Identity Guard Review: Pros, Cons and Who It's Best For

Founded in 1996, Identity Guard is one of the longest-standing, well-known and well-regarded names in the identity theft protection industry. It offers a strong mix of traditional and modern services — including real-time data breach alerts, generous identity theft insurance and dark web monitoring — at decidedly budget-friendly prices. Still, you'll need to spring for a top-tier plan to get its best features, including white-glove fraud resolution and three-bureau credit monitoring.

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Key Takeaways

• Identity Guard offers affordable identity theft protection starting at $7.50 a month, with plans covering real-time data breach alerts, dark web monitoring and at least $1 million in identity theft insurance. Family plans cover up to five adults and unlimited children.

• Top features require premium plans, including three-bureau credit monitoring, monthly credit scores, home and auto title protection and white-glove fraud resolution. Prices also jump nearly 20% in your second year.

• Choose Identity Guard if you want strong insurance coverage on a budget. Look at Aura, Norton 360 or McAfee+ if you also need antivirus, parental controls or a VPN.

Summary generated by AI, verified by MoneyLion editors

How Identity Guard Works

Identity Guard offers three plan options, priced between $7.50 per month for a basic individual plan and $39.99 per month for a premium family plan.

These prices are competitive. However, they do increase significantly in the second year of use. Identity Guard's individual top-tier Ultra plan, for instance, costs $300 for your first year and $359.88 for your second, a nearly 20% increase.

Identity Guard subscriptions include:

• Real-time data breach alerts

• Financial monitoring for credit, debit, and even investment accounts

• 24/7 support through the identity recovery process

• Identity theft insurance for stolen funds, lost wages and legal fees

• Credit monitoring — top-tier plans only

• Monthly credit scores — top-tier plans only

• Annual three-bureau credit report — premium plan only

• Protection for home and auto titles — premium plan only

Comprehensive Identity Protection with Real-Time Fraud Detection

Identity Guard protects your identity by monitoring your bank accounts, credit reports, social media, the dark web, and more for compromised credentials and other nefarious activity, all at a competitive price point.

Cost: $7.50 to $29.99 per month for individual plans $12.50 to $39.99 per month for family plans

Real-Time Alerts: Yes

Family Protection Options: Yes, for up to 5 adults and unlimited children

Pros

• Affordable prices

• Well-rated mobile app

• Generous 60-day money-back guarantee

Cons

• Low-tier Value Plan has limited features

• Doesn't offer advanced cybersecurity tools

• Middling Trustpilot score

Why We Like It: An industry veteran, Identity Guard offers comprehensive identity theft protection plans with real-time alerts, dark web monitoring, and robust identity theft insurance. Additionally, it features 24/7 U.S.-based support teams to assist with fraud remediation and recovery efforts.

Identity Protection Features

Identity Guard is a fairly traditional identity theft protection service, offering real-time data breach alerts, identity theft insurance, and 24/7 fraud resolution services. Its top-tier plan offers credit monitoring from the three main credit bureaus, as well as some sophisticated, advanced services, including social media monitoring, 401(k) monitoring, address change monitoring, criminal monitoring, and home and auto title monitoring.

Given these features, Identity Guard may be a particularly good choice for households. Each family plan covers five adults and unlimited children at affordable prices, with its full feature suite costing $33.33 to $39.99 a month.

Other top Identity Guard features include:

• At least $1M in identity theft insurance to cover stolen funds, legal fees, and more.

• Alerts if and when compromised information appears on the dark web

• Credit and debit monitoring for suspicious activity and fraudulent charges

• U.S.-based customer support 24/7, 365 days a year

• Free monthly credit scores with higher-tier plans

• An annual three-bureau credit report and Experian Credit Lock with its premium plan

Protect Your Family With Up To $5M in Identity Theft Insurance

Identity Guard protects up to five adults and unlimited children under its family plans, which offer robust insurance coverage, dark web monitoring and 24/7 U.S.-based customer service.Cost$90 to $479.88 per year, depending on plan type, billing option, and service year

Dark Web Monitoring Features: Yes

Real-Time Alerts: Yes

Pros

• High identity theft coverage limits

• 24/7 customer support

• Dark web monitoring in all plans

Cons

• Significant price increase in your second year

• No credit monitoring with basic plan

• Payment required at sign-up — no free trial

Why We Like It: Identity Guard is a reputable and, candidly, old-school identity theft protection service that offers data breach monitoring, identity theft insurance, and real-time fraud detection tools at an affordable price. Its top-tier plan also offers three-bureau credit monitoring, home and auto title monitoring, and white-glove resolution assistance, starting at $25 per month.

User Experience

The Identity Guard app is well-rated on the Google Play Store, with 4.4 out of 5 stars), and on the Apple App Store, with 4.6 out of five stars, though the company has an average score of 3.4 out of 5 stars on Trustpilot.

Reviewers generally praise Identity Guard's app speed and friendly customer service representatives, while critics complain about auto-renewals, refunds and cancellation issues.

Redditors, who are generally skeptical of identity theft protection services, offer similarly mixed reviews, highlighting similar cancellation issues and login snafus, particularly during a large-scale national public data breach that occurred in April 2024.

