The internet has never been a more dangerous place, with hacks and breaches going on all the time. What’s more, they are constantly evolving at a rapid pace, with methods becoming ever more sophisticated by the day.
For this reason, it is more important than ever to protect your identity online. Even if you are not targeted directly, data leaks at firms that hold your Personal Identifying Information (PII) can put you at risk regardless. If these fall into the hands of threat actors, they can cause all sorts of damage, including fraud and even blackmail, to name just a few examples.
Fortunately, there are plenty of services out there that can keep your identity protected, even in the worst case scenarios. They can alert you immediately if you fall victim, crawling the dark web to see what intel they can gather on criminal activities that may involve your details. They can also offer other measures to safeguard you online, such as credit monitoring and even security features like a VPN and Antivirus protection.
Testing these services personally isn’t feasible; however, we have conducted a thorough analysis of the most prominent and reputable identity protection services around, carefully scrutinizing the kinds of monitoring they conduct, how they notify you and how fast they are. And, of course, we have also taken into consideration their pricing.
In the meantime, below we’ve listed what we think are the best identity theft protection services currently available.
We’ve also listed the best identity theft protection for families.
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The best identity theft protection of 2024 in full:
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Best identity theft protection overall
Subscribe if:
✅ You want all the bells and whistles: Aura has many features to protect your identity, and it also comes with a VPN, antivirus, and a password manager to boot.
✅ You want to block unwanted calls: Its relatively new Call Assistant is included in all family plans, using AI to filter spam and scam calls for you.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You’re on a budget: Aura can be quite expensive, and the entry level plan lacks credit monitoring, a fairly basic feature.
The bottom line
🔒 Aura is a very comprehensive package that offers everything you’d need and more to protect you and your family’s identity online. The more premium plans can be quite expensive, though. ★★★★½
Aura may not be the cheapest option out there, but the level of features and protection make it one of the most attractive propositions in our view. Regardless of which plan you go for, Aura throws in a password manager, antivirus protection, and a VPN, which we think is quite generous.
The family plan also offers parental controls and safe gaming features, as well as other child protection tools.
Read our full Aura review.
Best identity theft protection for families
Subscribe if:
✅ You have a big family: IdentityForce supports an unlimited number of children, and has an addon called ChildWatch that keeps you abreast of concerns relating to your child’s identity.
✅ You want to get rid of junk mail: IdentityForce has a useful junk mail optout feature that can save your inbox from getting clogged with useless spam.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want regular credit reports: Credit reports are only given each quarter with IdentityForce, so not great if you want to stay on top of your score.
❌ You want a good mobile app: Looking at the user reviews, both the iPhone and Android apps appear to need some improvement.
The bottom line
🔒 IdentityForce offers great coverage for families, and has plenty of other great protection features. If you want more regular credit monitoring, though, you may want to look elsewhere. ★★★★½
As far as we can tell, IdentityForce bills its service for pretty much anyone, all the way from families right up to government organizations. The basic plan comes with social media monitoring as standard, as well as a feature to eliminate junk mail for you.
If you opt for the top plan, you get credit monitoring from three agencies, as well as support for freezing your credit to prevent others opening accounts in your name. You can also get alerts for your investment accounts too.
One of the downsides of IdentityForce is that credit reports are only delivered to you once a month. It’s also not the cheapest identity protection services around either.
The family plan also allows you to get additional child protection features, such as ChildWatch, as well as offering protection for an unlimited number of children, so we think large families will find this beneficial.
IdentityForce also isn’t the cheapest identity theft protection, with the most basic individual plan starting at $20 per month, but it does offer a free 30day trial should you wish to give it a try before parting with your cash.
Read our full IdentityForce review.
- To speak to an expert about how identity theft protection software can keep you secure online, call IdentityForce directly on this tollfree number 8882663930.
Best identity theft protection package
Subscribe if:
✅ You want great antivirus: Norton is perhaps best known to many for its comprehensive 360 antivirus suite, which is included with LifeLock.
✅ You want other extras: A VPN and a password manager are also included with LifeLock.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want clear pricing: We found the pricing for LifeLock to be quite confusing, and prices even rise after the first year.
