Identity theft is not new, it has been around for a while now. It’s just that the method used to steal identity has changed over the years. Earlier, scammers would steal your ID from discarded documents and ID cards but now they use modern technologies to do that.
From hacking into your social media account or using RFID skimmers to steal your identity, scammers are leaving no stone unturned to get their hands on your personal details. Once your details are stolen, they can be used for all sorts of illegal activities that can harm your social and economical status.
So it’s really important that you take the necessary measures to prevent your identity from being stolen. One such precaution is buying an identity theft protection plan from a reputed identity theft insurance company.
These insurance companies make sure that your identity stays protected and even if it gets stolen, you are covered by their protection plans.
Here we have shortlisted the list of top identity theft protection companies with the best identity theft protection plans. So now you don’t have to waste precious hours of your time researching for them yourselves. So let’s get started
Top 5 Best Rated Identity Theft Protection Companies
- Lifelock: Best Overall
- Zander: Most Affordable
- Identity Guard: AI-Powered
- Identity Force: Effective Credit Monitoring
- Privacy Guard: Tailor-Made Protection Plans
Most Common Types Of Identity Theft
From the above pie chart, you can see that the stolen identity is mostly used for financial crimes such as credit card fraud.
This means that a scammer mostly uses your details to steal money from your account. However, financial frauds are not the only motive of a scammer behind stealing your identity as there are other frauds as well that can be committed by identity theft.
However, all such types of frauds related to identity theft can be tackled by buying an identity theft protection plan from a top-rated identity theft insurance company.
How Do Identity Theft Insurance Companies Work?
Now before moving onto the list of the best identity theft protection plans let’s have a closer look at how these identity theft insurance companies actually work.
So basically what these companies do is that they alert or notify you about your personal details if they are used by someone else. They don’t protect your identity from stolen but they do notify you about it as quickly as possible so that you can take quick actions and prevent any major damage from happening.
However, if you still lose your money due to identity theft, these companies will help you undo the damage by recovering the lost money. Generally, such insurance companies provide a reimbursement of up to $1 million.
The Best Identity Theft Protection Plans For 2021
1. LifeLock
With their identity theft alert, monitoring, and recovering solutions, LifeLock’s goal is to help safeguard personal information. The company offers four types of plans, each geared towards a particular group of consumers.
Their LifeLock Standard protection plan costs $9.99 per month (with an auto-renewal fee of $11.99 per month).
It offers Equifax credit monitoring and helps monitor the use of your address, birth date, name, and Social Security number in applications.
The Norton 360 with LifeLock Select protection plan, which costs $9.99 per month, adds the Norton 360 cybersecurity package to LifeLock’s standard package
With its auto-renewal fee totaling $14.99, the plan offers VPN, cloud backup, and a password manager for up to five devices.
The third LifeLock plan, Norton 360 with LifeLock Advantage costs $19,99 a month and increases to $24.99 after the first year of use.
It offers a potential reimbursement of $100,000, alerts about criminal or suspicious activity associated with your name, credit card activity, and bank account activity.
The fourth LifeLock plan, Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus, costs $29.99 and has an autorenewal fee of $34.99 per month.
It also offers a potential reimbursement totaling $1 million. With this package, you get expert monitoring of your investment activity and credit monitoring at all major credit bureaus.
LifeLock also allows you to add your minor children to any protection plan for a monthly fee of $5.99.
Pros
- Wide-ranging alerts and monitoring
- Relatively high reimbursement amounts
- Combines identity theft monitoring with virus protection
Cons
- Quite costly if you have a tight budget
- Auto-renewal service can be a nuisance
2. Zander
Zander offers Family and Individual protection plans, complete recovery services, dark web monitoring, and 24/7 customer support.
The company monitors title fraud, employment fraud, benefits, child ID theft, and Social Security fraud. It also monitors criminal identification theft, tax fraud, medical ID theft, and financial fraud.
Their Family protection plan costs $145 per year or $12.90 a month and offers recovery services, alerts, personal information monitoring, and credit report access.
