IdentityGuard Review of March 2024

ElitePersonalFinance
Last Update: March 11, 2023 Identity Theft Companies Reviews

Millions of Americans rely on IdentityGuard to keep their identities safe. You can feel comfortable doing the same, as IdentityGuard ranks in the top three in its industry. But, there are many close-ranking options that you cannot ignore. With so many competitors and varying subscription costs, what makes IdentityGuard so unique?

Read on and take advantage of the great difference IdentityGuard can have in your life!

By the end of this review, you will know which IdentityGuard plan is right for you!

Now, let’s get started…

What is IdentityGuard?

IdentityGuard is a credit report and identity theft protection company that offers lifesaving services.

You might not ever understand the actual value of paying for such a service. If IdentityGuard blocks out identity fraud attempts, the damage becomes unrealized. Yet, a case of credit or identity fraud could put you out of pocket for tens of thousands of dollars.

Plus, there is an immense value in being able to avoid the identity restoration process. If you can block out a fraud attempt, it might mean you avoid becoming an identity theft victim. This could save you many years of filling out paperwork and having your credit score kept low. Don’t expect to qualify for many new credit lines when you just had your identity stolen.

IdentityGuard Plans


IdentityGuard offers one of the most comprehensive identity theft protection plans and credit monitoring. IdentityGuard is a leading identity theft protection and credit monitoring company.

IdentityGuard offers a 33% discount on all plans!

Individual Plans:

  • Value: $6.67/mo.
  • Premier: $16.67/mo.
  • Total: $13.33/mo.

Which one to choose?

The cheapest plan that IdentityGuard offer is Value. With it, you get all basic identity theft protection and credit monitoring features. The best is the Premier Plan. With Premier Plan, there are only a few included, but they are very important for people who are at risk of identity theft or are in the process of building credit. The missing features in Value that are added in Premier are:

  • 3-Bureau Credit Changes.
  • Bank Account Takeovers.
  • Requests to Open Checking or Savings Accounts With Your Information.
  • Monthly Credit Score.

These features play an important role and help you act fast if someone tries to steal your identity.

The same features help people who are in the process of building credit. You will be alerted instantly if your credit increase!

And you can get these features for only $10 extra per month!

Family Plans:

  • Value: $10.00/mo.
  • Premier: $23.33/mo.
  • Total: $20.00/mo.

IdentityGuard Family Plan offers the best. Your family will be protected at a discounted price.

Which plan to choose?

With the Value Plan, you get all basic identity theft protection and credit monitoring features. With Premier Plan, there are only a few included, but they are very important for people who are at risk of identity theft or are in the process of building credit. The missing features in Value that are added in Premier are:

  • 3-Bureau Credit Changes.
  • Bank Account Takeovers.
  • Requests to Open Checking or Savings Accounts With Your Information.
  • Monthly Credit Score.

These features play an important role and help you act fast if someone tries to steal your identity.

The same features help people who are in the process of building credit. You will be alerted instantly if your credit increase!

And you can get these features for only $10 extra per month!

Let’s Review All Types of IdentityGuard Protection

IdentityGuard offers protection plans against both identity theft and credit fraud, plus you can subscribe to a plan that offers both services at a discount. You can select whichever works best for you, but it’s a good idea to think about the combined plans.

Later in this review, we will show you how to make full coverage from IdentityGuard cost as little as basic ID theft protection.

Now, let’s look at each of the three different types of protection offered by IdentityGuard.

IdentityGuard Essentials

You do not get any help with monitoring your credit report, but everything identity-based is kept safe. This plan helps you in many ways, including some that will catch you off guard.

IdentityGuard Essentials gives you:

Social Security Number (SSN) Monitoring. At any given point, your SSN could show up somewhere. Knowing when this happens gives you the ability to put a stop to identity fraud against you. If someone uses your SSN to apply for a loan, you get alerted right away, and you have the help you need to take action.

Online Black Market Monitoring. The Dark Net is a place full of bad actors, and it’s normal for these people to sell and share stolen identities. Whether you are the only victim or one of the thousands, black market monitoring can help. IdentityGuard notifies you as soon as such an entry gets noticed. This is useful for online shopping purposes, as identities often get stolen once websites get hacked. After all, it’s impossible to keep track of all the stores you shopped at over the years.

ID Verification Alerts. A change to any of your account info, like addresses and passwords, will raise suspicion. To best protect you, IdentityGuard notifies you whenever any of your account information gets changed. These alerts also get sent out whenever you try to apply for a new credit line. As you must validate any action for it to become real, this means you can put a full stop to identity theft attempts.

Lost Wallet Protection. A lost or stolen wallet is a common occurrence, and it can set you up for a real financial disaster. IdentityGuard will help you cancel your active accounts, and they will even transfer you as much as $2,000 in emergency cash to keep your financials in order. From there, your credit report gets monitored, and any identity theft attempt renders it useless.

Victim Assistance. IdentityGuard has a team of ID restoration specialists that are ready to help you. With a quick call, you can discuss your situation and find a healthy resolve. Plus, the $1 million of identity theft insurance is worth its weight in gold. This guarantees that you do not have to worry about losing a single cent, supposing you become an identity theft victim.

IdentityGuard Total Protection

IdentityGuard Total Protection plan gives you a combination of IdentityGuard Essentials identity theft protection and their credit monitoring service. You get all the features listed above and a few others to protect your identity further. And then, you also get a flurry of benefits that make it easy to keep track of your credit health and restoration status.

Besides the Essentials features, you will also get:

Address Change Monitoring. There is no more common action among identity fraudsters than a fraudulent address change. This is the most obvious way to gather more information, making it possible to complete the fraud. With this type of protection, you find out when someone changes one of your accounts’ addresses. This means no mail will reach the fraudster’s house, so your information will remain safe.

3-Bureau Credit Monitoring. You get credit monitoring from each of the three credit bureaus – Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Everything in your name gets tracked, and you can always know of anything that has changed. This makes it easy to understand the reasons behind your credit score calculation.

Credit Scores. The most important part of tracking your credit recovery is knowing your credit score. The IdentityGuard Total protection plan gives you scores from each of the three bureaus, which you get once every three months. This is a reasonable time frame, as once a month is often overkill, and once a year is not enough. Since it takes a few months for a score shift to realize, you also don’t want to get misguided by changes that happen by the month.

3-Bureau Credit Analyzer. You have access to a simulator tool, which analyzes the cause and effect of your actions. This allows you to see what your actions can do to your credit score. It pulls information from each of your reports for greater accuracy. Whether you are thinking about applying for a loan or closing a credit card, you get to find out the implications ahead of time.

Public Record Monitoring. You never know the approach a fraudster will use to steal your identity and defraud you of your money. The added protection from public record monitoring lets you rest easy. Whether your name shows up in civil or criminal court records, under licenses or registrations, or anything else, you will find out.

IdentityGuard Platinum

If you really want full results, you can go the extra mile and invest in the IdentityGuard Platinum package. This will give you access to credit scores monthly instead of once every three months. Anyone looking to get frequent updates to their IdentityGuard credit score readings will be happy to choose this service over Total Protection.

Everything else is the same, except for this one key element. Both IdentityGuard Total Protection and Platinum packages give you access to the IdentityGuard app to simplify the monitoring process. Through the IdentityGuard app, you can check your credit score, use the ’cause and effect’ simulation tool, check any new alerts, and access FAQs and industry news.

Yet, not everyone needs to find out their credit score every single month. Sometimes the more important thing is just being able to monitor your credit report and identity. If quarterly scores work for you, then you should try IdentityGuard Total Protection instead!

In fact, Platinum is the more costly service at $5 more per month. The cost could become as much as $15 more per month once you factor in our unique advice!

How to Save More with Costco!

Alright, so you want to invest in a full protection package from IdentityGuard?

Are you a Costco cardholder?

If so, you have access to healthy discounts through Costco’s Total Protection offer. The protection features are the same. You get to enjoy healthy savings. The plan goes from costing $19.99 a month to only running $9.99 a month for executive Costco members. Then, Gold & Business members pay $13.49 a month for the Total Protection plan.

What does this mean?

Executive members save $120 a year!

Gold & Business members save $78 a year!

Hold on a second…how much did your membership cost?

As of July 2015, Executive members pay $110 a year, and Gold & Business members pay $55 a year. This means that your Total Protection plan savings can actually pay off your Costco card for you. In fact, any current Total Protection subscriber could technically be getting paid to buy a Costco card!

Don’t have a Costco card?

Take advantage of the IdentityGuard discount by obtaining your own Costco membership. As outlined above, you can do so without paying anything out-of-pocket for your card. This is a great idea; whether you want a Costco card or protection services, Costco’s IdentityGuard discount gives you an excellent two-for-one deal.

Is IdentityGuard Safe?

IdentityGuard is often cited as being the number one identity theft protection company in existence. Smaller industry players include Identity Force, CSID, Trusted ID, and Protect My ID.

There is no IdentityGuard scam, and the same remains true for each of the companies listed above. These are high-level services that are backed by millions of users, investment dollars, and more.

Is IdentityGuard Legit or Not?

The IdentityGuard review BBB posts have an A+ rating with 41 closed complaints. This means that there were 41 potential “issues” which the company made an effort to resolve. Each was closed in an acceptable manner, which is obvious given their perfect BBB rating.

The IdentityGuard member login is safe, and their website uses high-level SSL protection. During the Heartbleed bug incident, their website was not affected. Since they are PCI compliant, you also don’t have to worry when supplying your payment details.

Is IdentityGuard legit? That’s up to you to decide, but there is no IdentityGuard scam lurking around the corner. This company will remain in operation for as long as credit files and identities exist. With IdentityGuard’s up-to-date protection services, you can’t go wrong!

Uncertain? The IdentityGuard Free Trial Can Help!

As with any good service, IdentityGuard’s free trial offers you the chance to see what it’s like to be an actual member. The free trial offer runs for 30 days. After that, you will get charged for the monthly cost for your second month of service.

If your primary focus is identity theft protection, you can rest easy knowing IdentityGuard has your back. The Essentials package has no frills. If you want to see this stuff work in action, you might like credit monitoring more. But it’s not about what looks cool. IdentityGuard Essentials gives you full security against identity theft attempts.

So, you could justify that this plan is worth the cost. It’s just also a good idea to think about whether you could find value in having full protection. The IdentityGuard Total Protection plan offers just that. Plus, as we promised earlier, there are ways to bring the cost down for this plan.

Of course, you should know how to cancel IdentityGuard services before starting the trial. Some companies make it really difficult to get out. As IdentityGuard is a legitimate service provider sporting an A+ BBB rating, you don’t have to worry. Just pick up the phone and give them a call, and the subscription will get canceled right away. The contact number can be found right on their website, so no endless path to find out how to cancel IdentityGuard before it bills you.

Conclusion

Choosing the right company can make all the difference regarding credit monitoring and identity theft protection. Most have a specific set of features that are common, including the majority listed here. But, not all can provide accurate information, up-to-date notifications, and one-on-one help. Plus, with a million dollars in insurance protecting you, it’s nice knowing you never have to worry about identity theft again!

That said, IdentityGuard is also the most affordable option when looking for a package deal between credit and identity monitoring services. If this is an investment you planned to make, then IdentityGuard should be the first to consider!

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