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.

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

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. See the best banks for dealing with identity theft.

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

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.”

During GOBankingRates’ test drive, account setup was fairly simple, although 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. 

If your information is compromised, learn how to report identity theft.

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.  

Share This Article: