As for Match.com - if you are really interested in dating then go ahead and pay for a month or three. If you aren't then maybe just don't even look at the site and then you won't have the delimna of wondering about an email, etc. - afterall you can't miss what you don't know about.
I can emphathize on the escrow stuff. With the housing turnaround (at least in the area I live) my payment went up this year as well due to an almost 10% increase in my property taxes. The house I rent out in Florida did the same thing, but it was primarily due to another yearly increase in the homeowners insurance which continues to get more ridiculous every year. I now pay more than $2100 per year for insurance just on the structure alone and no contents since it is a rental. And this for a house that I couldn't even sell for more than $150,000 if I wanted to!
