Best Identity Theft Protection Services of 2016

The first thing to know about identity theft protection services is that they don’t actually protect. Just like having AAA doesn’t make it less likely that you’ll get a flat tire, signing up for identity theft protection, even from my top picks Identity Force and TrustedID, doesn’t mean your wallet is less likely to be stolen or a scam email less likely to appear in your inbox.

It’s an important thing to understand because that word — “protect” — is one of the reasons the industry gets flack. Starting in 2010, federal regulators began cracking down on deceptive marketing that claimed these services could provide complete identity protection; one of the biggest players, LifeLock, was hit hard and got hit again in 2015. Does that mean these companies are a sham?

Not necessarily. Most experts agree that understanding identity theft and planning for what to do if it happens will make it less scary and less damaging — and the best identity theft protection services help you do both.

The Simple Dollar’s Picks for Best Identity Theft Protection Services

I inspected 22 services (and talked to a trio of fraud experts) before finding two that have the best monitoring, alerts, customer service, and recovery assistance.

• Best for Individuals: Identity Force
• Best for Families: TrustedID
• Others to (Maybe) Consider: Identity Guard, Privacy Guard, LifeLock

Identities are stolen all the time.

“Identity theft” simply refers to the unauthorized use of a person’s identifying information. That can include your name, your Social Security number, street address, email address, credit card, medical records — even your likeness.

Identity thieves use this information in all sorts of ways; they might open a bank account or line of credit, hide from law enforcement, or get a job all as you (or a version of you). They might even go to the doctor as you (and forward you the bill) or file your taxes “on time,” snagging your refund before you do. (The IRS reported that it rejected 4.8 million suspicious return filings in 2015 alone.)

Sometimes your information is physically snatched, from your phone or wallet or computer, but most times it’s stolen electronically. In recent years, identity thieves have nabbed huge amounts of personal info from retail databases and sold it on the black market – the 2013 Target breach exposed as many as 70 million customers. More often, though, computer software (like malware or ransomware) is hidden in email attachments or as seemingly benign files on the web and, once downloaded, collects logins and passwords. Likewise, phishing and other email scams try to trick users into giving up personal information voluntarily: A website will look just like the one you use to bank, only the login and password go directly to an identity bandit.

This is all to say: People in the business of stealing identities can be very creative, and they’re betting on your inattention.

As a consumer you need to be the equivalent of a professional manager of your credit or your identity. You need to build it, nurture it, manage it, and protect it.
Adam K. Levin
Former Director of New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs
Founder IDT911 and Co-Founder Credit.com
Author of Swiped: How to Protect Yourself in a World Full of Scammers, Phishers, and Identity Thieves

Credit card fraud is the most common.

In 2014, there were 17.6 million victims of identity theft in the U.S. — the equivalent of 7 percent of Americans over the age of 16! According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 86 percent of those thefts were credit card or bank account fraud. That’s why most credit card companies include fraud monitoring in their suite of services — if you’ve ever received a text or call from your bank to confirm a purchase (or even to confirm how much you tipped your waiter), you know what I’m talking about.

Some think identity theft protection is an expensive overkill — others that the service is worth it.

For lots of people, having their credit card monitored by their bank is plenty. In fact, in 2013 Consumer Reports advised to skip identity theft protection services entirely, citing statistics for the frequency of credit card fraud and the infrequency of all the other forms of identity theft. What Consumer Reports doesn’t take into account is the seriousness of those infrequent forms, and the sheer amount of work it takes to resolve them — I’m talking hours on the phone, over the course of months.

In his rebuttal piece to Consumer Reports, founder of IDT911 Adam Levin agrees that some companies charge opportunistic rates for services you might already have from your bank or credit card company for free. Robert Minniti, a certified forensic accountant and certified fraud investigator concurs: “One of the problems with these programs is that they’re calling themselves identity theft protection, but they’re really credit monitoring services.”

To find the best (and the ones worth paying for), I combed through the products and services offered by 22 providers, looking for ones that would know when something’s wrong, and those that would help me figure out what to do next.

Some were immediate no-gos: They either weren’t accepting new customers or were business-to-business services that onboard whole companies (which brings up a good point: You should check with your HR department to see if they’ve got you covered).

But for the rest:

I made sure they checked all three credit bureaus.