The bottom line
🔒 Norton LifeLock is a good package, complete with the company’s industryleading antivirus suite, plus a VPN and password manager. The pricing isn’t something we are too sure of, though. ★★★★
The name Norton will be familiar to many, thanks to its popular 360 antivirus suite. LifeLock bundles this, as well as a password manager and VPN, with its identity theft protection, which we think makes it the best overall package for such a service.
Although the basic plan doesn’t have many identity protection features compared to other vendors, it does offer up to $1m in coverage from identity theft, which, based on our assessment of many other services, appears to be the baseline figure.
There is also credit locking, which looks to us to be easy to use, as well as support from the firm if you lose your wallet or if it thinks you’ve become a victim of identity fraud.
One thing we didn’t like about LifeLock is the pricing. It can be unclear, and the prices rise after the first year, so that is something to watch out for. There are three plans in total, with the most basic starting at $9.90 per month.
Read our full Norton LifeLock review.
Best identity theft protection for beginners
Subscribe if:
✅ You want good credit monitoring: As you would expect from an Experian company, credit monitoring is available for its own agency, as well as Equifax and TransUnion.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want to cancel easily: IdentityWorks does offer a free weeklong trial, but you have to buy it first, then cancel if you want your money back.
❌ You want apps: There are no mobile apps for IdentityWorks access to the platform is webonly via a browser.
The bottom line
🔒 Experian IdentityWorks offers a competent service with good credit monitoring, as you might expect from the company. But the lack of apps and the cancellation policy may put you off. ★★★★
If you’re new to the world of identity protection, then we think Experian IdentityWorks could be a good place to start. Experian will of course be known to many for their credit reporting, so as you can imagine, you get credit monitoring with this service not just from Experian, but also from Equifax and TransUnion.
As well as reporting and scoring which you’ll get daily you’ll also get alerts when there are any significant changes, in addition to dark web monitoring for checking leaks of your personal data anywhere online.
Although the most basic plan is free, it only offers the bare minimum of features, which include an Experian credit report and FICO score tracker, as well as dark web surveillance.
The premium tiers offer more features, though, bringing them in line with what you would expect from an identity protection service. You get threebureau credit monitoring, alerts, and support for removing your personal information from certain people finder sites.
Read our full Experian IdentityWorks review.
Best affordable identity theft protection provider
Subscribe if:
✅ You’re on a budget: ADT Identity Protection is well priced in comparison to its rivals, and makes a good choice for individuals looking for basic coverage.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want lots of features: The comparatively low price of ADT Identity Protection does mean that some of the more advanced features, like data breach updates, social media monitoring, and investment monitoring are all absent.
The bottom line
🔒 ADT Identity Protection is very affordable and a great way for individuals to protect themselves. But those with families looking for more advanced features may want to consider another option. ★★★★
Although it lacks some of the more advanced features of its peers, ADT Identity Protection comes at such a good price that it’s hard for us not to recommend it for at least some users.
You still get credit reports albeit annually and monitoring for your bank account, credit cards, criminal records, the dark web, and more. However, it doesn’t monitor social media accounts, nor does it provide updates on data breaches.
One of the bonuses of ADT’s single plan offering, though, is that you can pay monthly, so you aren’t locked in for a whole year, as is the case for many other identity protection services.
Read our full ADT Identity Protection review.
Best identity theft protection for FICO scores
Subscribe if:
✅ You want FICO scores: As you might expect, FICO scores are a given with myFICO. So if you rely on these, then this could be a good option for you.
✅ You want a good UI: the interface and the apps for myFICO are nicely presented, making it easier to navigate your way around them.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You are on a budget: myFICO has no annual plans, making it one of the more expensive options out there.
❌ You want more identity protection features: Identity protection only comes with the more premium plans on myFICO. There are also no family plans.
The bottom line
🔒 myFICO is a great service for those who want good credit monitoring and FICO scores, and there is no cap on wages lost either. But identity protection features are only available with the premium plans, and families aren’t catered for. ★★★★
myFICO gives you regular updates on your credit scores, and naturally this includes your FICO scores, which give you valuable knowledge as to what financial institutions look for when determining your creditworthiness. The UI is also user friendly for desktop and mobile apps, making it easy to navigate.
