What Are The Best Identity Theft Protection Services?

As cybercriminals get more and more sophisticated, it's important to protect your identity. These masterminds tin get your credit exist sabotaged, and might commit crimes and create other problems subsequently the theft of your identity. Data breaches and ID theft have become increasingly common and can compromise your sensitive personal information, including your Social Security number, banking concern account and identity.

To be proactive about protecting your personal information, make use of the all-time identity theft protection services to conform your needs. These services typically offer ID protection, credit monitoring and much more than to keep your sensitive information abroad from prying eyes. Our meridian picks for the best identity theft protection and monitoring services tin help safeguard your identity and proactively monitor suspicious activity and assist with recovery if y'all go a victim of a data breach.

ID theft protection is only going to go more essential. In 2019 alone, there were more than 13 meg The states identity fraud cases, with victims losing almost $17 billion, along with untold damage to credit reports. The 2017 Equifax breach was the icing on a nasty cake -- ane that gotfifty-fifty worse in the following years. One of the biggest 2020 information breaches was the Marriott hack, which afflicted over 5 one thousand thousand customers. That followed an before breach of Marriott'southward Starwood reservation system, in which the personal information of more 380 million guests was compromised, including more than five million passport numbers.

security-privacy-hackers-locks-key-6778 — If someone has your Social Security number and personal info, they can begin applying for loans and a credit carte du jour in your name.
James Martin/CNET

In this directory, nosotros'll look at some of the best options for helping you manage and protect your identity at various price levels. We'll as well explain the departure between an identity theft protection company and a credit monitoring service. Before nosotros get started, keep in mind that yous don't take to spend $10 to $30 a month for the best identity theft protection service. The The states government offers IdentityTheft.gov, an identity restoration service that can assist a victim report and recover from identity theft.

Read more: How to Prevent Identity Theft

Nosotros'll jump directly to the height choices for the best identity theft protection service options for ID monitoring, credit monitoring and more. Keep reading to review additional of import information and facts most ID theft and ID protection. This list is updated frequently.

How much? Pricing compared
Not recommended: Equifax and TrustedID
Additional data: Identity theft: What you need to know

LifeLock has come a long fashion since the days when it was subject to multiple Federal Trade Committee investigations (settled in 2015) and various lawsuits from customers and credit reporting agencies. That might requite one suspension before declaring it the best identity theft protection even if it does accept neat features. However, In 2017, it became a subsidiary of Symantec, purchased for $two.3 billion.

You may recall the ads where LifeLock's founder posted his Social Security number everywhere, as a statement in his confidence about LifeLock'south protection services. While he did experience numerous instances of identity theft based on those Social Security number postings, LifeLock's theft protection services helped him recover.

The company offers a wide range of identity monitoring and protection options, including stolen wallet protection, ID verification monitoring, habitation title monitoring and checking and savings account application alerts.

LifeLock'south ID theft protection services range from $7 a calendar month to $xx a calendar month the outset twelvemonth. Terms apply. Reimbursement of $25,000 to $i million is available, depending on the monitoring plan. The lower-price protection services monitor credit only from 1 credit bureau. The $20-a-calendar month identity theft protection programme monitors all 3 major credit bureaus. You tin can pull credit reports once a twelvemonth, but the service will provide you with a credit score monthly, based on Experian data.

SSN and credit alerts, dark web monitoring, alerts on suspicious activity similar crimes committed under your name and credit carte activity and fraud alert services are all marks in LifeLock'southward favor, despite its past stumbles.

LifeLock Terms of Service

Base price: $89.99 or $7.50 a month for the first twelvemonth.

IdentityForce offers two tiers of service: UltraSecure and UltraSecure Plus Credit, the latter of which includes credit reports and scores. Nosotros liked how the credit score monitoring non only watches all 3 reporting agencies just provides a visual tracker that lets you lot examine your credit rating over time.

IdentityForce identity theft protection monitoring includes quite a lot beyond credit information. It checks for public data tape changes, accost changes, courtroom and abort records and payday loan applications, and checks for identity information on a variety of illicit identity-sharing websites to act every bit a guard dog from identity thieves. The company likewise monitors sexual practice offender registries to come across if your name is associated with such things. We also similar that information technology tracks SSNs for new usages or associations with new names.