The earliest indicator that you may be sharing your identity with another person is often your credit report: a fraudulent account opened under your name. The three US credit bureaus – TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian – use different data to compile your scores, and not all financial institutions report your activity to all three. Plus, credit bureaus receive information about people at different times, so one bureau may see an issue sooner than another.

True, credit reports are the easiest part of your identity to self-monitor, but if you’re going to be paying for a service, its credit monitoring should be comprehensive.

And I made sure they had their priorities in order.

It’s easy to get distracted by shiny features like social-media monitoring, but “your Social Security number is your most vulnerable piece of information,” says Levin. Most experts agree and, it turns out, so do most services: Every company I looked at monitors those precious nine digits.

I also favored services that track channels difficult for the average person to self-monitor, like public records, medical records, and the black market (ID theft services sweep chat rooms, blogs, and forums for your Social Security number, address, and other personal details — not something you want to be doing on a Saturday afternoon yourself). Services that look at credit cards and bank activity also got points, but since most banks and credit card companies already offer this type of monitoring for free, it wasn’t as critical.

I appreciated when I could tailor the type of alerts I would get.

Responding quickly to identity theft can minimize the damage — the sooner you know that something’s been compromised, the sooner you can cancel your credit card, contact authorities, etc.

If I’m paying for my identity to be monitored, I expect to be alerted quickly and efficiently. Some people prefer a phone call over a text; others an email over a call. Really you should have a range of options.

And I compared their recovery assistance.

“Identity recovery” is the process you have to take to prove that actions or transgressions made in your name were not, in fact, made by you. Undoing the damage can be grueling: State Farm says it takes, on average, 60 hours to resolve. The FTC has a complete list of steps to take, but it nearly always involves talking to all three credit bureaus, your bank, local law enforcement, and institutions like the IRS. Sometimes it requires lawyers and investigators too — This American Life reported on the story of Jessamyn Lovell, whose identity theft fallout included court dates states away from where she lived.

Most identity theft protection services say they help you with this part. What most of them actually offer is a $1 million insurance policy to help cover the costs of restoring your identity; only a couple actually do any of the heavy lifting.

If a service asks for limited power of attorney, it will be able to act on your behalf and get to work notarizing documents, making phone calls, filling out paperwork, and hand-holding you through the rest. If it doesn’t require power of attorney, the most it can really do is recommend the steps you need to take, and send you paperwork to fill out.

Identity Guard, for example, can help get a stop put on your credit cards and liaise with your bank to get you up to $2,000 from your compromised accounts, but beyond that its “victim assistance” is just a phone number you can call to ask for advice. Helpful? Sure. Real assistance? Not so much.

If you’re getting a service, you may want to consider one that actually assists you in doing some of the work in restoring your credit and identity — and covers legal fees that might be involved too.
Steve J. Weisman
Author of Identity Theft Alert
Scamicide.com

Then, I put their customer service to the test.

Realistically you’ll be in touch with customer service more often than a recovery team (and that’s a good thing). So, I vetted each service for its ability to answer my questions over the phone, live chat, and email. LifeLock’s customer support was the strongest of the contenders; the agent I spoke to after only a few rings knew the service in and out. We chatted about credit bureaus and I asked about its cancellation policy (cancel anytime), and it felt like I was talking to somebody who thoroughly understood the coverage his company provides.

On the flip side was Identity Guard: a big name in the business with less-than-impressive customer support. I waited on hold for a few minutes (not a big deal), but while the agents I spoke with wanted to be helpful, it sounded like they were reading scripted answers. One didn’t know how much Identity Guard’s various plans cost; another didn’t know any details about the company’s victim assistance — something that’s included with all of its packages. My email query was another dead end: It just asked that I call my questions in.

Top Picks – Best ID Theft Protection

It came down to two companies: Identity Force and TrustedID. While both advertise fairly comprehensive monitoring, testing which actually monitored better was problematic: if no one is trying to steal your identity, it’s pretty impossible to know which company would find the fraud first. One thing that is easy to compare, though, is their recovery assistance because:

Identity Force and TrustedID have basically the same exact recovery assistance.

Both have $1 million insurance policies underwritten and serviced by AIG, which means that even though each company provides the service, neither actually does the recovery — AIG does.

TrustedID and Identity Force share the same insurance underwriter — and essentially the exact same recovery service.