The basic plan only covers credit score updates, while the Premier and Advanced plans give you identity protection features. You can also buy a single report for your FICO score if you wish, without having to commit to a subscription.
However, one of the glaring omissions from myFICO is the lack of family plans, and the premium plans are quite expensive. However, for those plans, claims for wage losses are uncapped (other services usually top out at $7,500). You can also get assistance with travel expenses and getting new documents, such as a passport or driving license. MyFICO is also underwritten by the American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida.
Read our full myFico review.
Best identity theft protection for Costco members
Subscribe if:
✅ You’re a Costco member: Complete ID offers discounts to Costco members, making it a great choice for such customers.
✅ You want good credit monitoring: This is another Experianowned service, so credit monitoring reports are available from Experian, Transunion, and Equifax.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want a sleek interface: The web platform for Complete ID could do with improvement, and the mobile app isn’t that great either for advanced functionality.
The bottom line
🔒 Complete ID, as another Experian brand, provides comprehensive credit monitoring, in addition to some advanced identity protection features. Costco members also get a discount. But the interface and app could be better. ★★★★
As well as identity monitoring and restoration, Complete ID also offers criminal record and credit monitoring. We found that it also offers dark web and SSN monitoring too, putting it on par with many other identity theft protection services. It provides alert notifications for these if suspicious activity is detected, but we didn’t think they were as customizable as they should be.
Where Complete ID departs from the competition is its perk for Costco members, granting them a discount for its service. And as this is yet another Experian product, credit monitoring is comprehensive, providing reports from Experian, Equifax, and Transunion, as well as real time alerts if accounts are opened in your name.
One of the drawbacks of Complete ID, though, is the web interface, which we found to be behind the best, and the mobile app is also very basic in its functionality.
Read our full Complete ID review.
Best identity theft protection for social media
Subscribe if:
✅ You want good social media coverage: Social media monitoring is good, as is the Digital Footprint tool which finds the potentially harmful traces you’ve left online.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want better credit monitoring: Allstate only monitors credit reports from TransUnion on the basic plans only the top tier will monitor Experian and Equifax as well.
The bottom line
🔒 Allstate provides good social media profile monitoring tools, but the lack of credit monitoring on the lower plans is a drawback. ★★★★
Social media monitoring is included with Allstate, along with the obligatory credit monitoring. However, on the latter, you only get monitoring from one agency TransUnion on the basic plans; you need to opt for the most expensive plan to get monitoring from Experian and Equifax too.
There are three plans in total, all of which offer financial fraud protection and identity monitoring. In addition to coverage for expenses you incur dealing with fraud which maxes out at $2m for the top family plans there is also a stolen fund reimbursement available up to a million dollars for the top tier plan, as well as 401K/HSA reimbursement up to $1m too.
This top plan also offers cybersecurity for your devices and something called family digital safety, which allows you to monitor content, manage screen time, and set location alerts for your loved ones.
Read our full Allstate review.
Best basic identity theft protection
Subscribe if:
✅ You want good financial tools: IDnotify is good for financial planning, and even has a simulator to let you see what can happen to your credit score.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want social media monitoring: The social media tools for IDnotify flag behind the competition.
❌ You want a good Android app: The iPhone app performs better than the Android app from what we saw.
The bottom line
🔒 IDnotify has some great financial tools on tap, but the social media monitoring could be better, as could the prices. The basic plan also has no credit monitoring. ★★★★
Another identity protection service from Experian, IDnotify looks a lot like IdentityWorks to us also an Experian service. It offers credit scores as usual, as well as a credit score simulator, which allows you to see what would happen to your credit score under certain circumstances. You also get Vantage scores too.
Child and social media monitoring are also available, but the latter doesn’t seem to match the level offered by other services. But apart from that, IDnotify seems to provide standard features in most other respects, as far as we could tell.
However, it is costlier than some of its nearest rivals, considering that you have to pay extra beyond the most basic plan to get credit reports.
Read our full IDnotify review.
Best budget identity theft protection
Subscribe if:
✅ You want an affordable service: Zander Identity Theft Protection is a good price, considering you get realtime alerts, dark web scanning, and financial monitoring.
✅ You want good insurance: Zander Identity Theft Protection offers insurance up to $2m, whilst many other services only go up to $1m.
