Best Identity Theft Protection
Based on In-Depth Reviews
Protecting our personal information has become a must, especially in a growing digital world. Here's a handy guide to safeguarding your identity.
- 200+Hours of research
- 66+Sources used
- 15Companies vetted
- 3Research Criteria
- 4Top
Picks
- These services can't prevent your identity from being stolen.
- More frequent scanning is better for consumers.
- Look for services that help you recover from ID identity theft.
- Get 3-bureau monitoring if possible.
How we analyzed the best Identity Theft Protection Companies
Our Top Picks: Identity Theft Protection Reviews
In the digital age, everyone is at risk for identity theft. Even though we can help prevent it, there’s no assurance that our identity will not be stolen. It could happen to anyone at any time. You could say it’s a new and improved form of mugging.
That’s why people rely on identity theft protection services, yet the “protection” part is a misnomer. There’s no way to protect people before a data breach happens or if somebody opens a credit line in your name without your knowledge. However, subscribing to an identity theft protection service can make a huge difference. Good identity theft protection services monitor your information daily, alert you as soon as possible to anything out of the ordinary and assist you in resolving any issues if your identity is stolen.
Best Reputation
There is no identity theft protection service as favorably reviewed by consumers as Identity Guard®. We were impressed by many glowing reviews across multiple consumer sites, especially praising how fast consumers were alerted of anything suspicious. This is very important when considering subscribing to an identity theft protection service. Being alerted as soon as possible may help contain a threat before its consequences get out of hand. Identity Guard has 4/5 Trust Pilot rating based on thousands of reviews.
Screenshot of https://www.identityguard.com/ 11/8/2019
Identity Guard subscribers can expect a dedicated case manager assigned to their accounts. They offer a safe browsing extension, as well as an anti-phishing mobile app. Their alerts include:
- Personal information on the dark web
- High-risk transactions
- Personal threats
If a consumer is interested in one of their more comprehensive plans, their alerts include:
- Monthly credit score
- Three-bureau credit changes
- Bank account take overs
- Requests to open accounts with your information
- Three-bureau credit report
As of this writing, the company offers three different plans. You can customize these plans to cover one or more individuals. Individual plans range from $7.50 to $25.00 per month. Family plans range from $12.50 to $33.33 per month. Customers who chose to pay for an entire year of service at once receive a 17% discount off of monthly rates. Identity Guard's prices are very competitive for the range of services the company provides under its plans.
Indentity Guard recently added its Ultra Plan which includes all services covered under its lower-tier plans plus an impressive range of other features. These include advanced credit monitoring, monitoring of credit card and debit card accounts for suspicious activity, change-of-address monitoring, home title monitoring, and 401K investment account monitoring,. The Ultra Plan also alerts you when a convicted sex offender moves to your neighborhood. That's a lot of protection for a single plan to offer at a reasonable price.
Identity Guard has been third-party tested and states they have the speediest alerts among identity theft service providers. Customers may be alerted within seconds of an identity security breach. The speed of their alerts has been a frequently-cited reason in their positive reviews.
Their recent partnership agreement with IBM, which allows them to use IBM®️ Watson’s™️ artificial intelligence to monitor customer accounts, distinguishes them among their competitors and may allow them to offer expanded protection.
PrivacyMate
In 2020 Identity Guard will be launching a new service called PrivacyMate, a platform to help customers prevent against the buying and selling of their personal data online. PrivacyMate crawls data harvesting, data brokering, and people search sites for your personal information. If it identifies possible problems, the service automatically removes such data. The entire process can be monitored through a user portal. The benefits to the consumer can include less telemarketers and junk mail, and blockage of your online activity from marketers.
Best Value in Identity Theft Protection
ReliaShield positions itself as the most affordable identity theft protection on the market today. Currently, ReliaShield’s basic Essential plan costs $7.99 per month. The company offers two other tiers, Prime and Elite, which cost $14.99 and $21.99 respectively. The more you pay, the more features you plan offers, but across the board, the company's plans are fairly robust.
Repairing the damage caused by identity theft is a time-consuming and tedious process—something many consumers would not want to handle by themselves. Most importantly, ReliaShield offers 24/7/365 restoration and recovery services so customers don't have to manage the burden all alone.
Choice of Three Plans
ReliaShield customers can select from several plans to find one that meets their needs for protection and their budget.
