Why Does a Person Need a Craigslist Account?

You can sign up for a Craigslist account from the account sign-in page (see Resources). To create your account, you must provide a working email address and complete the Captcha to prove you're human. Before you can finish creating your account, you have to verify your email address by clicking a link sent from Craigslist. After you click, you create a password at the destination Web page. You now have a Craigslist account.

You verify your account once with an email link check; you use that email to log into your account. Craigslist also requires a second kind of verification to make posts in some areas: a phone verification. You can choose to receive a call or text and then enter a number in the verification box provided to prove your identity.

The major benefit to having a Craigslist account is that you can access and edit past posts from it. Some posts are saved for years. You can read the text of past posts, edit them and resubmit them if you want to make the same post again. If a post is removed because it's been flagged, you can still access it from your account. You can also start a new post and manage drafts of posts you've written, but not completed, from your account.

Some posts can't be made for free. Job postings in some cities, including New York, San Francisco and Chicago cost between $25 and $75 per post. Listings for brokered apartments in New York City cost $10 each, while listings for therapeutic services cost $10 for the first post and $5 per repost. You pay for ads individually when you make a post. If you've purchased $2000 worth of paid ads -- or want to pay for $2000 worth of ads up front -- you can apply for a paid posting account. These accounts have additional features, like multiple authorized users, the ability to pay for ads up front so you don't have to enter credit card information every time and discounts for large purchases.