Its mobile app has been updated with a feature chosen Mobile Attack Control. This monitors your smartphone for spyware and insecure Wi-Fi locations, equally well equally "spoof" networks (networks that human action as if they're legitimate connections but they're non). Additionally, the phone app will present alerts if there are security bug monitored by IdentityForce that demand immediate attention.

The company did not disclose frequency of service monitoring (beyond credit reporting agencies). That said, we liked how the company has an interesting credit score simulator which tin help you understand how unlike balances, payments and balance transfers might have an impact on your credit score. IdentityForce offers a 14-mean solar day gratuitous trial version, and then you tin can run into if it offers the best identity theft protection for your needs.

Right now, the UltraSecure program is $100 per year (or $10 for a monthly programme), and the UltraSecure Plus Credit for individuals is $180 per year (or $eighteen per month).

IdentityForce Terms of Service

Base price: $100 a year or $10 a calendar month.

cybersecurity-hacking-13 — Graphic by Pixabay/Analogy by CNET

The large pitch for Identity Baby-sit is that it's powered past IBM'south Watson. Before versions of Watson accept done everything from winning at Jeopardy to helping doctors diagnose cancer. The version of Watson powering Identity Guard is, as you'd expect, focused on identity theft.

Identity Guard's utilize of Watson involves building a corpus of cognition and standing to feed it information from many different sources, including social networks. In that location'southward no doubt the Watson-enabled service can aid advise y'all on identity management. Its service monitors the client's personal information for ID theft, including your credit files, DOB and SSN.

Identity Guard offers a clear summary of its insurance terms, which is very helpful for determining whether it'due south the all-time identity theft protection for you lot. The company offers a basic programme at $80 a year, simply information technology doesn't provide credit monitoring. If you desire monthly credit study updates, that jumps to $160 a yr and includes credit monitoring from three credit bureaus and a monthly credit score. Its most comprehensive programme is the Identity Guard Ultra plan, which costs $240 a year and includes annual credit reports.

Identity Guard Terms of Service

Consummate ID is a service provided past Experian, one of the large 3 credit reporting agencies, and is exclusively available to Costco members. Costco Executive members pay $nine a month plus an optional $three a month for child protection, and Gold Star Costco members pay $xiv a month and an optional $4 a month for child protection.

Complete ID provides an annual credit written report from the three agencies. Information technology likewise offers monthly credit scores and provides a nice graph over time and so you lot can run across how your score has improved. These perks may aid brand it the best identity theft protection if you're seeking multiple services in one.

The identity monitoring service offers monitoring for unauthorized use of your Social Security number and other noncredit identity monitoring to help prevent you from being the victim of stolen identity. A valuable feature is its neighborhood watch, updated monthly, which provides details on sexual predators and crimes in your area.

As with all of the services we're spotlighting, Complete ID offers $1 million in limited identity theft insurance. And unlike some of the competitors listed here, it has a clear summary of benefits. Base price (for Costco Executive members): $107.88 a year.

Complete ID Terms of Service

Base price (for Costco Executive members): $107.88 a year.

cybersecurity-hacking-9 — Angela Lang/CNET

ID Watchdog describes its service as "True Identity Protection." The company'south big differentiator is helping y'all recover afterwards you've been the victim of an identity theft experience. It offers a guarantee of "100% identity theft resolution," merely the fine print introduces some notable limits.

First, the company will merely help you if information technology detects a new incident of fraud while you lot're an active customer. Information technology doesn't guarantee y'all'll get back any money you lot lost, merely it will provide access to its team of Certified Identity Theft Adventure Management Specialists.

Like all the other commercial identity monitoring services we've profiled in this directory, ID Watchdog offers a $1 one thousand thousand identity theft insurance policy. But that policy's exact terms, limits and benefits aren't spelled out until y'all complete the signup process.

The base program doesn't provide a credit report or credit score information, but if you sign up for the premium $220-per-year service, you can get a re-create of your credit written report and your credit score. The catch? Y'all become that report once a yr. You can already practise that yourself, for gratuitous, by going to annualcreditreport.com. Still, if you don't need to check your credit often, this might make sense every bit the best identity theft protection for you.

