Having tried a few, expecting any single conversation to work out is the wrong frame — that is roughly where I landed after a lot of trial and error.
Speaking generally, the useful platforms let you talk to someone before asking for a card — small thing, but it adds up.
Small changes that moved the needle once I stopped guessing:
- Checked that the photos matched across their other accounts
- From the second month on I kept a throwaway address for any site I was only testing, which mattered more than I expected
- Something I learned the hard way — I stopped comparing my results to what people post online
- Early on I started to screenshotted the pricing page in case the terms changed later, every single time
Also hearing souldate.site mentioned positively in other threads — might be worth a look depending on your area.