Identity Guard ID Theft Protection Review

Features

Identity Guard and services like it are designed to catch telltale signs of identity theft so you can quickly react and mitigate or prevent damage. Identity Guard does that by monitoring credit accounts, financial accounts, the dark web, and news reports, and other areas where signs of your identity being stolen could pop up.

We signed up for Identity Guard’s Ultra plan, which offers comprehensive protection. The package includes three-bureau credit monitoring, data breach notifications, and white glove fraud resolution if our identity is stolen. Our subscription also monitors social media, home titles, the USPS, and more. This is especially useful in case criminals start creating fake accounts in our name.

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Credit Monitoring

According to our Identity Theft Consumer Shopping Study, credit monitoring is a core function most shoppers look for. Fortunately, it’s also a common feature in identity protection services.

During our testing, we applied for a student loan, which was flagged by Identity Guard through one of the major credit bureaus. If you’re concerned about an individual line of credit, you can use Identity Guard to activate a fraud alert. Keep in mind that credit and debit monitoring are only available on the Ultra plan.

This type of protection isn’t available in Identity Guard’s basic plan. Only the Total and Ultra packages offer three-bureau credit monitoring. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly option, we recommend signing up for a LifeLock plan. LifeLock offers one-bureau credit monitoring for the same price as Identity Guard’s value plan. You can see how else they differ in our LifeLock and Identity Guard comparison.

Financial Monitoring

Identity thieves target more than just your credit score – they go after your entire financial portfolio. Some cybercriminals even attempt to drain 401(k) accounts and cryptocurrency wallets. That’s why Identity Guard monitors all your financial accounts. They also display your personally identifiable information that financial institutions use for verification, helping you understand which data points need the most protection.

Once again, the Value plan offers limited coverage for high-risk transactions. The middle-tier plan expands financial monitoring to include bank accounts. Our Ultra plan was the only one that provided comprehensive coverage, including monitoring credit cards, investment accounts, and retirement accounts.

Identity Protection

We added all the information we wanted monitored to our Identity Guard account. This included our name, address, birth date, and Social Security Number. Identity Guard did an initial scan of the internet and dark web, and thankfully didn’t find anything. It will continue monitoring 24/7 and alert us if our details show up.

Here’s exactly what we got from our Identity Guard subscription.

• Dark web scan: The dark web continues to be a thriving marketplace for stolen personal information. That’s why Identity Guard continuously monitors these hidden corners of the internet. If it finds personal information tied to you on the dark web, it will alert you immediately.
• Criminal and sex offense monitoring: If the system found our names on a sex offender registry or police report, it would have notified us right away, but thankfully, this didn’t happen to us.
• USPS address change monitoring:We moved apartments while testing Identity Guard, and of course, we had to change our address registered to the USPS. The same day we did, Identity Guard notified us that an address change was filed. If it were a real thief trying to forward our mail (which contains tons of personal information) to their address, we would have been alerted.
• Home title monitoring: Identity Guard would alert us if anyone tries to open a home title in our names or transferring it to someone else.
• Risk management report: Identity Guard produced a report that showed us how at risk we were for identity fraud.
• Safe browsing tools: We use Identity Guard’s browser extension to block ads, trackers, and phishing websites. It even protects us from web mining, which is when a hacker attempts to collect our data without us knowing.
• Anti-phishing mobile app: Aside from the Identity Guard Classic app, the company offered us the Anti Phishing by Identity Guard mobile app, which detected and blocked phishing websites on Chrome, Dolphin, and Samsung Internet.

One aspect we liked was the detail in every alert we received (see screenshot above). Right after signing up, Identity Guard used the information we provided to do an initial scan and found a data breach where the email entered was involved. It shows where and when the breach happened, where it found the breached information (dark web), and how it could impact us.

Identity Guard even provides tips on how to fix the problem. There’s a section titled “What Should You Do?” with a list of steps you can take to reduce the impacts. If it’s your first time dealing with identity theft or data breaches, these tips are invaluable and save you Googling for suggestions.

Some people prefer receiving fewer alerts and reminders, and if that’s the case for you, Aura might be a better fit. When we tested Aura, we found that it sends fewer non-emergency notifications than Identity Guard. We still had the option to see tips and security areas we could improve on in the app, but it didn’t bother us with notifications and email alerts.

Insurance and Restoration

Like we said from the start, no identity protection service can truly prevent identity theft. That’s why insurance and identity restoration should be included in all identity protection packages.

