But you can monitor your identity through an identity theft protection service to know if something untoward happens. And once it does, you can take steps to restore your identity—with the help of your chosen service. And what about identity restoration? Our chosen services guarantee up to $1 million to help you clear your name and credit. This is vital because an identity monitoring service is nearly useless without it.
Advanced fraud monitoring Change of address monitoring Court records monitoring Dark web monitoring Dark web data analysis Payday loan monitoring Sex offender monitoring Social media identity monitoring Mobile phone threat detection Secure VPN Stolen funds replacement
With IdentityForce, you’re alerted anytime someone (like an auto dealer or a mortgage company) requests a copy of your credit report. IdentityForce also monitors online marketplaces for the trading or selling of your personal information. For instance, if someone steals your credit card information in a retail-store hack, IdentityForce will look for its appearance online. And should your (or your child’s) identity be stolen, IdentityForce offers up to $1 million in identity theft protection insurance. You also get options to opt out of junk mail and spam through the program. And get this: if you wanna just try IdentityForce out, you get 14 days free. (Just make sure you cancel once your trial’s up.) Starting at $17.99 per month, UltraSecure Individual is IdentityForce’s basic package. If you sign up for a year, you’ll get two months for free for a total expense of $179.90. UltraSecure Family starts at $26.90 per month, and like UltraSecure Individual, you can pay $269.00 for a year and get two months free. UltraSecure Individual includes all of the services that UltraSecure Family offers, with some additions, such as the following:
Tri-bureau credit reports Tri-bureau credit scores Monthly score tracker Credit score simulator
View Plans Besides the number of credit reports, each IDShield plan has the same features regardless of price. So you won’t find yourself ponying up more cash for, say, medical ID fraud protection. It’s all included. Sweet. You might wonder what you’re getting apart from the basics. Some of the extra features IDShield offers includes:
Dark web monitoring Social media monitoring Public records monitoring Court records monitoring Address change monitoring Sex offender search and monitoring 24/7 emergency assistance VPN protection Password monitoring
That’s a pretty good list that will cover a wide range of identity theft issues—although like with IdentityForce, the numerous alerts may be too many for some people. View Plans Identity Guard is especially geared toward folks who love the interwebs. It provides a suite of cyber-related services that work alongside its monitoring plan to help protect your identity online. These services include an anti-phishing app, a safe browsing extension, and social media reports. In other words, if you’re constantly visiting Snapchat or buying collectibles online, Identity Guard protection is a perfect match to help secure your identity. While Identity Guard doesn’t cover all the must-haves, it earns its high-ranking place on the list partly because it uses IBM’s Watson (a super-intelligent AI). The intelligent nature of this protection makes Identity Guard a force to be reckoned with.
Dark web scan Safe browsing extension Social insight report 401k and investment monitoring Watson Artificial Intelligence threat detection Criminal and sex offense monitoring USPS address change monitoring Home title monitoring
Total Protection is $19.99 a month. In addition to monitoring the basic channels, the Total Protection plan also monitors public records for mentions of your information and provides antivirus software and an anti-phishing app. The Total Protection plan also gives you access to credit monitoring from all three agencies. If you get an Ultra plan for $10.00 more monthly, you’ll also regularly get a credit score, credit report, and social insight report. (The social insight report pulls from your social media.) As we said, identity theft “protection” is really more of a restoration. But Zander takes this attitude one step further by not including credit monitoring at all. In Zander’s eyes, credit monitoring isn’t worth the hassle. We’re not 100% convinced; as they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. But we are convinced of Zander’s awesome prices. For $6.75 to $19.49 a month, you get tons of basic identity theft services plus a little extra. And just like the other companies we recommend, Zander provides up to $1 million towards expenses to help you restore your identity. With that in mind, we recommend Zander for the budget-conscious user. Because of this, we recommend getting monitoring services to protect your child’s identity. We especially recommend this if you have a deceased child because, unfortunately, they’re even more likely to become a victim of identity theft.
Financial fraud Medical ID theft Tax fraud Criminal ID theft Social security fraud Child ID theft Benefits and employment fraud Title fraud
View Plans While Identity Guard is an identity theft protection service that includes antivirus software, McAfee is antivirus software that includes identity theft protection. Antivirus software is one of the few ways you actually can protect parts of your identity, so McAfee’s tech-first approach makes sense. So if you’re looking for antivirus and want some identity theft protection thrown in, look no further. McAfee’s here for you. Useful? Yes. But not as useful when you can’t track whether those features protect your credit score or Social Security number.
Antivirus Protection score (grades how protected you are online) Identity monitoring Secure VPN Personal data cleanup (helps you find and remove personal data online)
Plans start at $59.99 a year, which works out to ~$4.99 a month (although you’ll have to pay in a single lump sum). But that’s just for the first year. After that, plans start at $199.99 a year/$16.66 a month. That’s not outrageous, but it’s definitely higher than the starting costs for other services that offer more. View Plans
IdentityForce has the most comprehensive recovery services. IDShield’s flexible approach lets you pay less for fewer credit reports. If you spend a lot of time online, try Identity Guard. Zander Insurance has the most budget-friendly identity theft protection service. When protecting sensitive electronic info from hacking is your number-one priority, McAfee Identity Theft Protection’s here to help.
Price Reimbursement Basic features Extra features Service credibility Discounts and perks
We aren’t able to test every identity theft protection service, but we pay attention to other people’s experiences with them and factor that into our reviews. A 2014 report from CNN Money states that identity fraud hits a new victim every two seconds.1 That’s 43,200 victims per day. Alarming, no? While we couldn’t find an updated version of those stats for a more recent year, MarketWatch suggests those numbers are increasing. In 2017, 1 in 15 folks were subject to identity theft versus 1 in 20 in 2016.2 To protect yourself from online thieves, create unique passwords and change them frequently. Also, use two-factor authentication for all your accounts to make access more difficult. If someone is using your identity, you want to get notified immediately. You can take independent actions, like getting a credit freeze or setting a fraud alert on your credit report. But for more comprehensive monitoring, it’s easier to work with an identity protection service. If you’re a victim of identity theft, you want to reach out to the police ASAP. Depending on how drastically the thieves affect your credit, you might need to show your police report to the major credit bureaus. Even if things don’t get that bad, it’s essential to have documentation. An identity theft protection company might offer other services, such as the following:
Notifications when money is withdrawn from your bank accountNotifications when your Social Security number is used to file a tax returnNotifications when your name is used to create a social media account
Combining these services ensures that no one else can use your identity without you knowing.
Canceling your debit and credit cardsReplacing your driver’s licenseFreezing your credit
This’ll prevent anyone from taking advantage of the contents of your wallet. While a good Samaritan may find your lost items and return them, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
