Aura Review: Identity Theft Protection for Families

Aura offers comprehensive identity protection with advanced monitoring tools, real-time fraud alerts and 24/7 U.S.-based customer support to safeguard your personal information. Family plans add parental controls and safe gaming features with online predatory alerts.

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Key Takeaways

• Aura delivers all-in-one identity protection with dark web monitoring, credit and financial account alerts, a VPN and $1 million in identity theft insurance per adult. You also get 24/7 U.S.-based support and expert fraud remediation across every plan.

• Family plans stand out for online child safety, adding in-game voice and text monitoring, predator and cyberbullying alerts, three-bureau child credit freeze and AI-powered scam call blocking for $32 a month billed annually.

• Pick Aura if you want broad coverage at a fair price, but skip it if you need buy-now-pay-later monitoring or instant credit lock across all three bureaus.

Summary generated by AI, verified by MoneyLion editors

How Aura Works

Aura keeps you and your family safe online by monitoring your online accounts, your financial accounts and your credit, and alerting you when there's been a breach. Its online protection for children, which is included in the Family plan, has safe gaming features that monitor in-game voice and text and alert you to possible predators, scams and bullying.

Here are some of the ways Aura protects you and your family online.

• Monitors your online accounts and alerts you if your personal information, Social Security number and/or home title have been compromised

• Watches for and alerts you to suspicious activity in your financial accounts and credit file

• Provides tools to keep your kids safe online

• Employs AI Powered Call Assistant to block scam and spam calls, though only with the Family plan

• Protects your devices with antivirus tools and a virtual private network for secure web browsing

• Provides 24/7 U.S-based customer support so you can report identity theft right away

The level of protection you receive varies by plan. All plans provide the full range of ID monitoring and alerts for adults.

• The Kids plan: This sells for $10 per month when billed annually or $13 a month, covers unlimited kids and unlimited devices.

• The Individual plan: This sells for $12 per month when billed annually or $15 monthly, covers one adult and 10 devices.

• The Couples plan: This doubles the number of covered devices. It costs $22 per month billed annually or $29 per month when billed monthly.

• The Family plan: This is a bargain at $32 per month, with annual billing, or $50 per month billed monthly. It covers five adults, unlimited kids and unlimited devices.

If your information is compromised, the included identity theft insurance will cover up to $1 million in combined expense reimbursement and cash recovery per covered adult. Insurance also covers kids with the Family plan. That coverage is typical among identity protection programs, although some competing products have higher limits.

Aura uses a multi-step process to safeguard against identity theft. First, it monitors the dark web and public records to identify and alert you when your Social Security or other sensitive data has been compromised. It also watches for fraud involving your home or auto title.

Credit Protection

If someone tries to open credit in your name, you'll get an alert. But while some competitors specifically monitor for buy-now-pay-later, Aura does not. As a result, you'll only be alerted if the BNPL program reports to credit bureaus — not all do. Additionally, Aura offers instant credit lock if your credit is compromised, but only for your Experian file.

Aura provides annual credit reports and a monthly credit score. However, the score is an educational one, not the score used by creditors. You can check your credit report yourself for free at MyAnnualCreditReport.com, and you can check your credit score for free through your credit card providers.

Control Spam and Scams

All Aura plans include junk mail removal, where Aura removes your information from data brokers to reduce the amount of junk and scam mail you receive. Family subscribers also get AI Powered Call Assist, which blocks spam and scam calls.

You also get a virtual private network (VPN), which encrypts your internet usage on virtually any device, giving you safe and private internet access from over 100 locations worldwide. This is a significant improvement over the mobile-only VPNs competitors typically provide.

Online Child Safety

Family plan subscribers receive an impressive suite of child-safety solutions, including child Social Security monitoring and three-bureau child credit freeze.

Competing plans offer some of the same services, such as monitoring the dark web for your child's Social Security number and other private information, and perhaps for attempts to open credit in their names. But Aura goes a step further to give you control over what content your kids see and how much time they spend online. And more importantly, it monitors your kids' in-game voice and text communications and alerts you to possible predators, scams and cyberbullying.

Identity Protection Features

Aura includes a well-rounded selection of identity protection features, such as dark web monitoring, home and auto title alerts, ID verification monitoring and expert fraud remediation, making it an excellent choice for keeping your private information safe.

These are the top features Aura uses to safeguard your identity:

• Dark web monitoring of your Social Security number and private information

• Home and auto title alerts if someone tries to claim your home or car as their own

• Stolen identity and account breach alerts

• Identity verification alerts when someone uses your information to verify their identity with a creditor, retailer or other company.

• Identity recovery tools and fraud remediation

• $1 million in identity theft insurance per adult -- the Family plan includes coverage for children.

