Being a victim of identity theft — whether it's a stolen Social Security number or credit card information — can become a big headache to resolve, especially if you don't discover the theft until weeks or months later.
That's where identity theft protection can come in handy. With these services, you can spot potential fraud early and get help to restore your identity if something goes wrong. Most identity theft protection services also include insurance to help you recoup expenses associated with resolving identity theft.
Below, CNBC Select reviews the top identity theft protection services that can alert you of potential breaches of your personal information. (See our methodology for more information on how we chose the best identity theft protection services.)
Best identity theft protection services
Best for protecting your family
Aura
Cost
Individual plan: $9/month billed annually or $12/month billed monthly; Couple plan: $17/month billed annually or $20/month billed monthly; Family plan: $25/month billed annually or $30/month billed monthly
Standout features
Protects against financial fraud, identity theft, spam calls, online theft, phishing and scam websites, viruses and malware, as well as offering security tailored to kids and financial alerts like credit score monitoring
Availability
Offered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
Terms apply.
Pros
- Extensive security offerings that provide protection from hackers and online predators
- Credit score monitoring and access to credit report
- Discount if choose to bill annually versus monthly
- 14-day free trial and, on all annual plans, 60-day money-back guarantee
- Offers couple and family plans
Cons
- Costs for whichever plan you choose
Who's this for? Aura has plans specific to couples and families, which not all services do. Family-oriented features include family alert sharing, parental controls, video gaming with cyberbullying alerts and child identity protection with Social Security number alerts.
Standout benefits: Aura stands out for its white-glove fraud resolution team that walks you through resolving any identity theft or fraud incident, its email alias generation to hide your email address, its automated child sex offender geo-alerts, all in addition to three-bureau credit monitoring alerts and monthly VantageScore access.
Best for dark web scanning
IdentityForce®
Cost
UltraSecure Individual: $19.90 per month or $199.90 per year; UltraSecure+Credit Individual: $34.90 per month or $349.90 per year; UltraSecure Family: $24.90 per month or $249.90 per year; UltraSecure+Credit Family: $39.90 per month or $399.90 per year
Credit bureaus monitored
3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion®, with UltraSecure+Credit Individual and UltraSecure+Credit Family plans only
Credit scoring model used
VantageScore® 3.0, with UltraSecure+Credit Individual and UltraSecure+Credit Family plans only
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, at least $1 million with all plans
Terms apply.
Pros
- 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports
- Free VantageScore® 3.0
- Dark web scanning
- Minimum $1 million identity theft insurance coverage
- Offers family plan
Cons
- Plans start at about $20 per month
- Doesn't look at FICO® Score
Who's this for? With IdentityForce, all plans get dark web scanning and at least $1 million in identity theft insurance coverage.
Standout benefits: IdentityForce offers 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports, as well as access to users' VantageScore® 3.0 with the +Credit plans.
Best for credit and identity protection in one
PrivacyGuard®
Cost
$9.99 to $24.99 per month
Identity theft insurance
Up to $1 million for Identity Protection and Total Protection plans; none for Credit Protection plan
Credit monitoring
Total Protection and Credit Protection plans both monitor your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports; Identity Protection doesn't offer credit monitoring.
Mobile app
Yes
Family plan
No
Terms apply.
Pros
- Option to choose the plan that suits you: Credit Protection, Identity Protection or Total Protection
- New users can try any plan for $1 for the first 14 days
Cons
- No family plan
- No identity theft insurance with Credit Protection plan
- Identity Protection plan doesn't offer triple-bureau credit monitoring
Who's this for? PrivacyGuard is ideal for those looking for bundled credit and identity protection. It offers separate plans for just identity or credit protection, as well as a plan for both combined with an extensive list of features: free VantageScore, 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports, dark web scanning, public records and bank account monitoring, $1 million identity theft insurance and more.
Standout benefits: PrivacyGuard offers unique features like a dedicated identity fraud resolution agent, a financial calculator suite, neighborhood reports, emergency travel assistance and medical records reimbursement.
Best for credit monitoring
Experian IdentityWorks℠
Cost
Basic: Free; Premium: 7-day trial, after $24.99 per month; Family: 7-day trial, after $34.99 per month
Credit bureaus monitored
1-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, with Basic plan only and 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports: Experian, Equifax and TransUnion®, with Premium and Family plans only
Credit scoring model used
FICO® Score 8, with all plans
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, up to $1 million with all plans
Terms apply.
Pros
- Free version available and free trial with paid plans
- 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports
- Free FICO® Score 8
- Dark web scanning
- Up to $1 million identity theft insurance coverage
Cons
- Pay for more advanced features, starting at about $25 per month
*Identity Theft Insurance underwritten by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group, Inc. (AIG). The description herein is a summary and intended for informational purposes only and does not include all terms, conditions and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for terms, conditions, and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions.
