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 Also, any identity theft protection plan worth its salt has a restoration service. If your identity does get stolen, a restoration plan helps you rebuild both your identity and credit.

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 identity theft insurance and US-based customer support 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 and expert help included in your package can really pay dividends.

Identity Guard has really strong monitoring, recovery, and insurance, and it’s priced really well. However, you have a choice to make. Should you go with the entry-level, mid-tier, or top-tier protection? 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.

The annual plans average out to be a better deal, but you do have to put down 12 months worth of payments upfront. So, for the individual Value plan, you need to shell out $90, and for the family Value plan, $150. That isn’t chump change, and the upfront payments only go up from there. But if you can afford it, it’s the best bang for your buck.

As for the family plans, they all cover up to five adults and an unlimited number of minor-aged dependents. But if you look at the prices, you’d save money by going with a family plan even if it’ll just be you and your spouse sharing an account. With the Ultra plan, for example, the family plan costs only $10 more than the Individual plan. We think it’s a really good value, which is why we included Identity Guard in our list of the best identity protection services for families.

Identity Guard Plan Options

Identity Guard’s Value, Total, and Ultra plans each come with different features. Obviously, you get more protections as you move up into the more expensive tiers. Let’s break down what each plan offers.

Value Plan

The cheapest Identity Guard tier is the company’s Value Plan. 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 and financial monitoring features. The Total plan includes monitoring at all three credit bureaus and a monthly credit score report. It also includes bank account monitoring for suspicious activity.

With the addition of these features, the protection from Identity Guard starts to feel proactive. You’re not just paying for some basic scans and insurance coverage in case something bad happens. You’re having a service track both your credit and your major transactions for unauthorized activity.

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 an annual 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 to take a proactive approach to their personal credit and finances. If you’re running a business, looking to take out a major loan or you’ve been hit with identity theft in the past, the Ultra plan is a great option.

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 five adults and any number of children in your household. It’s important to note that you can’t add adults who don’t live with you.

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.

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.

Added Bonus: Safe Browsing Extension and Password Manager

If you’ve been shopping around for identity theft protection services, you’ve probably noticed at this point that Identity Guard is slightly more expensive than some other services that are out there. Perhaps acknowledging that its service is a bit pricier, Identity Guard also throws in a couple of added features with its plans in the form of a password manager and safe browsing extension for Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

The browser extension includes a number of security features that can help you keep you safe from various online threats. These features include:

• anti-phishing protection
• secure connection confirmation
• ad blocking
• flash blocking
• tracker protection
• social media privacy management
• data broker protection
• data mining protection

While you could download the Identity Guard extension from the Chrome or Microsoft stores, you can’t access these features without a current subscription.

Identity Guard also sweetens the deal of each subscription with the inclusion of a password manager. If you aren’t using a password manager, you should be and this is a great little add-on from Identity Guard.

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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