Don’t subscribe if:
❌ You want credit monitoring: There is no credit monitoring with Zander Identity Theft Protection.
❌ You want good app functionality: Although you get app notifications to alert you to dangers, the rest of app is quite limited.
The bottom line
🔒 Zander Identity Theft Protection is very affordable and offers good insurance coverage. The app could be better, though, and its focus is more on preventing identity theft rather than overcoming it. ★★★½
With a steadfast philosophy that identity theft is a lurking menace that strikes with stealth, it appears to us that Zander has shrewdly chosen to prioritize prevention over cure.
Rather than dwell on the aftermath, the company boldly take charge by equipping customers with topnotch identity protections, including vigilant financial account monitoring, realtime social security number alerts, and thorough dark web scanning, all at a fair price too.
On the premium plan you also get a VPN and an antivirus features. And while we may differ on the value of credit monitoring, we can’t help but applaud their innovative approach to safeguarding their clients.
Although credit monitoring may be absent, Zander’s coverage is comprehensive. If your credentials are detected anywhere online, this vigilant guardian will sound the alarm through email and app notifications (though we found that the app is limited in its use).
Zander Insurance stands ready to take on identity theft with a mighty shield of up to $1 million in stolen funds and expenses, including legal fees and lost wages. And for those with family plans, we found this shield doubles to an impressive $2 million, providing a safe haven for every covered adult. Additionally, Zander Insurance offers professional identity recovery services with no limits on time or money, so we believe you can trust it to guide you through every twist and turn of the recovery process.
Read our full Zander Identity Theft Protection review.
The best Identity theft protection FAQs
What is identity theft protection?
You might be surprised how much of your Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is strewn across the web. Your online bank account alone, for example, will have your bank details, address, and potentially the details of those close to you as well.
And when you consider all the other bank and credit card accounts you have, all the social media platforms you’re on, and the countless other platforms and services you’ve signed up to, then it’s not hard to see that cybercriminals have a wealth of information on billions of digital users, just waiting to be mined with their phishing scams and malware.
ID theft protection will alert you if it thinks you’ve had your identity stolen or compromised, by monitoring various aspects of online life, as well as scouring the dark web to see if any of your data has appeared in any breaches.
By also monitoring your credit rating with various bureaus, these services can let you know of negative changes to your scores, which can indicate that your identity was used to take out a loan and subsequently defaulted on.
By alerting you to such things, you’ll hopefully be able to make the necessary amendments and cancellations to your accounts and the fraudulent ones opened in your name as well as changing your credentials, before the damage is done. Some services can also help and advise you with this process too.
Is identity theft protection worth it?
If you’re someone who casts their personally identifiable information far and wide online such as your credit card details, ID documents, credit reports, etc. then they are absolutely worth the investment.
They address a very specific problem by checking with other organizations, such as credit monitoring agencies, to assess the likelihood of your identity being stolen. Other security software, such as antivirus, firewall and malware do not do this (unless they come as part of an allinone package).
However, it is of course a very personal choice, and comes down to how much value you place on protecting your identity and how at risk you think you are to damages as a result of identity theft which is high in most cases.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that according to the FTC, nearly $6bn was lost to fraud in 2021, with the most popular kind being identity theft.
Identity Theft Protection vs Monitoring Services: What’s the difference?
While there are similarities between identity theft protection and monitoring services, there are some big differences.
The latter will only monitor your credit rating, and send you notifications if there are drops in your score. Beyond that, however, credit monitoring services do little else in the way of providing further information or remediation.
Identity theft protection apps, on the other hand, will not just monitor your credit rating, but also the dark web for data breaches containing your information, as well as criminal databases and SSN repositories. They’ll also insure you for damages incurred in cases of having your identity stolen, and can assist when dealing with the problem too.
How identity theft happens?
Due to advances in technology and the evolving tactics and marketplace of cybercriminals, identity theft is more rife than ever before.
As well as breaching organizations that hold your valuable data, threat actors can also get a hold of your data by luring you in with phishing scams, which are becoming increasingly more sophisticated by the day. The rise of GenerativeAI in particular could spell disaster for the future of phishing, as it can be used to create the most convincing emails and messages.