Who's this for? Experian IdentityWorks is best for those who are planning to apply for a loan of some sort soon. The service offers all users access to their FICO® Score 8, which is the credit score used by most lenders.
Standout benefits: Experian IdentityWorks has a free version and offers a free trial for paid plans. There's 3-bureau credit monitoring, alerts and reports with both paid plans, and all plans get dark web scanning and up to $1 million identity theft insurance coverage.
Best for identity theft insurance
Identity Guard
Cost
$6.67 to $29.99 per month
Identity theft insurance
Up to $1 million
Credit monitoring
The Total and Ultra plans monitor your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports; the Value plan doesn't offer credit monitoring.
Mobile app
Yes
Family plan
Yes
Terms apply.
Pros
- Option to choose from three plans: Value, Total and Ultra
- All plans provide identity theft insurance up to $1 million
- Variety of privacy tools that help reduce telemarketing calls, junk mail and more (free with annual plans)
- IBM® Watson®™ artificial intelligence monitors and processes billions of pieces of information
Cons
- No credit monitoring with Value plan
Who's this for? Identity Guard is great for those seeking identity theft insurance as all plans include $1 million in identity theft insurance. Certain plans also get 3-bureau credit monitoring and monthly credit scores.
Standout benefits: Identity Guard excels in identity theft protection by offering features like data breach notifications and monitoring on the dark web, high-risk transactions, bank accounts, social media and more.
Best for computer and device protection
LifeLock™
Cost
$8.29 to $34.99 per month
Identity theft insurance
Up to $1 million for lawyers and experts; up to $25,000 to $1 million each for stolen funds reimbursement and personal expense compensation
Credit monitoring
The Ultimate Plus plan monitors your Experian, Equifax and TransUnion credit reports; The Standard and Advantage plans monitor Equifax or TransUnion.
Mobile app
Yes
Family plan
Yes
Terms apply.
Pros
- Choose between Standard, Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans
- All plans provide identity theft insurance
- Norton 360 software is integrated into some plans, offering protection against viruses, spyware, malware and other online threats for up to 5 PCs, Macs and Android devices
Cons
- You receive less identity theft insurance coverage with a Standard plan
- Standard plan lacks some alerts, like bank account and credit card activity
- Standard and Advantage plans only monitor one credit bureau
Who's this for? LifeLock offers the largest insurance protection, up to $3 million coverage per adult. It can protect you across various devices, including PCs, Macs, tablets and phones.
Standout benefits: LifeLock offers phone takeover monitoring, buy now pay later alerts, 401(k) and investment account activity alerts, social media monitoring and more.
More on our top identity theft protection services
Aura
Aura offers identity theft and credit protection for you and your whole family.
Cost
From $12 per month to $50 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, at least $1 million with all plans
IdentityForce
IdentityForce is part of TransUnion and offers identity and credit protection, along with identity protection advice.
Cost
From $19.90 per month to $39.90 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, at least $1 million with all plans
PrivacyGuard
PrivacyGuard is a monitoring service that protects individuals against identity theft. Only two of its three plans include identity theft insurance and dark web scan as its third plan focuses more on credit protection.
Cost
From $9.99 per month to $24.99 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with two plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, $1 million with two plans
Experian IdentityWorks
Experian IdentityWorks is part of Experian and is the only identity theft protection service that we found offering users access to their FICO Score.
Cost
From free to $34.99 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, up to $1 million with all plans
Identity Guard
Identity Guard uses artificial intelligence to monitor users' personal information and spot potential fraud. It includes identity theft insurance with all plans.
Cost
From $6.67 per month to $39.99 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, $1 million with all plans
LifeLock
LifeLock is an identity theft protection service by the company Norton, which is best known for its antivirus and anti-malware software.
Cost
From $8.29 per month to $34.99 per month
Dark web scan
Yes, with all plans
Identity theft insurance
Yes, at least $1 million with all plans
What do identity theft protection services do?
Identity theft protection services monitor various websites and databases for signs of your personal information, such as your social security, driver's license, medical ID and bank account numbers. If your information appears on the dark web or someplace else it shouldn't, these services will send you an alert.
Where these identity theft protection services check for your sensitive information differs between plans but generally include:
- Dark web
- Social media
- USPS address change requests
- Court or arrest records
- Orders for new utility, cable, or wireless services
- Payday loan applications
- Check cashing requests
The higher-cost identity theft insurance plans typically have more coverage than lower-cost options. For instance, the Standard LifeLock plan lacks some alerts, like bank account and credit card activity, that are offered with the more expensive Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans.
