Sometimes, it’s a good idea to get data directly from the source. While there are plenty of reliable identity theft protection services that offer three-bureau credit monitoring, you can get the same information directly from one of the three reporting bureaus – Experian. That’s right, Experian has its own identity theft protection service, and it comes with more than just financial monitoring services.
Like Equifax and TransUnion, Experian has a lot of information about your financial activity and credit history.1 But Experian IndetityWorks can also scan the dark web, monitor your Social Security Number, and let you know if anyone tries to change your address with the postal service, among other things. So how much will this service cost you? We’ve broken down each plan and the included features to help you pick the best option for your situation. Let’s take a look.
Did You Know? The three major credit reporting bureaus — Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion — track financial records and determine credit scores. Each one also offers some type of identity theft monitoring.
Keep in mind that Experian offers other monitoring services, which we’ll discuss in a bit. But IdentityWorks is their bread-and-butter identity protection service. So let’s dive in and take a closer look at the plan options, prices, and any available deals out there. We’ve got everything you need to know about IdentityWorks right here.
Key Features
What you’ll get through Experian IdentityWorks:
Credit monitoring for up to three bureaus
Social Security Number monitoring
Recovery services for identity theft victims
Up to $1 million in insurance coverage for identity fraud
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IdentityWorks has three plans available, and it’s easy to compare them, which is not something we can say about NortonLifeLock. Experian’s plans are all on one page and the only difference between them comes down to how many people you want covered. Here’s a quick overview.
Basic
Premium
Family
Adults covered
1
1
2
Children covered
0
0
Up to 10
Cost
Free
$24.99 per month
$34.99 per month
The Premium and Family plan includes a seven-day free trial, but you’ll need to sign up with a credit card to claim it. You can also cancel the trial membership at any time within seven days without getting charged.
FYI: Monitoring with Experian starts within 48 hours after you sign up for the free trial. However, monitoring with the other credit bureaus can take up to four days. So keep that in mind while you’re testing out the service.
Before we move on to our personal experience with Experion IdentityWorks, let’s take a closer look at what each plan offers.
Basic Plan
The free plan is basic, just like the name suggests, but it does give you an idea of what Experian can offer if you decide to go with a paid plan. It includes:
Experian credit report and FICO Score
Experian credit monitoring and alerts
FICO Score tracker
FICO Score monitoring
Dark web surveillance report
Personal privacy scan
It’s not an in-depth list, but some of the results from the dark web or personal privacy might convince you to upgrade to a premium plan.
Premium Plan
Everything in the Basic plan is also included in the Premium package. It also comes with dedicated support from a fraud resolution team and insurance of up to $1 million if you are a victim of identity theft. However, it’s the additional monitoring features that make the $24.99 per month price tag worthwhile. Here are just some of the things Experian can keep an eye on for you:
Social Security Number trace alerts
Change of address alerts
Court records and booking alerts
Non-credit loan alerts
Social network monitoring alerts
Despite the extensive monitoring services, Experian IdentityWorks is more expensive than comparable identity theft protection services. Take Aura for example. Aura’s individual plan works out to be $12 per month when you pay annually. You can even pay monthly, and it’s only $15. That’s not all. Aura plans include antivirus protection, a VPN, and a password manager. It even has a 14-day free trial.
The Family plan is identical to the Premium plan, but it allows for an additional adult and identity monitoring for up to ten children. It’s one of the reasons why we consider Experian IdentityWorks one of the best identity theft protection services for families.
Keep in mind that while child identity theft is rare, it does happen.2 If your child’s identity is stolen and used fraudulently, the crime can go unnoticed for years. So we generally recommend playing it safe and paying a little more to protect your kiddos.
Pro Tip: Child identity monitoring isn’t as essential as adult monitoring, but it’s a good safety net — and it’s usually very cheap! Look for a service that will add child coverage to your plan without costing an arm and a leg.
Experian IdentityWorks – Account Overview
Our Experience With Experian IdentityWorks
Setting up an Experian account only took five minutes. We skipped the free Basic plan and went straight to the Premium package so we could assess the monitoring features. IdentityWorks asked for a few details to get our account up and running, such as our birthday, phone number, and Social Security Number.
As Experian got to know more about us, we started receiving results, including our FICO score. This is what lenders will use to assess whether they should give you a loan or not. The score is made up of a combination of your payment history, level of debt, and types of credit you used, to name a few.
FYI: The higher your FICO score, the better. A good score is normally between 670 to 739. If you have a low score, you should look into what is impacting it. For example, someone might be trying to take out new lines of credit in your name.
We added more information for Experian to monitor. It was easy to enter our driver’s license number, passport information, medical ID number, retail cards, and social media accounts. Once Experian had this information, we ran a dark web scan. It took a few minutes, but it came back with no results, which we were happy about.
The Experian App
We used a laptop to set up our Experian account. But while we were waiting for our dark web results, we decided to download the Experian smartphone app. It was good to see that it has high ratings on the App Store and Google Play Store.
The app is available to customers on every plan – even the free one. We primarily used it to manage alerts and notifications. If Experian found anything on the dark web or was alerted about a non-credit loan, we could get all the details while we were on the couch or on the go.
Experian IdentityWorks – App Alerts
Is IdentityWorks Worth It?
After testing Experian IdentityWorks, we think it’s a reliable and trustworthy identity protection service. We like that even the free Basic plan has credit monitoring, even if it is just from one bureau (one is better than none!).
But the jump in price to the premium plans does require some considerable thought. While it has some excellent monitoring features and great coverage for up to ten children, it’s an expensive service, especially when you compare it to the likes of Aura’s and Identity Guard’s premium plans.
Where IdentityWorks shines is in its credit monitoring. Being one of the major credit bureaus has its benefits in that you can get results fast and act on them accordingly. So if this feature is what’s most important to you, then you can’t go wrong with Experian IdentityWorks.
All of these are identity theft protection services from Experian. However, only IdentityWorks is active and available to all customers. Complete ID was an exclusive option for Costco members, while ProtectMyID was only available to AAA members.
You don’t necessarily have to, but it’s a good idea. The three credit bureaus get their information from public records, voluntary reporting from financial organizations, and other sources. But they don’t share information amongst themselves.3 That means they could have different data. To get all the data, we need to look at all three.
Not really, but you can use the two adults and up to ten children plan. There’s no separate child-free plan, and uploading children’s information is optional.
No, but that’s typical. Children don’t generally have credit scores to monitor in the first place. Keeping an eye out for a child’s personal information, like their social security number, is always a wise move.4
Experian requires multi-factor authentication to access the dashboard. Every time we logged in, we received an SMS sent to our phone with a code to verify our identity. However, we also learned that Experian logs a lot of device identifiers and shares data with third parties. You can opt out if you want to, which we recommend doing.
If you pay annually, you’ll save about two months’ worth of charges. A Premium account costs $249 a year compared to $299 when you pay monthly. The Family plan is $349.90 a year compared to $419.88 if you pay month to month.
SafeHome.org only uses high-quality sources to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Max Sheridan brings over two decades of writing experience to our team. He has spent 1,000-plus hours researching VPNs, identity theft protection, and various topics in cyber technology. Previously, Max was an investigative journalist, and he is also a published novelist. He earned a B.A. in Classics from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Illinois. He currently lives in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Updated December 23, 2024
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