Essential
Prime
Elite
Screenshot of https://reliashield.com/ 11/8/2019
Some of their plans’ features are:
- Personal information monitoring
- Data breach updates
- Court records monitoring
- Dark web monitoring
- Social media monitoring
- Bank account application alert
Another thing we liked about this company is that their master agreement, privacy policy, and insurance policy were considerably detailed and clear. For consumers who want to ask questions and really research before a buy, this is a plus.
Best Features
Since Symantec acquired LifeLock in 2016, LifeLock's extra features have only improved. Their brand is tied to Norton, one of the leaders in the anti-virus industry.
As of this writing, their plans are more on the pricier side, sometimes going beyond $30 a month. However, when you consider their pricier plans include PC cloud backup of up to 500 GB, secure VPNs, and parental controls, it’s easy to see where your money is going.
Screenshot of https://us.norton.com/ 11/8/2019
LifeLock has a long list of features, depending on the plan you choose. Some of the features included are:
- Identity and social security number alerts
- USPS address change verification
- Identity restoration specialists
- Dark web monitoring
- Data breach notifications
- Credit monitoring
- Bank account activity alerts
- Bank account takeover activity alerts
- Alerts on crimes committed on your name
Though we were impressed by the useful features list this company offers, we were a little dismayed that only their most expensive plan includes credit monitoring from all three bureaus: Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. Though identity theft can affect important aspects of our lives other than credit, credit reputation still remains a primary concern. We suggest subscribing to plans that offer three-bureau monitoring.
Best for Restoration
IDShield stands out with its takeover of the victim’s case. Many identity theft protection services offer advice to consumers on how to fix any issues after they receive any alerts. Rather than working as a simple identity theft protection service, the company is more like an identity theft monitoring and recovery service. This is where IDShield stands out. They claim to fully restore a customer's identity by managing the many and, often overwhelming tasks involved in identity restoration.
For this service to work, customers must grant limited power of attorney so the company can act on the consumer’s behalf. IDShield employs private investigators to inquire about problems customers face and resolve outstanding issues. They offer unlimited consulting and access to their licensed PIs. The company’s offer to restore the consumer’s identity is outstanding.
Screenshot of https://www.idshield.com/ 10/16/2023
Some of the features included in the service are:
- 24/7 credit monitoring
- Dark web surveillance
- Social media monitoring
- Social Security number monitoring
- Credit report disputes
- Financial account monitoring
- Personal information monitoring
- Court records monitoring
- 24/7 website chat
- Mobile app
IDShield's starting prices range from $14.95 per month for an individual plan with one-bureau credit monitoring and $29.95 per month for a family plan. Family plans cover your spouse and all dependent children. When you select one of its top-tier plans, you get three-bureau monitoring.
Best For Breadth of Monitoring
Identity thieves are crafty and will look for any crack in your security wall. The best identity theft protection companies will check many nooks and crannies to alert you to any signs of theft. We were impressed by some of the unique places IdentityIQ searches for indications that a user’s identity has been compromised. These include the opening of any new utility or cell phone service accounts in your name. They search records of file-sharing networks and payday loan applications, too. IdentityIQ also monitors criminal records—yes, thieves can also commit crimes in your name and leave you to suffer the consequences.
Screenshot of https://www.identityiq.com/ 6/3/2020
Here are a few other worthwhile considerations we noted about Identity IQ:
- Four service/pricing options from $6.99 - $29.99 per month
- All plans include daily credit monitoring
- BBB-accredited with a 5-star rating
- 4/5 stars on Trustpilot
- Opt-out of promotional messages from other companies
- Thoughtful ID theft educational information provided on IdentityIQ.com
For budget-minded consumers, IdentityIQ also offers one of the lowest-cost basic plans at just $6.99 a month. Each of their plans carries the industry standard of up to $1,000,000 in insurance should your identity be stolen. The insurance they offer includes a provision for lost wages of up to $1500 a week. That’s an important feature since, if your identity is stolen, repairing the damage can be a full-time job. IndentityIQ also offers restoration assistance with its upper-level plans and assigns you a dedicated US-based case manager.
More insight into our methodology
We took a close look at the identity theft protection services industry, and quickly realized a couple of things.
- Identity theft protection services can’t actually protect consumers against identity theft. What these companies really do is monitor, alert, and assist in the recovery.
- Their true value comes when alerts are timely and the company providing the service assists the consumer with the restoration. For this to work, the more places the company monitors, and the more features it has, the better.
Monitoring
It was important for us that the companies we picked had 24/7 dark web surveillance and they checked credit history at least daily. We looked for companies that claimed they had a strong alert system in place and made sure they had the reputation of doing so.