If your identity is compromised, these services will help you restore it through a team of lawyers and experts. Plus all of the services mentioned above provide identity theft insurance on at least one of their plans, which can help you offset the cost of legal fees and sometimes stolen funds and lost wages. This insurance is one of the best perks of an identity theft protection service.
If you want to sign up for one of these services for identity theft insurance, consider Identity Guard, which offers insurance on all of its plans.
FAQs
Identity theft protection vs. credit monitoring services
Identity theft protection services alert you when your personal information is being used in a wide range of fraudulent activities — whether that's someone using your medical ID number to file a claim or your driver's license appearing on the web. Credit monitoring services usually don't look for these kinds of actions, primarily because they don't appear on your credit report.
Credit monitoring services do just what the name says — monitor your credit. They track the credit history shown on your credit report(s), then alert you of changes via email, text or phone. Granted, you can do this on your own, but these services provide an automated and faster way to track changes to your credit file in real time.
The exact activity a credit monitoring service reviews varies, but it typically includes the following:
- Hard inquiries on your credit report, such as someone applying for credit in your name
- New accounts opened in your name
- Balances and payments on your credit products
- New address or name changes to your credit file
- Public records, such as bankruptcies
- Personal information on the dark web, such as your social security number, email address and passwords
Many services incorporate both features — identity theft protection and credit monitoring — to give you holistic coverage.
Can identity theft protection services prevent fraud?
An identity theft protection service won't prevent fraud, but it can help you spot it early. While someone stealing your identity is never ideal, it's even worse if you don't realize it right away. Thankfully, these services can help you notice it quickly and take action before the damage gets worse.
Here are several things identity theft protection services don't do:
- Prevent your personal information from appearing on the dark web or other resources
- Keep your information safe from data breaches
- Stop someone from applying for credit and opening new accounts in your name
- Prevent your bank account and credit card information from being stolen
- Tell you if someone withdraws money from your bank account
- Warn you if someone files a tax return in your name and collects your refund
- Prevent the selling of your personal information or use of it
How to prevent identity theft
Since identity theft protection services don't prevent identity theft from happening, you'll need to be proactive to protect your personal information from fraudsters. There are ways to minimize your exposure to identity theft, but remember that some things, like data breaches, are out of your control.
Here are some tips to safeguard your information:
- Freeze your credit reports: If you want to ensure that your credit file is inaccessible to fraudsters and new accounts can't be opened in your name, freeze your credit reports with each credit bureau. While identity theft protection services charge a fee for monitoring your information, freezing your credit is free.
- Monitor your credit: Even if you freeze your credit, you should still regularly check your credit reports. You can receive free weekly copies of your credit report from each of the three bureaus through April 2021. In addition, check your credit score and credit card accounts frequently for any unexpected information or transactions. If you notice anything out of sorts, dispute errors immediately.
- Be wary of advertisements, emails and spam phone calls: You may receive what seems like a great deal or a limited-time offer that requires you to act fast, but you should verify they're legitimate before clicking or sharing any personal information. If you don't know the company or sender of an email or who's calling on the phone, that can be a red flag. Look up the information online and make sure you only go to sites that are "https" — with the "s" representing secure.
- Secure your information: Make sure any personal information isn't accessible to strangers. Consider storing passwords in a secure app like LastPass or 1Password versus writing them on a piece of paper. Also keep physical documents, such as your social security card and birth certificate, out of sight in a safe. Don't carry these with you since there's no need to and it can make it easier for someone to steal your information.
Bottom line
While identity theft services can alert you if your personal information appears on the dark web or is misused, it's important to understand that these services can't prevent fraud from happening. You'll need to be proactive and safeguard your personal information to reduce your exposure to identity theft.
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Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every identity theft protection review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit monitoring products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best identity theft protection services.
Our methodology
To determine which identity theft protection services offer the most benefits to consumers, CNBC Select analyzed and compared over a dozen services that offer a variety of plans.
When ranking the best identity theft protection services, we focused on the following features:
- Cost: Typically, these services bill monthly but some have deals where you can pay annually.
- Identity theft insurance: We considered whether the services offered identity theft insurance and looked at the amount you're covered up to. We found that the best services offer up to $1 million for eligible expenses associated with resolving and restoring your identity.
- Wide variety of identity monitoring: The more platforms the service checks for breaches to your personal information, the better.
- Credit monitoring: We ranked services that monitor your credit reports higher than those they don't. The best plans offer triple-bureau monitoring.
- Family plans: If you can enroll your family members, that's an added plus.
- Mobile app: The ability to access services from a smartphone was crucial.
Keep in mind that identity theft protection services can only alert you of breaches to your personal information, not prevent any fraud.
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To learn more about IdentityForce®, visit their website.
