Chase Identity Theft Protection Review and Pricing Plans

What Is Credit Journey: The Chase Identity Theft Protection Program?

Unfortunately, Chase doesn’t offer any type of premium identity theft protection services. However, Chase does offer some free protections through its Credit Journey program. While this program is meant for Chase card holders, you don’t need a Chase credit card to enroll.

Credit Journey is a free online tool that you can use to check your credit score, Chase credit card balance, credit card limit, and credit history. The program goes beyond basic monitoring to include an online dashboard and proactive steps you can take to improve your credit score. Credit Journey also has features to help you protect your identity.

Credit Score

Enrolling in Credit Journey starts with getting your free credit score through the Chase website. To receive it, you need to provide the credit card company with some personal information, including your name, date of birth, and Social Security number. We signed up for the service and the credit score we received was through the VantageScore 3.0 model powered by Experian, one of the three major credit bureaus in the US. It automatically refreshed every month, but there is an option to manually request a refresh as often as once a week.

Credit Report

You also get a free credit report when you enroll in Credit Journey. This report includes information on open credit accounts, closed accounts, accounts in collections, and more. We think a report like this can help you understand what went into your credit score, and thus detect anything that might be out of the ordinary. It can also help you chart a path forward that improves your credit or helps you maintain a high credit score.

Credit Dashboard

A free credit report and score updates are nice, but they’re hardly anything worth writing home about. Credit Journey truly becomes noteworthy when it goes beyond these two basic features.

The personal credit dashboard is a great touch for a free service. This online dashboard lets you track your credit score, usage, limits, score history, and more. You might not visit this dashboard every day, but it’s great to know it’s there if you need it.

Reference Materials

Another neat little feature is the reference materials available through the platform. If you see something inaccurate on your credit report or in your credit history, you can reference the Credit Journey dispute guide and FAQ section. Yes, you can find this information on the Internet, but it’s nice to have this dependable reference from a trusted source who knows a thing or two about credit.

Identity Monitoring

There are a lot of paid identity theft protection services out there that include identity monitoring, so it’s nice to see Chase offer this as part of its free Credit Journey service. After opting into the free identity monitoring service, you can find out if your information is on the dark web, get notified if your information was part of a data breach, track any name or address changes related to your Social Security number, and receive verification alerts when a lender attempts to verify your identity.

As part of this free service it provides, Chase says you may be eligible for up to $1 million in recovery expenses if you have been a victim of identity theft or fraud. Once again, many identity theft protection services charge for this type of insurance so it’s pretty shocking to see Chase say you could access it for simply enrolling in a free service.

Credit Monitoring

As if this free deal wasn’t already sweet enough, Credit Journey also includes free credit monitoring services. Easily accessed through the dashboard, credit monitoring services include reports on new activity, positive credit activity, and negative credit activity. You can also get an alert if there are changes to your credit limit, usage, or balance.

What to Do When You Notice Identity Theft in Your Chase Account

Chase recommends you contact them immediately if you discover your identity has been stolen. They will then work with you to help correct all unauthorized transactions in your Chase accounts. They will also fix any inaccurate information they have already sent to the credit bureaus about you as a result of an identity theft incident in your name. And, going forward, they will continue to help protect you from future identity theft attempts and account fraud incidents, but they don’t specifically state how they do this. Therefore, you will have to contact them about your specific account to inquire how they help protect you going forward.

Considerations for Chase Identity Theft Protection

There are no disadvantages to using the Chase Credit Journey in the manner it is provided. In fact, using Credit Journey as a free service gives you great perspective on what’s out there in terms of paid services.

On that note, Chase doesn’t offer a full suite of premium identity theft protection services, and you are leaving yourself vulnerable if you rely solely on Chase to protect you. This is because the coverage is pretty limited in scope. If you want to fully protect yourself against identity theft, you should consider using a dedicated identity theft protection service. Services like Aura and LifeLock offer a full suite of identity theft and fraud protection products and services. These types of services will help catch identity theft early on and help you avoid an identity theft incident to every extent possible.