Restoration
Being a victim of identity theft is painful. It can take a long time to recover from it—and you never really know when the damage has been stopped. If your information finds itself in the digital space, there’s a strong chance you’ll always have that dark cloud hanging over your head for a long time. This is the reason we prefer companies that assist consumers with the restoration of their identity, preferably ones that take care of it for the consumer.
Features
With identity theft protection services, less is definitely not more. Basic features identity theft protection service plans should include are dark web surveillance, personal information surveillance, and credit monitoring. However, the more places scanned or investigated, the better. Companies that had a robust features list made our cut.
Helpful information about Identity Theft Protection
Dwight Schrute, a beloved character from The Office, couldn’t have said it better, “Identity theft is not a joke, Jim! Millions of families suffer every year!” According to the 2019 Identity Fraud Study from Javelin Strategy and Research, in 2018 alone 14.4 million consumers were victims of identity theft. And even though the number of victims decreased from the reported number in 2017, the financial consequences were more costly for the 2018 victims.
For better or worse, that’s the world we live in. Before the age of the internet, identity theft could happen whenever social security cards or licenses were stolen, but now we have to worry about our information in the digital world too.
That’s why we need to take steps to protect ourselves and our loved ones the best we can. Though we can’t control every little thing, or big things like a data breach or stolen records, we can do our best to be alert and control our information.
And for us to better protect ourselves, we need to know the…
Common Identity Theft Strategies
Though we are in the internet age, many of the old identity theft tricks are still thriving. For example, stealing documents remains a tried-and-true method. Best advice: keep your social security card somewhere safe, not in your wallet. If you can, don’t take all your credit cards with you if you are not using them. And shred or otherwise destroy all papers you want to discard that have your personal information on them.
Also, the classic phone scam is alive and well, but they’ve become more sophisticated. Technology has helped thieves to “spoof” phone numbers, which means they can manipulate the number shown on your caller ID. The best way to combat this is to not give away personal identifiable information, PII for short, and report the incident to the FTC.
Phishing
There are many newer ways that identity thieves steal your information through digital means. Phishing is one of the most common. The bad guys send you emails to encourage you to click on links contained in them. Those links often take you to web forms that ask for your PII, maybe to “verify your account.” Once you enter your PII and send off the web form, your information is in the hands of the scammers.
Here are two email examples one of our coworkers received to her personal email just this month:
As you can see, there are some tell-tale signs that these emails are fake. For example:
- The email subject line is sketchy.
- The email address it comes from is not from Netflix.
- The greeting doesn’t include the name of the person.
- There’s an invitation to click a link and update billing information.
However, not all email scams are so poorly done. Email scams have been evolving since their “Nigerian prince” email scam days. Former FBI Agent R.L. Walters, an expert on identity theft we consulted, agrees that they are just getting craftier and more convincing.
"That's how they make a lot of people fall for [email scams],” he said. “They make them look legitimate."
When an email looks official and asks for PII, one has to be even more careful. For the tech-savvy among us, Walters suggests looking at the metadata of the email to check for the originator of the message. “If you look through the metadata, you can tell if it's a legitimate email or a phishing email,” he said.
Formjacking
Other popular digital scams are online shopping scams and formjacking. If you are paying an online merchant, make sure that the website you are putting your credit card information into is secure. A secure website’s address will begin with https://. It will also have an image of a lock or say “secure,” depending on the browser you are using. When you click on the lock, it tells you if the certificate of the website is valid. If the merchant doesn’t match these criteria, stay away.
But what happens when you buy from a reputable company and their website gets hacked? Unfortunately, it has happened. Formjacking is the digital version of credit card skimming. Criminals can skim the information you input in the billing section of the website. Unfortunately, we are all at risk.
"It's important for consumers to do what they can not to unnecessarily expose their information. For instance, the standard advice about not giving out your Social Security [number] or not leaving your personal information lying around the household where others might see it, these are some common sense things that people can do to protect their information,” said Susan Grant, Director of Consumer Protection and Privacy at the Consumer Federation of America.
How Identity Theft Can Affect You
As we have learned, we are all at risk. As such, we were curious and created an anonymous survey for the people in our company. We thought it would be interesting to see how often a group of educated, professional people had been victimized by identity theft. We found 35.8% of our coworkers have had their identities stolen. The most common ways this happened were from having their ID cards and documents stolen and having their data swiped in massive data breaches.