While the company says that it provides monitoring services, it does not specify, anywhere in its terms and conditions, how often it performs checks for each type of service information technology monitors.

ID Watchdog Terms of Service

Base cost: $150 a year or $15 a month.

One of Identity Fraud's standout features is cost. It has the second-lowest entry-level price of any of the services we explored. The visitor likewise offers a business cybercrime protection service called BizLock. Those ii facts solitary get in the best identity theft protection for some.

Identity Fraud'due south personal service is $100 a twelvemonth, with a bump to $160 a year for credit reporting and monitoring. Similar all our other identity theft prevention contenders, Identity Fraud offers $one meg in fraud insurance (except for those in New York state, where the limit is $25,000 in coverage), with a $0 deductible. And we similar that Identity Fraud's insurance benefits are clear and easy to find.

The company does provide a credit score, but it's limited to data from TransUnion, one of the three credit-reporting agencies. The company will send you a monthly "no news is good news" e-mail if your identity has had a repose calendar month. It also offers lost wallet services, along with identity resolution and prevention assistance.

Identity Fraud Terms of Service

Base price: $100 a year or $10 a month.

PrivacyGuard offers a xiv-twenty-four hours trial program, just instead of information technology being gratuitous, you have to pay a buck. So while you tin yet see if you similar the program, the visitor loses all the friction-reducing benefits of trial-to-alive conversions by requiring users to jump through that dollar hoop at the beginning of the human relationship. Become figure.

Across the slightly shoot-themselves-in-the-foot trial program, PrivacyGuard provides many of the usual credit and identity protection services offered by its competitors. Information technology offers daily credit monitoring, a key value in protecting a person'due south identity against identity thieves, and a frequency level sorely lacking among many of the company'south competitors.

PrivacyGuard's base of operations $ten-per-month programme does record scans. A $20-a-month program does credit scans. A $25-per-month program does both. Like most other vendors, Privacy Baby-sit offers a $ane 1000000 policy. Prior to signing up, the company provides some information about the policy's benefits and limitations, but not enough for it to be useful for making a purchasing decision.

PrivacyGuard updates credit scores monthly and monitors public records and Social Security numbers. It likewise offers a yearly public records report, which provides all of the public records information that it's constitute in one clear document.

PrivacyGuard offers a trial version.

PrivacyGuard Terms of Service

Base of operations price: $119.88 a year.

McAfee's identity theft protection service is the least expensive nosotros've seen for a year of coverage. Y'all can become a full year of basic coverage for $35 as introductory pricing for new customers, and it includes antivirus protection. This is substantially less expensive than the other players we've discussed hither.

It offers a slick "cyber monitoring" service that constantly scans for credit activity and alerts you if something unusual happens. The company does monitor your Experian credit file but doesn't connect to either TransUnion or Equifax.

Like most other vendors, it offers to reimburse upward to $1 million for identity recovery (unless you're in New York state), and its recovery service will also return up to $10,000 in stolen funds. As an added benefit, if you lose your wallet, the company will do its best to reissue "a variety of contents from IDs and credit cards to concert tickets."

McAfee is probably best known as an antivirus company founded by itsvery eccentric eponymous founder, John McAfee. In 2011, Intel bought the company and renamed information technology Intel Security Grouping only past 2017, McAfee (now known equally McAfee LLC) was dorsum out on its ain, having been spun out to TPG Capital (although Intel still owns a minority stake).

We're telling you all this considering the company'due south DNA is very clearly antivirus. A presales call to the visitor asking almost its identity theft plan first resulted in complete confusion about how many devices we wanted antivirus installed on, and then, in one case transferred to the "identity theft department," culminated in our editor attempting to explain to the rep what credit reporting agencies did and why y'all'd care about them.

That doesn't mean the product itself is bad. Fortunately, just about all of this service is automated and there's never been any question well-nigh McAfee'south software chops. If its automated systems see odd behavior for one of your tracked accounts, those alerts may be your first and best protection when you need to secure your credit.

The visitor actually offers four tiers of identity protection service. Its Bones plan is the aforementioned $35 for the start twelvemonth.