The insurance policies (which are designed to cover any excess costs associated with reclaiming your identity that aren’t already covered by your homeowners or renters insurance) are similar with a few small tweaks. TrustedID covers loss of wages for four weeks or $5,000; Identity Force for five weeks at $1,000 per week. TrustedID won’t cover loss of wages for anyone self-employed; Identity Force will reference last year’s tax returns. TrustedID has provisions for elder and child care; Identity Force limits coverage to just lost wages. These are small things that will make a difference to some more than others. It’s worth it to read the fine print.

TrustedID wins for user experience.

Its dashboard is airy and easy to use, and features at-a-glance stats, including how much of your personal information is searchable on the internet. Identity Force has a similar gauge, but apparently with much more lax scoring — a good thing or a bad thing depending on what makes you more anxious.

TrustedID (top) rates my risk for identity theft a Medium; Identity Force (bottom) says it’s Low.

Updating your information on TrustedID is quick — it’s all done right there from the dashboard — whereas an Identity Force account requires clicking around and opening new windows to update or add information like bank accounts and credit cards.

That said, creating an account with Identity Force is faster: All you need is your name, and you can fill in everything else whenever. TrustedID requires a quiz to verify your identity, including questions on which lender your car loan is through and how much you pay each month. You only have five minutes to answer before the quiz is timed out, so if you don’t know the info off the top of your head, it can be a barrier to getting started. Are any of these things deal breakers? Not really — just worth noting.

A comparison of services offered by Identity Force (top) and TrustedID (bottom).

Identity Force is more expensive — but it also monitors more.

Identity Force’s $24/month (or about $240/year) UltraSecure+Credit plan covers more bases than TrustedID’s $17/month ($170/year) IDEssentials: On top of the black market and credit monitoring, the UltraSecure+Credit plan from Identity Force also has alerts for change of address, court records, payday loans, and if a registered sex offender moves into your area (even though that last one has nothing to do with protecting your identity).

TrustedID is more focused on credit fraud and the black market, but also rolls in lost wallet protection (which will help you cancel and replace your credit cards) as well as some assistance with accessing your medical benefit statements — something Identity Force only offers as an add-on.

Where TrustedID really shines is its family-inclusive plan: For $30 per month ($300/year), your account will monitor you and another adult, plus monitor the credit and Social Security numbers for an unlimited number of children under the age of 18, as long as everyone lives at the same address. With Identity Force, each adult requires their own membership; its ChildWatch package is an additional $3 or so per month per kid.

Other Identity Theft Protection Services to Consider

• Identity Guard provides only a help line as “victim’s assistance,” but it does have a very affordable Essentials plan: for $10 per month, you can have your Social Security number, your accounts, and the black market monitored, plus $1 million in insurance. But, that leaves all the credit monitoring up to you. Its regular customer service wasn’t super impressive either.
• Privacy Guard is Identity Guard’s opposite in terms of monitoring: For $20 a month, it only tracks your credit, and doesn’t provide extra services like scouring the black market or keeping tabs on public records. (That said, it does send you one medical record per year that you can review on your own.)
• LifeLock, one of the originals and a powerhouse in the industry, hits all the marks for monitoring and recovery (and had the best customer service to boot). But as recently as December 2015, LifeLock was forced to pay a $100 million settlement to the FTC for contempt charges — the largest monetary award ever obtained by the Commission — after violating the terms from a 2010 federal court order that hammered the company for not securing its users’ private information, as well as deceptive advertising. In its statement, LifeLock “neither confirms nor denies the allegations of the parties.” Nice try.

How to Self-Monitor Your Identity

The best identity theft protection services aren’t cheap. They are going to cost a couple hundred bucks a year — and most of us (hopefully!) won’t ever even use the features that make them so appealing. Just like a monitored home security system, you’re paying for peace of mind as much as the service itself.

Just like DIY home security is possible, DIY identity theft monitoring can be effective and save you money. You need to know what to look for, need to be looking regularly, and you need to be prepared to untangle any damage completely on your own. As Minniti points out, “For the most part, people don’t have the discipline to self-monitor; they forget about it. They don’t do it on a regular basis, and that’s where a service can come in handy.” Even so, incorporating some basic steps into your routine can help you feel more secure:

Check all three of your credit reports every year.

All Americans are guaranteed access to their credit reports once a year through AnnualCreditReport.com; those reports show all of the open accounts that are associated with your name. Setting a yearly calendar reminder is a good way to stay on top of pulling them regularly, and staggering them throughout the year will help compensate for the coverage you’d get with a service, which typically pulls monthly or quarterly reports.

