.
Local Ladder could not find a published figure for how many members receive each plan lead.
Bark:
Credits expire three months after they are bought. Unused credits are not refunded. Bark will not return credits if the customer hires someone else or stops replying. Up to five professionals can respond to each customer.
TrustATrader:
The whole year is billed in advance, cannot be cancelled once a listing is live and is non-refundable. Unlike Checkatrade, it does not renew automatically.
MyBuilder:
There is no contract or membership fee but the lead fee is due as soon as a homeowner shortlists you, whether or not you win the job.
Find out how to leave
Elliot Blackler, the founder of Local Ladder, said: "Rated People members paid for a service that stopped overnight. From the company's own estimate there's nothing left to pay them back.
"The one that catches people out is the Checkatrade renewal. Miss the one-month window and you're signed up for another year. And an email won't get you out of it. Before you join any lead site, you really should find out exactly how you leave."
How much for each shared lead?
Local Ladder builds websites and runs local SEO for established UK trades and home service businesses. Its UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker (link at bottom of article) is updated every quarter and estimates what Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and TrustATrader charge tradespeople for each shared lead they receive.
For firms affected by the Rated People collapse
The liquidators, James Thompson and Ben Woodthorpe of S&W Partners, will decide what creditors receive. Former Rated People members can contact them at ratedpeople@swgroup.com.
However, there is nothing left
Rated People's cash at bank was £38,911. Its secured lender, Nationwide (trading as Virgin Money), is owed £2,872,557 and will be paid first. Another £487,061 is owed to 25 staff and to HMRC, who also rank ahead of ordinary creditors. Unsecured claims total £9,871,805. They include £183,635 owed to Google and £254,528 in money taken for services not yet delivered and costs not yet billed.
Picture: Local Ladder does not sell leads and has no commercial relationship with any platform in the comparison.
