Identity Guard^® Identity Theft Protection Cost and Plan Pricing

Plans and Pricing for Identity Guard

There are key protection features you should look for in an identity theft protection service. First on the list is, of course, monitoring. You want to be able to spot suspicious activities right away before they turn into something bigger. You’ll also want a service that gives you a safety net in the form of an insurance policy.

Even though most victims don’t lose money, the average cost of an identity theft incident is still well over $1,000.1 Lastly, don’t discount the importance of a reliable restoration service. In case your identity gets stolen, you’ll need all the help you can get to rebuild your identity and credit, and restoration services provide exactly that.

With Identity Guard, we think you’ll get valuable protection at every price point. First, you’ll get basic monitoring services with all plan tiers. We’re also glad to see that recovery and insurance are standard across all price points, too. This is crucial, as there are tons of chores to think about if you ever fall victim to identity theft (reporting the incident, freezing credit files, filing a report to insurance companies, and more).2 And for obvious reasons, having insurance included in your package can really pay dividends.

Identity Guard has really strong monitoring, recovery, and insurance, and it’s priced really well. In fact, we’ve ranked Identity Guard as one of our best identity protection services list.

Now, as for which Identity Guard plan is the best, we think that all of them are viable options. After all, going with the lowest-tier plan is better than having no protection at all. But as you would expect, the premium plans offer more features and better protections. To choose a plan, look at the features of each one and choose the one that offers the features you need. We’ll get to that part later, but for now, have a look at Identity Guard’s pricing.

Identity Guard Price Snapshot

So there you have it. To recap, Identity Guard costs $7.50 per month for individuals and $12.50 for families (when billed annually). The premium plans (Total and Ultra) cost $16.67 and $25 monthly, respectively. While the monthly pay-as-you-go plans do cost a couple of dollars more, they’re also more flexible, so if you’re not sure if you’re going to stick around for the long haul, we always recommend month-to-month pricing. Otherwise, you can save up to $72 if you sign up for a whole year.

Identity Guard Plan Options

Identity Guard’s three main plans are Value, Total, and Ultra. Each of these come in individual and family versions (they also come in annual or monthly billing options, as mentioned above). As far as selection goes, having three different options to choose from is typical for the industry. Now let’s see which of the three options is most suitable for you.

Value Plan

The cheapest Identity Guard tier is the company’s Value Plan. For individuals, this one costs less than ten dollars per month. We think there’s a lot to like here, particularly in recovery and insurance coverage. We explained in our review that we were impressed by how the Value plan (and all Identity Guard options) include a “Risk Management Score.” Having our risk assessed helps us know what steps to take to protect ourselves.

Monitoring matters a lot to us. Thankfully, the Value plan has you covered with identity monitoring backed by IBM’s Watson artificial intelligence. This is one of Identity Guard’s most unique features, and we’re impressed that it’s included even in the cheapest plan. But we worry that this option is missing some of the credit-related features that we usually look for.

Who it’s best for: Budget-minded customers who care most about the safety nets provided by recovery and insurance coverage. The Risk Management Score and AI-powered identity monitoring are useful inclusions.

Total Plan

Identity Guard’s Total Plan builds on what the Value plan offers, and it also comes with important credit monitoring features. With Total, we enjoyed coverage that flagged and notified us of changes in our credit reports and scores across all three bureaus.

Who it’s best for: Anyone who wants comprehensive identity monitoring and fraud protection.

Ultra Plan

Ultra includes everything that we got with the Value and Total plans. But it also comes with a full three-bureau credit report. We think this is a useful perk for anyone who wants to take a closer look at their credit details. If you’re looking to improve your score or think you might take out a major loan like a mortgage sometime soon, this is a great option.

The Ultra plan also includes a “Social Insight” feature. This helps us monitor our social media presence, as it checks for threats to our reputation. Be careful what you post out there!

We enjoyed other new monitoring features at this tier, too, like home title monitoring and change-of-address monitoring.

Upgrading to Ultra also comes with improved recovery services like a white glove resolution concierge. “White glove” and “concierge” are terms companies use to refer to premium services that cover scheduling and other hassles. We deal with a U.S.-based customer care team no matter which plan we have, but the white glove resolution concierge service gives us a more fully-managed recovery process.

Note that the Ultra plan replaced Identity Guard’s previous top-tier brand called “Premier.”

Who it’s best for: Customers who want personal finance help built into their identity monitoring, as well as those who are concerned about their social media presence.

Value, Total, and Ultra Family Plans

The family plans offer the same features as their counterparts in the individual plans. Instead of getting the features for one individual, however, the family plans cover up to two adults and any number of children in your household.

Although you will share a subscription, our tests showed that family plans are still very private. That is, we weren’t able to see details about our other family members on our plan. We think you’ll be comfortable sharing an account with the people you live with, even if you’re not living with a spouse or long-term partner.

Kids are welcome on the family option, too, although the monitoring features are limited to online account monitoring and Social Security monitoring. Another thing we noticed is that Identity Guard doesn’t list any maximum number of children or adults for a family plan. Just remember that you can’t add adults who don’t live with you.

Who it’s best for: This is best for married couples and adults with kids. We think it’s also useful in other situations with adult family members in the house, whether you’re rooming with a sibling or letting grandpa move in.

Identity Guard Deals Available Now

We think that Identity Guard offers a lot of value, but if you can grab a deal, even better! Right now, Identity Guard plans are 33-percent off, which means the Value plan now costs only $6.67 per month, and the Ultra plan costs $19.99. That wasn’t the absolute lowest prices we’ve seen, though, as Identity Guard offered its plans at up to 50-percent off in the past.

This is what Identity Guard’s prices look like with the 33-percent discount.

Identity Guard’s Overall Value

We found that Identity Guard offered us some great value across their different pricing tiers. For our money (and yours!), we think the best option is the Total plan. While their Value option is cheaper, the coverage offered by Total is much more complete. Whether you think it’s worth it to upgrade to the Ultra plan is entirely up to you.

We think Identity Guard does well compared to the competition, too. Its lowest-priced option is one of the cheapest out there. Only Zander Insurance is cheaper. However, both Zander and Identity Guard’s cheapest plans don’t include credit monitoring.

If you ask us, though, what’s more important is how much it costs to get full coverage (including credit monitoring). Identity Guard’s Total plan does really well here, which completely makes up for the Value plan’s lack of credit monitoring.

All About Identity Guard

We’ve been researching Identity Guard and testing their services for a long time. Identity Guard opened up shop way back in 1996.4 It was one of the first really good options for identity theft protection. Along with brands like LifeLock, Identity Guard is a part of the old guard (no pun intended) of identity monitoring services. We don’t think that Identity Guard’s old-school reputation is holding it back, though. The service has really kept up with the times, and its partnership with IBM Watson is a big deal in our eyes.

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