We also asked our colleagues if they knew people who had been victims. A shocking 75.5% said yes, and 12.5% said they knew 6 or more people who had been victims of this crime. Though highly anecdotal, this little experiment combined with all our research shows us that identity theft is now a commonplace occurrence that affects people in different ways.
Take Jaroldi G., for example. Someone took out one of the seven social security cards you are allotted in your lifetime and is using her PII to work in the state of Louisiana. She discovered her identity was stolen because her previous workplace was using ADP system for payroll and tax documents. When she looked for her tax documents, she found an additional set of documents from a manufacturing company in Louisiana. It was a lucky coincidence that they both had to use the same payroll system.
After finding out, she followed the steps outlined on the Social Security website and called the company in Louisiana to alert them to the situation. When the man using her stolen identity was confronted, he left the company, never to return. For now, the perpetrator hasn’t stolen any money. In fact, he opened a credit line that he never used. After that, Jadoldi had to ask for a credit freeze. However, this doesn’t mean that the situation is less worrisome.
“I had to go to the Social Security Office four times in two months to investigate the issue,” said Jaroldi. “I have to go every year to verify the workplaces I have in my history.” She also had to go to the IRS and bring evidence about her situation, which has also become a worry since the person using the PII is not paying taxes.
“I was scared, and I looked for [the perpetrator] on the internet. The fact that someone is using my information is disconcerting”, she said.
Many people who’ve gone through what Jaroldi has would describe their experience as unnerving. “It is not just losing money. It can lead to stress or physical problems. There are many issues that can arise that have nothing to do with losing money [when your identity is stolen],” said Grant. The Identity Theft Resource Center creates a yearly report called Aftermath about effects that victims of this crime experienced like the ones mentioned by Mrs. Grant.
There are also cases where victims experience monetary losses. Around 2011 in the city of Los Angeles, Heidi R.’s bank account was cleaned out for all but $10. She immediately called the bank, and after going through her statements, discovered a pattern of unauthorized withdrawals.
The bank returned her money two months later. The person who was using her account information was found, but Heidi decided not to press charges since the process was too difficult. However, even though she learned and keeps her information safeguarded, that did not stop identity thieves from striking again. Unauthorized debits hit another account from another bank, even though she rarely used it and had never purchased anything online with it. This time, it took six months for her to be reimbursed by the bank.
“I was angry and frustrated,” said Heidi R. “I was desperate because I needed to pay my rent. I was not sure I could secure my roof for that month.”
Identity theft can hit anyone, even kids. This is why it’s so important to be on top of your financial records and be careful how we share our personal information.
Compounding the difficulty of keeping your personal information away from criminals is the fact that the social media industry relentless promotes the public sharing of details about us and our lives. For that reason, social media profiles and posts have become a great source of information that identity thieves use to hack into your financial accounts.
When discussing the information that’s shared in social media, Walters said, “[Information shared] makes it easier for criminals. Less is more as far as I'm concerned. You should never share any information of a private nature [on social media platforms]. I know people do, but I don't think is smart.”
When investigators do what they do best, they usually go to social media and learn a lot about the people they are looking into. On the other hand, criminals are doing the same. Information such as birthdays, addresses, addresses, email addresses, check-ins, parents’ names, and such should be kept off social media.
Resources for Victims
Identity theft is such a frequent occurrence that in recent years, resources designed to prevent it have become much more common than they were in decades past. For example, Google developed in partnership with the Net Safety Collaborative and National Association for Media Literacy Education a program called “Be Internet Awesome” to teach kids responsible communication, online security, how to spot fake news, among other skills.
Below are some resources for victims of identity theft:
- Federal Trade Commission: Guide for Assisting Identity Theft Victims
- Social Security: Fraud Prevention and Reporting
- Internal Revenue Service: Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft
- Office of Inspector General: Medical Identity Theft
- Consumer Federation of America: Victim Resources for Identity Theft
- Identity Theft Resource Center
FAQs about Identity Theft Protection
Why should I get identity theft protection if I can monitor my own credit?
Will identity theft insurance cover funds stolen?
How can having my identity stolen impact my credit?
Our Identity Theft Protection Review Summed Up
Company Name | Best |
---|---|
Identity Guard® Identity Theft Protection | Reputation |
LifeLock Identity Theft Protection | Features |
ReliaShield Identity Theft Protection | Value |
IDShield | for Restoration |
IdentityIQ Identity Theft Protection | Breadth of Monitoring |