What Happens if You Put the Wrong Birthday on Tinder?

If the date you typed makes you look younger than 18, Tinder restricts the account, and it blocks account creation for anyone under 18. If you are actually over 18 and simply entered the wrong date, you can appeal. Open Tinder, choose the option to verify your age, and submit your ID on the third-party website Tinder uses. Once it confirms you are 18 or over, Tinder updates your birthday and lifts the restriction.

Tinder's minimum age is 18, and the birthday you enter is how it knows your age. It has no way to tell a slip of the thumb from a real sixteen-year-old. So a date that puts you under 18 gets treated exactly like one.

This is easier to do than it sounds. Scroll a year wheel one notch too far, or type the current year by habit, and the app thinks you are a child. The restriction comes from the date alone. It is not a judgment about you.

The fix runs through age verification.

1. Open Tinder.
2. Choose the option to verify your age.
3. Submit your ID on the third-party website Tinder uses for the check.
4. Wait for the result.

Once your ID confirms you are 18 or over, Tinder updates your birthday to the correct one and lifts the restriction. You do not have to delete anything or start a new account.

The appeal only works if the ID goes through, so pick the right document before you start.

Tinder accepts a driver's license or a passport. It does not accept student IDs, resident cards, pension books or temporary driver's licenses, even though people send those often. It also rejects IDs that are damaged, covered up or unclear.

So lay a full license or your passport flat on a plain, dark surface. Shoot it straight on, in even light, with no glare and no fingers over the corners. Check that you can read every line. Tinder says the review should take less than a few hours, and a clean first upload keeps it to one review.

The appeal above is for an account that was restricted because it looked underage. A typo in the other direction is a different problem. If your account now says you are 38 when you are 33, nothing gets locked, and Tinder does not let you edit your age the way you edit your pictures.

It is still worth fixing, so check what Tinder's help center offers for your case. A wrong age is not cosmetic. Women choose which ages they want to see. A man listed five years older than he is shows up for the wrong women and disappears for the right ones.

Some men are tempted to leave a flattering mistake in place, or to shave a year off on purpose. Both are bad trades.

She will find out on the first date. Once she catches one detail that was edited, she starts wondering what else was. A man who is plainly relaxed about his real age reads as more attractive than a man whose number and face do not agree.

The age is also what decides who sees you. Get it right and you land in front of the women who are actually looking for a man like you.

The cheapest fix is the one you never need. Whenever a sign-up screen asks for your birthday, on Tinder or anywhere else, read it back before you tap confirm.

Check the year first, since that is where one slip changes everything. Then check the order. Some forms put the month first and some put the day first, so 04/07 can mean two different dates. A year wheel that you flicked with your thumb is worth one more look.

Ten seconds there saves you an ID check, a wait, and a restricted account.

Once the restriction is lifted, pick up where you left off.

Answer the women who matched with you, starting with the one you are keenest on. Keep the first line short and about her. A question about something real in her pictures beats a paragraph about your account troubles. Try something like "Where is that beach in your second picture? It looks too good to be real." When the chat is clearly going well, suggest a specific place and a day. a dating coach's advice on texting is to treat the date as the aim from the start, and that applies whether you just joined or just got your account back.