It covers the subscriber, a partner or spouse, and a maximum of 10 dependents.
Zander’s identity theft individual plan costs $6.75 per month (or $75 a year) and covers all the basics.
These basics include monitoring the dark web, Social Security number, credit card number, bank account number, and driver’s license for suspicious activity.
Pros
- Relatively affordable
- Recovery specialists assigned to every identity theft case
- Comprehensive identity theft alerts, monitoring, and recovering plans
Cons
- Indirect access to credit monitoring
- No computer security tools offered
3. Identity Guard
Identity Guard offers three feature-packed protection plans that come with IBM Watson AI, a U.S based dedicated case manager, and a $1 million potential reimbursement.
The plans also include a mobile app, an online identity dashboard, and a risk management score. IBM Watson AI helps process and monitor data points from malware vulnerabilities and phishing scams.
Identity Guard’s Value Plan costs $14.99 per month for a household and $8.99 per month for an individual.
It comes with a $1 million potential reimbursement and offers basic identity theft protection. The total plan costs $29.99 per month for a household and $19.99 per month for an individual. It offers alerts on IRA, savings and checking accounts, credit monitoring, and address monitoring.
It will cost you $34.99 per month (for the family package) or $24.99 per month (for the individual package) to get Identity Guard’s, Premier Plan.
This plan offers Facebook timeline monitoring and credit bureau monitoring on top of the basic identity theft protection. You also get a social insight report.
Pros
- AI-powered monitoring and alerts
- Diverse family plans
- A 30-day free trial
Cons
- No credit monitoring on the Value protection plan
- Credit reporting is only part of the high-tier packages
4. Identity Force
Identity Force offers two identity theft protection plans which include UltraSecure and UltraSecure+. The UltraSecure plan costs $17.99 a month and $179.99 per year while the UltraSecure+ plan costs $23.99 per month and $239.99 per year.
Monitoring services on the UltraSecure package cover the dark web, court records, change-of-address cases, and advanced fraud. It also covers restoration, lost wallet assistance, Social Security number, credit card, and bank number.
The UltraSecure+ plan offers all the UltraSecure plan features together with a credit score simulator and a monthly credit score tracker.
You also get all three credit bureau scores or reports and daily credit monitoring alerts. Identity Force allows you to cancel your membership online at any given time.
Pros
- Reasonable pricing
- Comprehensive monitoring
- Two-factor authentication
Cons
- The mobile app isn’t user friendly
- The family protection plan is available on the phone only
5. Privacy Guard
Privacy Guard has three main plans to cater to your identity theft protection needs. The lowest tier coverage Identity Protection costs $9.99 per month and offers basic protection.
Its features include lost wallet assistance, public records monitoring, address change monitoring, and identity theft insurance.
Other perks of this plan include passport and driver’s license monitoring, email and text alerts, credit and debit card monitoring, and bank account monitoring.
You can also sign up for Privacy Guard’s Credit Protection that costs $19.99 a month and includes credit scores/monitoring of all your credit reports.
The Total Protection plan, which costs $24.99 per month, gives you all the basic identity theft protection benefits.
It also offers credit monitoring and scores with three major bureaus. You may also sign up for Privacy Guard’s 14-day trial that costs $1 and gives you access to the basic features.
Pros
- Tailored coverage for your identity theft protection needs
- Lucrative reimbursement amount on some plans
- 14-day trial
Cons
- No discount for annual fees
- No plans suited for families or households
Make The Right Choice – Conclusion
The identity theft insurers discussed in this guide offer different types of packages for your needs. Your budget and the kind of data you want to protect matters when signing up for their plans. You should also consider the potential reimbursement amount that each insurer offers.
FAQs
Looking at the amount of identity theft frauds taking place in the world, identity theft insurance is totally worth it?
No these companies don’t protect your identity from getting stolen but they notify you about it and help recover some lost money.
It varies from plan to plan and company to company.
Resources
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/comparing-identity-theft-protection-services