What Are the Alternatives to Chase Identity Theft Protection?

Like we said, you can only benefit by signing up for Chase’s Credit Journey feature. There’s no real downside, considering that it’s a free service. That said, if you’re looking for more comprehensive identity protection, you can’t get that from Chase at all. It doesn’t offer any premium subscription, so your best bet is to enlist the services of a dedicated identity theft protection service. Our top three recommendations are Aura, LifeLock, and Identity Guard.

Aura

When it comes to comparing the free service from Chase to identity theft protection from Aura, we’re reminded of the old slogan: You’ve tried the rest, now try the best. We dubbed Aura as our best identity theft protection service of 2025 because it covers all the bases for a very reasonable price.

Our extensive testing of Aura left us feeling impressed. From transaction monitoring to removal requests for data broker sites and a credit lock with Experian, Aura exceeded our expectations. On top of that, our Aura subscription also included a password manager, antivirus software, and a VPN. If you’re looking for identity protection that goes way beyond personal finances, you should be taking a hard look at what Aura has to offer.

One drawback that we want to mention is the lack of plan options. There’s only one tier, so it’s all or nothing with Aura. You can however choose your plan based on the numbers and types of people you want covered, as shown in the table below.

To be completely fair, some identity theft protection features included in the Aura plan — such as credit monitoring and $1 million in identity theft recovery insurance — are a part of the free plan from Chase. However, we still highly recommend the paid plan from Aura because it does offer features that you should have to keep you safe.

LifeLock

LifeLock has been around since 2005 and is one of the most recognized identity theft protection services in the country. They have millions of members and an award-winning identity theft restoration team. LifeLock offers a full suite of identity theft protection services using its proprietary technology. The company is owned by Norton Internet Security, and you have the option of bundling Norton 360 for an additional fee.

Because you can bundle in Norton’s famous antivirus and digital security software, there is a wide range of pricing options for LifeLock. These plans are split into three different tiers: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Plans are also split into different sizes, for individuals, couples, and families.

You may be surprised to find that, on paper, the Standard plan from LifeLock doesn’t differ all that much from Chase Credit Journey. The LifeLock plan also includes identity alerts, Social Security alerts, credit monitoring from one bureau, $1 million in identity theft insurance, and dark web monitoring. While our LifeLock tests focused on the Ultimate Plus plan, we suspect that you do get better protection and service through the LifeLock Standard plan compared to the free Chase plan.

The Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans offer protections that go far beyond those of Credit Journey. These protections include a TransUnion bureau credit freeze, bank account alerts, and fictitious identity monitoring through the Advantage plan, as well as investment alerts, social media monitoring, and bank takeover alerts through the Ultimate Plus plan. The latter plan also includes $3 million in identity theft insurance.

LifeLock truly distinguishes itself though by offering the option to bundle in Norton 360 software. This offers the best bang for your buck and the most comprehensive coverage:

*The Select Plan is the Standard Plan with dark web monitoring and data breach alerts

Identity Guard

Identity Guard offers a wide range of options, maybe too wide. The Value plan offers pretty bare-bones coverage that, dare we say, doesn’t even clear the bar set by the free Chase plan. If we are going to be serious about Identity Guard as an alternative to Credit Journey, then we need to discuss the Total and Ultra plans, priced at $16.75 and $25 per month respectively with the annual plan. At least with those plans, you get credit monitoring with at least one credit bureau. Here’s how the plans stack up:

The Ultra plan looks pricey, but Identity Guard also throws in a password manager and VPN. So, if you’re looking for protection that goes beyond credit and identity monitoring, it’s worth looking at.

The Verdict

The Chase Credit Journey protection plan is pretty impressive for a free service. It also puts a lot of these paid services in perspective. That being said, we’re a little skeptical about the follow-through on a free service compared to a paid service. Also, the protections from Chase are relatively minimal compared to reasonably priced plans from Aura, LifeLock, and Identity Guard. We definitely recommend looking at our reviews for these services and considering if the protections they offer are worth a relatively modest investment.