If cybercriminals get hold of your financial information, then the damage is obvious. If they get hold of your PII, then they can use this to open fake accounts in your name, and even take out loans with your identity, defaulting on them and leaving you to pay the costs.
Signs of ID theft: what should I look out for to see if my identity was stolen?
Thankfully, there are some telltale signs of identity theft that you can spot. Strange bills and charges on your accounts are one, as well as having debt collectors on your case. Remember to also check for small charges in your bills as well, as criminals may start out with small transactions to test the waters and avoid detection.
You should act immediately if these occur, by contacting the relevant organizations and firms, as well as perhaps placing locks on your credit and setting up fraud alerts to prevent identity theft happening in the first place, which is preferable to dealing with it once you’ve become a victim.
Sometimes the signs are more subtle. Not receiving a monthly bill or statement when you expect to, for instance, could indicate that a fraudster has managed to change your address registered with the bank or firm in question.
Other signs include new cards opened in your name and credit score drops.
What are the steps to take to prevent my identity from being stolen?
Preventing identity theft in the first place is obviously better than dealing with it once it’s occurred. Following good cybersecurity practices, such as using strong and unique passwords for all your online accounts will help. Using one the best password manager options for this task will make life a lot easier for you.
If you think you have fallen victim to identity theft, then you should contact law enforcement to report it, and also your bank and other financial institutions you have accounts with. Dispute any charges you don’t believe have been authorized by yourself, and have the firm in question put a fraud alert on your file.
You should also check the credit bureaus and have them initiate a credit freeze too, which helps to prevent new credit accounts being opened under your name. Alerting just one of the big three Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion will likely mean the others are alerted too, as they share such information with each other.
Should I get identity theft protection?
From tiny tots to wise seniors, identity theft is an equal opportunity offender that shows no signs of slowing down. Protect yourself and your loved ones by considering these seven groups that could benefit from identity theft protection:
1. Digital Doers Anyone who spends a significant amount of time online or has numerous financial accounts is at higher risk for identity theft. Every account is a potential point of attack, so be wary of suspicious activity or messages.
2. Senior Savers Older Americans may have more money saved, but they’re also less techsavvy, making them prime targets for identity thieves.
3. Family Firsts Children and teens with clean credit histories can be attractive targets for fraudsters. Keep them safe by signing up for a family identity theft protection plan.
4. Repeat Victims If you’ve been hit by identity theft once, you’re more likely to be targeted again. Stay ahead of the curve with reliable protection.
5. Busy Bees If you don’t have the time to monitor your accounts constantly, identity theft protection services can help.
6. Insurance Insureds Don’t risk losing everything. Protect your home, savings, and credit score with an identity theft insurance policy.
7. Dark Web Dwellers After a data breach, your account credentials could be floating around on hacker forums. Use Identity Guard’s Dark Web scanner to keep an eye on any potential leaks.
Remember, the more accounts you have, the more important it is to keep your identity safe.
How to choose the best identity theft protection
One of your first considerations when choosing an identity protection service should be what aspects of your digital life you and your family need monitoring. Credit reports are a feature that many services provide, but not all of them. Other checks to look out for are criminal and court records, as well as bank accounts. The speed and quality of alerts is also something that will be vital to these services’ performance.
As with any other service, customer service and ease of use are very important factors for identity theft protection. Where we’ve been able to find out, we’ve mentioned how well the services in this guide perform on these fronts. Reading customer reviews is again something that is recommended when choosing any service or product.
Last of all but by no means least you should check how much you are insured for in the event your identity has been stolen and caused financial damage. Again, where possible, we have provided these details for our picks of the best identity theft protection services.
How we tested the best identity theft protection
Our reviews of the identity protection apps in this guide looked at the features they offer, as well as their value for money, and how well they compare to one another.
It is important to note that while we have been as thorough as possible, we have not reviewed these services handson, as that wouldn’t be feasible. It would involve deliberately compromising our own personal accounts and sensitive information to see how well they worked.
Instead, we made our choices based on their reputation, and wanted to cover a broad range of services, differing in their features, use cases, and pricing. The ones we picked also did well in our specific, separate reviews.
Read how we test, rate, and review products on .
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