If you do suspect some sort of fraud (say your wallet was stolen or you’ve been notified of some sort of security breach), place a 90-day alert on your credit files and get the free report that comes with it. These alerts will ensure a business will verify your identity before issuing new credit in your name. You can renew the alert every 90 days to make sure you’re safe in the long term.

Consider placing a freeze on those reports too.

If you’re not planning on doing anything that will require an inquiry on your credit anytime soon — applying for credit cards or loans, signing a new lease, opening a new bank account, etc. — it might be a good idea to freeze your reports.

One of the best things people can do to protect themselves is to put a credit freeze on their credit reports.
Steve J. Weisman
Author of Identity Theft Alert
Founder, Scamicide.com

To do this, call each credit bureau and your banks — it’s a bit time-consuming and will cost around $10 per freeze (and another $10 per unfreeze), but it leaves no room for funny business with your finances: Consumers with a credit freeze in place must be contacted anytime there’s an inquiry on their credit. This is also a good protective step for senior citizens, children, and dependent adults.

Actually read all your mail.

Examine your health insurance statements when they arrive to see if you’ve been charged for an appointment or procedure you didn’t receive. Take note if you’ve stopped receiving notifications (either paper or electronic) from your banks, utilities, loan providers, or credit card companies: Identity thieves will most often file for a change of address if they have access to your financials to keep you out of the loop.

Likewise, if you get any password-reset emails, don’t ignore them off-hand; a notice might mean somebody has been trying to log into your accounts.

Run a background check on yourself.

While most of us aren’t able to self-monitor black market sites that traffic identities and financial information, background checks are typically free and will highlight any erroneous charges. If you find some and are going it alone, you’ll have to contact the authorities to dispute them.

Look into identity theft insurance.

It acts the same way as the insurance provided by an identity theft protection service — if you spend money recovering your identity, insurance will cover it. Your home and renters insurance policies might already include this as an add-on option; likewise, some employers add it to their benefits bundle.

Don’t Be a Target

Identity theft is a tricky crime to predict: Wealthy individuals with lots of accounts aren’t necessarily targeted more often than someone with, say, a low checking account balance or a dinged-up credit score. And, Weisman explains, “As technology improves, the problems with identity theft will, unfortunately, also increase.” Levin agrees, “The reality is that everywhere you go, everything you do is being tracked, gathered, stored, disseminated. With all the things out there collecting our data, we have to focus on what I call the 3 Ms: Minimize the risk of exposure, Monitor accounts, and Manage the damage.”

The steps for prevention are all pretty obvious and you’ve likely heard some version of them before. But they’re worth a reminder — especially if you’re not already following the advice.

• Be extra careful with physical documents that contain sensitive information. “The least amount of information you can carry, you should,” says Minniti. That personal information includes your Social Security card, medical ID cards, credit card statements, bank account numbers, tax documents — even your driver’s license. Don’t carry them unless you have to and make them difficult to find in your home too.
• Use challenging passwords. Don’t use personal information like names, birthdates, and addresses as passwords. $ecuR!tY!! is a much more complicated password than security. And remember: If you can Google your name and find out your high school mascot, your mom’s maiden name, or the street you grew up on, those don’t make great “Forgot your password?” prompts.
• Don’t click on mystery links. If it’s a brand-new email notification your bank has never sent before, proceed with caution.
• Never authenticate yourself to anybody who contacts you. “Theoretically, they know who you are. That’s why they’re contacting you,” says Levin. You shouldn’t need to, say, rattle off the last four digits of your SSN to anyone who’s calling you.
• Get to know your smartphone’s security features. “Phones are data storage devices, not just communication devices,” Levin explains. “Have a complex PIN number. Have it shut off faster. Opt in to remote data wiping.” Apple iPhones equipped with Find My iPhone can remotely wipe all data off of a stolen phone, and Google Android phones with Android Lost perform a similar function. Back your phone up regularly so that you can wipe without remorse!

The Bottom Line

Identity theft is real and it’s serious — there’s just no way to sugarcoat it. To stay on top of all the ways your identity could be compromised, you need to be monitoring it regularly. Too much for you to take on? That’s where identity theft protection services come in. My top picks, Identity Force and TrustedID, have some of the most comprehensive monitoring available and, even better, a team in place to help out if something goes wrong.

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