Identity Guard provides up to $1 million insurance for identity theft victims. It covers stolen funds, legal fees, lost wages, and even childcare expenses incurred during recovery. While this meets the industry standard, we’ve tested some competitors that offer higher coverage limits. For instance, LifeLock’s Ultimate Plus plan provides up to $3 million, and McAfee+ Ultimate offers $2 million.

If you’re on the Ultra plan, Identity Guard will also assign you a dedicated case manager to resolve the case. They’ll send letters and file disputes to your credit card companies on your behalf. This service is a time-saver and another reason to consider upgrading to the Ultra plan.

Identity Guard Identity Theft Protection Features

Privacy and Security

When we were signing up for Identity Guard, we were thinking, “Boy, they are collecting a lot of our sensitive, personal information.” That got us thinking about the famous quote from bank robber Willie Sutton, who said he robbed banks because “that’s where the money is.” The idea that Identity Guard keeps our personal information is a big reason why we took a close look at the company’s data security and privacy policies.

Through that search, we found that Identity Guard uses military-grade AES-256 encryption to protect your data.2 They also maintain SOC 2 Type II certification to prove their commitment to cybersecurity best practices. We were also happy to find out that Identity Guard’s privacy policy only allows them to share data for essential purposes, such as reporting fraud to regulatory agencies.

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Identity Guard, however, does share some types of information with its corporate partners and service providers, but these types of information come from when you visit its website or sign up for a plan. That includes your email address, device information, and IP location — things that other websites you visit already likely collect and share.

User Experience

Identity theft protection services are pretty much a set-and-forget type of service. Once you’re done setting it up with all the information you want to protect, you can just let it be. It will monitor data points and key areas to make sure the information you provided doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

As such, the user experience hinges heavily on the set up process. Identity Guard wasn’t the simplest to set up, but the process was streamlined enough that we could call it user-friendly.

Setup took us about 15 to 20 minutes. We started by selecting a plan and creating an account, then input our personal information including SSN, addresses, and financial accounts. Identity Guard also asked targeted questions to create a personalized risk profile. That way, it can fine-tune your protection based on your specific vulnerabilities.

The more information we gave Identity Guard, the more data they could spit back at us, especially for the AI-powered features like the social insight and risk management reports.

Once we’d input all our information, we navigated between the Dashboard, the alerts, and Watchlist, plus, our credit reports and scores*.

How Much Does Identity Guard Cost?

Identity Guard rewards annual commitments with substantial savings. Individual plans range from $8.99 to $29.99 monthly when paid month-to-month. If you pay annually like we did, those costs drop to $7.50 to $25 per month. That’s a savings of approximately 16 percent compared to monthly billing.

Besides individual plans, Identity Guard offers family plans, which cover up to five adult individuals and an unlimited number of children. Prices for family plans range from $14.99 to $39.99 when paid monthly, but significant discounts are available for first-year annual plans, as low as $12.50 to $33.33 per month when the year is paid upfront.

Here’s a breakdown of Identity Guard’s regular prices and features for the three plans available: Value, Total, and Ultra.

Identity Guard offers plans for business and personal use, and within those two categories, individuals and groups. Regardless of which subscription plan we selected, we chose between annual or monthly contracts. We had no trouble finding an Identity Guard plan that worked for us. Identity Guard has a plan for spouses as well, a rarity in the identity monitoring industry.

There are three Identity Guard plans to choose from – Value, Total, and Ultra. We chose the Ultra plan as it has the most coverage and was only $29.99 per month or $25 per month when paid annually for individuals. For families, it’s $39.99 per month or $33.33 per month when you pay for a year upfront.

All plans come with $1 million in identity theft insurance, so you don’t need to pay for the most expensive subscription for this protection. But you will need the Total or Ultra plan for bank account monitoring, three-bureau credit monitoring, and a monthly credit score check.

Identity Guard doesn’t offer free trials like Aura does, but it comes with a 60-day money-back guarantee. This gives you plenty of time to test the data removal service and all monitoring features thoroughly. If you prefer a free trial, we recommend checking out our IdentityIQ review and LifeLock review to see if they are a better fit.

Customer Support

In our experience, Identity Guard provides 24/7 phone support staffed by U.S.-based representatives. The company also maintains a comprehensive knowledge base that addresses most common account questions.

You can also submit a ticket or send an email, but we didn’t have a great experience using these methods. We sent an email Tuesday morning and didn’t get a response until Wednesday afternoon. Based on our testing, the typical wait time runs between 24 to 48 hours, so we think you’re better off calling Identity Guard directly for urgent matters.