Protect Your Identity With Advanced Monitoring Tools

Aura protects your identity with dark web, credit and financial monitoring, fraud alerts and identity theft insurance to safeguard your information and recover from identity theft if it occurs.

Monthly Fee: $10 to $32 annually

Online Safety Protection: Credit monitoring, identity theft, VPN and online safety, spam call protection, parental controls and more

Annual Credit Reports: Available

Pros

• Low cost plans provide excellent value

• Comprehensive identity monitoring features

• Fraud alerts to help you act quickly if your information or accounts are compromised

• $1 million identity theft insurance per adult — children ID theft included in family plan

• Expert U.S.-based fraud remediation

• Outstanding online protection for children

Cons

• Doesn't monitor buy-now-pay-later transactions

• Lower identity theft insurance limit than some competitors offer

• Instant credit lock not available for TransUnion, Equifax credit files

Why We Like It: Aura provides robust protection for adults, with dark web, home and auto title, financial and credit monitoring and alerts. The Family plan is an especially good value, as it offers unique child online monitoring and alerts you won't find elsewhere, at a very reasonable price.

User Experience

User experiences with Aura are mixed. Some users say alerts have helped them respond quickly to fraudulent attempts to open a bank account or credit in their names. Others report that the software frequently disconnects, leaving devices and transactions unprotected, or interferes with their devices' performance and ability to log in to financial accounts. Most complaints relate to software and VPN issues, rather than credit and ID monitoring.

That said, the mobile app gets rave reviews, earning 4.4 stars on Google Play and 4.7 stars on the App Store.

Outstanding Identity Protection With Real-Time Alerts

Aura constantly monitors the web and your credit and financial accounts for breaches and signs of fraud. Real-time alerts let you take immediate action, and in the worst case, get recovery assistance. Insurance reimburses losses resulting from identity theft.

Pros

• Comprehensive monitoring

• Real-time alerts if monitoring detects breaches and/or fraud

• Expert remediation and insurance

Cons

• No change-of-address monitoring

Why We Like It: Aura's robust monitoring and alerts provide an all-in-one digital safety solution for your identity and personal information.

Aura vs. Competitor Options

Here's how Aura stacks up against its competitors.

Aura vs. LifeLock

LifeLock offers three plans, so you can customize your protection. Premium plans have coverages Aura doesn't, such as phone takeover monitoring, BNPL alerts, social media monitoring and even stolen wallet protection.

LifeLock plans offers protection for adults, and there are family plans to protect your kids. Subscription plan prices do rise after the first year, though. For example, the Standard plan starts at $89.99 per year, and rises to $124.99 per year thereafter.

Aura vs. Identity Force

Identity Force has two individual and two family plans, so you can choose your level of coverage. Although coverages are similar to Aura's, Identity Force is significantly more expensive. But to its credit, its Personalized Action Plan helps you select coverage based on your actual breach history and dark web exposure, and provides an Identity Vault for secure digital storage of your Social Security number, credit card and financial account information and important legal and medical documents.

Aura vs. Identity Guard

Identity Guard is initially more economical than Aura, but prices double upon renewal. You'll need the highest-level plan, which is $19.99 per month billed annually for the first year, to get the level of credit and financial account protection Aura includes in all of its plans.

Final Take

Aura is an excellent choice for individuals, couples and families looking for a comprehensive solution for protecting their digital lives. From monitoring, to alerts to 24/7 customer support and expert remediation, Aura protects not only your identity but your privacy, credit and financial accounts as well.

FAQs

How does Aura work?

Aura monitors the dark web for your private information, and also monitors your credit and financial accounts for improper access and fraud. It alerts you to potential breeches and provides expert assistance with recovering your identity if needed.

Is Aura safe to use?

Yes. Aura keeps your information safe.

Does Aura offer identity theft insurance?

Yes. The plans offer $1 million of insurance per covered adult. The Family plan includes coverage for children.

Key Terms

• Identity theft: Identity theft happens when someone uses your personal information without permission to commit fraud, like opening accounts or making purchases in your name.

• Credit monitoring: Credit monitoring tracks changes to your credit file and alerts you to activity that could signal fraud, errors or new accounts opened in your name.

• Credit report: A credit report is a record of your borrowing history, account balances, payment history, public records and recent credit inquiries.

• Credit score: A credit score is a three-digit number based on your credit history that helps lenders estimate how likely you are to repay debt.

• Identity theft insurance: Identity theft insurance helps cover certain recovery costs and losses after identity theft, though coverage limits and eligible expenses depend on the policy.

Sources:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: What is a credit monitoring service?

• Federal Reserve: Credit Reports and Credit Scores

Photo Credit: iStock / andresr