McAfee Terms of Service

Base toll: $35.

What about Equifax and TrustedID?

Equifax

Ah, Equifax. If you already have an ID monitoring service, it may well be because of this visitor, which is the poster child for bad security. Ane of the big 3 credit reporting agencies, Equifax had no less than five major data breaches in 2017, affecting well-nigh every American who has a credit history. In the months that followed, nosotros learned that things may take somehow fifty-fifty been worse than originally known.

And the company's ham-fisted response to each data alienation made matters worse: At one point, the company was directing users to a fake help site. And the site it gear up to provide gratuitous credit account monitoring after the information breach was originally also vulnerable to hackers.

Heads rolled, executives left, and the company's reputation is in tatters. And yet, thanks to a tepid response from the federal regime, it'southward unclear if annihilation has really inverse. Equifax remains one of three major companies -- Experian and TransUnion existence the other 2 -- that pass judgment on whether we're all credit-worthy.

For improve or worse, many people took reward of Equifax'south offer of a gratis year'southward membership to TrustedID, its commercial identity theft service. But that offer -- originally available to anyone with a Social Security number -- has ended. (It required that y'all register by Jan. 31, 2018.)

The service provides a copy of your Equifax credit report, a lock on your Equifax data past tertiary parties (with some exceptions), credit monitoring from all 3 credit bureaus, monitoring of your SSN on what Equifax calls "suspicious" websites and a very express $i million identity theft insurance policy.

We empathize if you took advantage of the offer while it was gratuitous. That said, we merely can't recommend doing business with a company that has demonstrated such antipathy for security protocols -- let lone customers. Any of the alternative protection services listed above would exist a better pick.

Pricing compared

The base prices of each service are presented below, from everyman to highest. Note that the more expensive ones almost always offering additional perks, such as more frequent credit reports from credit bureaus.

ID monitoring yearly pricing

Service	Base yearly toll	Offers gratis trial?
McAfee	$35	No
Identity Guard	$lxxx	No
LifeLock	$xc	No*
Identity Fraud	$100	No
Complete ID (Costco Executive members)	$108	No
PrivacyGuard	$120	$ane for 14 days
ID Watchdog	$150	No
IdentityForce	$150	Yeah

*Offers 60-mean solar day money back guarantee.

Identity theft: What you need to know

These are some cardinal things to go on in mind most the all-time identity theft protection and ID monitoring services.

Early detection is key. If you're signing upward for one of these protection services, it's less about preventing the initial breach and saving you from being a victim of identity theft -- that'south somewhat out of your easily, unfortunately. Instead, the best identity theft protection is about getting a heads-up as shortly as possible on suspicious action to prevent you lot from needing to do a credit freeze or more than to stop an identity thief. Whether your credit carte has charges on it you never incurred, or you lot suddenly discover that loan collectors are trying to collect amounts yous never borrowed, thanks to thieves halfway across the state -- or thieves halfway around the world -- who opened a credit carte du jour or applied for a loan in your proper name, seeing the suspicious activity early is the name of the game. The scary fact is that these breaches can cost you a lot of money and identity theft monitoring tin alarm yous to a trouble before it becomes too large to handle.

Knowing how your personal information is being used is a big step to keeping yourself safe. There are identity theft protection companies that can help you monitor your personal information, get notified if your accounts and personal information are being misused past thieves and if you should get a credit freeze, and even get you reimbursement after the fact.

None of these protection services volition monitor your actual banking action. I have long recommended a way to protect yourself from condign a victim of most banking fraud, which is to examine all your accounts once a week. Information technology's a fleck of a pain, just just in my family, we've constitute numerous fraudulent activities and charges over the years. By doing this practice regularly, we've saved thousands of dollars. Consumer Reports recommends y'all do all your own monitoring, too.

That said, if you lot're non the type of person who is willing or able to have the fourth dimension to do the abiding due diligence necessary to protect your identity, some of these protection services can help.

Read the fine print. Finally, because each of these protection services offers vastly different terms and weather, nosotros've included an easy link to each visitor's terms of service. Be sure to take the time to read all of their fine print earlier you sign up for another monthly or yearly fee.