"I tried accessing Identity Guard using the app (iPhone) a couple of days ago," one Redditor wrote at the time. "The app wouldn't recognize my login info and the website still sent me to the subscription page, not my dashboard. I did not call as I was irritated enough at that point. I'll try again tomorrow."

You'll need to create an account on your computer, rather than your phone. Additionally, you can't test drive the service without providing payment information. While there's technically no free trial, Identity Guard offers a 60-day money-back guarantee. You'll also be asked to provide your Social Security Number before paying for your plan.

Getting up and running requires a bit of effort. For instance, you'll need to add certain personal information, like your driver's license, birthdate, email addresses and payment information — for up to 40 credit or debit cards — to your Watch List to ensure fully-functioning dark web monitoring. But once you've completed these and a few other steps, you can easily scan your status via the app's dashboard.

Identity Guard vs. Competitor Options

Here's how Identity Guard stacks up against its top competitors in identity theft and credit monitoring.

Identity Guard vs. LifeLock

Identity Guard and LifeLock are perhaps the best known identity theft protection providers — and you can't go wrong with either, given their solid customer service ratings, affordable prices and rich features available.

Still, you can get some a bit more bang for their buck with most LifeLock subscriptions, which run between $3.33 for LifeLock Advisor, billed annually, and $34.99 for LifeLock Ultimate Plus, billed monthly. These plans include at least some credit bureau monitoring and online security tools, like antivirus and scam protection.

Identity Guard offers higher identity theft insurance coverage limits for families, however — up to $5 million, while LifeLock caps at $3 million.

Identity Guard vs. Aura

Aura technically owns Identify Guard. It was acquired by the parent company of the younger brand in 2019, although the two products retain distinct identities.

Identity Guard specializes in identity theft, financial, and credit monitoring, while Aura functions as an all-in-one digital protection service, adding security and privacy tools, like antivirus software, parental controls and a VPN connection. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Aura's subscription costs are higher, ranging from $10 for a Kid subscription, billed annually, to $50 for a family plan, billed monthly.

Identity Guard vs. IdentityForce

IdentityForce has some nice extras in both subscriptions, including a mobile VPN and a highly personalized dashboard with custom identity safety and dark web risk scores. However, Identity Guard surpasses the TransUnion brand in a few key areas, achieving higher scores on Google Play, the Apple App Store and Trustpilot. And it has more budget-friendly subscriptions.

IdentityForce plans start at $199.90 a year or $19.90 a month. So, if you aren't in the market for a mobile VPN, Identity Guard's Basic Identity Protection plan might better serve you, which starts at $7.50 per month, when billed annually.

Final Take

Consider Identity Guard if you're looking for a good, yet affordable identity theft solution for yourself or your family — and are particularly interested in robust identity theft insurance. Consider other alternatives, such as Aura, Norton 360 or McAfee+, if you want an all-in-one identity theft, online security, and digital privacy service. These providers offer similar monitoring alongside antivirus software, parental controls, and VPN connections.

FAQs

How does Identity Guard work?

Identity Guard offers three different plans, priced for families and individuals. All offer data breach monitoring, identity theft insurance, and U.S.-based 24/7 customer support. Higher-tier plans also include credit monitoring and basic online security tools.

Is Identity Guard safe to use?

Identity Guard has been in the identity theft protection industry since 1996 and is generally considered a reliable option. Its website is encrypted with AES-256 technology, and adheres to strict data-sharing practices.

Does Identity Guard include family protection plans?

Identity Guard offers family identity theft protection plans for up to five adults and unlimited children. These plans cost between $12.50 and $39.99 per month.

What features are included in Identity Guard plans?

All Identity Guard plans include data breach notifications, dark web monitoring, high-risk transaction monitoring, safe browsing tools, a password manager, a mobile app, a customer care team, and between $1 million to $5 million in identity theft insurance. Higher-tier plans include credit monitoring, monthly credit scores, and more sophisticated identity protection tools, like bank account monitoring. Its top-tier plan includes white glove resolution services and a three-bureau annual credit report.

Is Identity Guard worth the cost?

Identity Guard's prices are budget-friendly, though its lowest-tier plan, which starts at $7.50 per month, isn't particularly feature-rich. Most notably, it doesn't include any credit monitoring. Its higher-tier plans, however, are robust if you're in the market for a traditional identity theft protection plan that includes insurance, monitoring, and resolution services.

How quickly does Identity Guard detect and alert users to threats?

Identity Guard promises near-real-time alerts for new credit applications, bank account changes, dark web appearances, and more. You can find these alerts on the mobile or desktop app dashboard.

Key Terms

• Identity theft: Identity theft happens when someone uses your personal information without permission to commit fraud.

• Identity theft insurance: Identity theft insurance helps cover eligible recovery costs like legal fees, lost wages and some stolen funds after identity fraud.

• Dark web monitoring: Dark web monitoring scans hidden parts of the internet for exposed personal information and alerts you if your data appears there.

• Three-bureau credit monitoring: Three-bureau credit monitoring tracks changes on your credit files at Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for signs of fraud.

• Credit report: A credit report is a record of your borrowing and payment history that lenders use to evaluate your credit.

Sources:

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: What is identity theft?

• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau: What is identity monitoring or “identity theft” service?

Photo Credit: Eva-Katalin / Getty Images