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Best overall
Best for identity theft insurance
Aura is the best identity theft protection with credit reporting. All plans include three-bureau credit monitoring along with credit scores and credit reports.
LifeLock and Identity Guard also include three-bureau credit monitoring. LifeLock is unique for offering up to $3 million in identity theft insurance while Identity Guard offers affordable plans for most budgets.
Let’s look at these top three identity theft protection services in more detail.
To select our top three, we evaluated several identity theft protection services to see which ones offered credit reporting. From there, we determined which ones we thought were best based on pricing, features, and other factors.
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| Starting price | Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $10.42/mo for first yr (billed annually) | Starts at $8.99/mo |
| # of people covered | 1 - 5 adults, unlimited children | 1 - 2 adults, unlimited children | 1 - 5 adults, unlimited children |
| Credit monitoring | Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion | Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion | Yes — Experian, Equifax, TransUnion |
| Credit reports | Yes — annually | Yes — annually (with Ultimate Plus) | Yes — annually |
| Credit score | Yes — VantageScore | Yes — VantageScore | Yes — VantageScore |
| Details | View Plans | View Plans | View Plans |
We looked at various credit features offered by identity theft protection services. We wanted to make sure that they offered the necessary services to protect consumers’ credit profiles and that they were also easy to use.
Each of the services we looked at offered similar foundational features, including credit monitoring, credit scores, and credit reports. However, we also looked at the additional features they provided to help consumers, such as Aura’s many tools to help protect children and families.
Price and accessibility were also important and, although the prices of each vary, we found that each of them was worth the cost in its own way. All of the solutions we looked at also offer mobile apps to help you monitor your credit and identity from anywhere.
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#1 rated ID theft protection service with a full suite of monitoring tools
Includes up to $1 million in ID theft insurance for up to five adults
Protect your children with robust parental controls and gaming alerts
We thought Aura was best for credit features. Every plan includes three-bureau credit monitoring, monthly credit scores, and annual credit reports.
Aura also lets you lock your Experian credit file to prevent identity thieves from opening accounts in your name.
With Aura’s family plan, you can get identity theft protection for an unlimited number of children and up to five adults. Aura’s family plan also offers additional features to help protect you and your family.
With these additional features, Aura is the most comprehensive for protecting your family. Aura also offers up to $1 million in insurance for each adult member of your plan. These features can help you prevent child identity theft, along with helping protect the adults in your family.
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Aura’s credit and identity monitoring is great. With Aura, you gain access to your annual credit reports from the three major credit bureaus, a monthly credit score from VantageScore, and an Experian credit lock.
Even children on family plans get credit protection. With child credit freeze, you can freeze your child’s credit so that no one can access it.
We also enjoy the easy-to-navigate dashboard, which gives you all the information you need at a glance. Aura will alert you to any critical alerts that need your attention. These could be based on new credit accounts on your credit report or the discovery of your personal information on the dark web.
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All of Aura’s plans include online and device security features such as an antivirus, a virtual private network (VPN), a password manager, and a storage vault. These extra features allow you to be proactive in protecting your personally identifiable information.
Aura only offers access to your monthly VantageScore. You don’t receive access to your FICO score. While the VantageScore is becoming more popular, the FICO score is still the industry standard. Credit score tracking allows you to keep up with your score and determine if lenders will approve you when you apply for financing.
If you go to a car dealership, they’ll likely ask if you know your score to help them gauge how much of a loan you may be approved for. If that dealership uses FICO scores, but you’re only familiar with your VantageScore, you may misrepresent where your credit score sits.
Similar to LifeLock, Aura is a bit more expensive than other solutions. However, with all of the included features, you may be able to cancel your separate VPN, antivirus, or password manager subscriptions to save some money.
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Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
Norton LifeLock is one of the best identity theft protection services on the market. One of the biggest things that sets it apart is the amount of identity theft insurance you can receive.
With LifeLock’s Ultimate Plus plan, you can receive up to $3 million in identity theft insurance: $1 million for lawyers and experts, $1 million in reimbursement for stolen funds, and $1 million in personal expense reimbursement. This amount of insurance could help you with identity fraud resolution.
LifeLock offers three types of plans: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Each plan is available for one individual, two individuals, or two individuals and up to five kids.
From our research, the Ultimate Plus plan is worth the extra few dollars a month because you receive up to $3 million in insurance. With a Family Ultimate Plus plan, each child will also receive up to $1,050,000 in coverage.
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LifeLock’s product is robust in its offerings and comes with many additional benefits to help you protect your identity. The Ultimate Plus plan gives you the most bang for your buck. With this plan, you’ll get access to home title monitoring, social media monitoring, and 401(k) and investment activity alerts.
As far as credit protection, Ultimate Plus comes with three-bureau credit monitoring, while the Standard and Advantage plans come with one-bureau credit monitoring. But only the Ultimate Plus plan provides unlimited access to Equifax for daily credit score updates. You can also access all three credit bureaus (Equifax, TransUnion, and Experian) once per year.
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Another feature that we liked is Identity Lock, which is LifeLock’s credit lock feature. This service allows you to lock your TransUnion credit file and lock payday loans.
Payday loan lenders don’t usually pull your credit report to approve your loan. LifeLock will notify you if someone uses your SSN or bank account information to open an account with a short-term lender.
Identity Lock allows you to take a proactive approach to protecting your credit. By locking your credit report, no one can take advantage of your identity by opening unauthorized accounts in your name. If you need to open a new account, you can unlock your account and apply for the credit.
LifeLock is expensive, and the best protection plan is also the most expensive one. While we found LifeLock to be one of the best and the identity theft insurance is top-notch, it is still quite an investment. LifeLock is better suited for someone with significant assets and is looking for peace of mind with their identity protection.
The Standard and Advantage plan limit the accessibility of credit monitoring too. You only receive access to one credit bureau with the lower tier plans. You also do not receive access to your credit report and scores with the Standard plan.
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Easy-to-use identity theft protection service
Includes extra features like a password manager
While we looked at several different identity theft solutions, we didn’t include any free ones. From our research, a paid identity theft solution pays for itself with the safety and security it provides.
That being said, Identity Guard is one of our favorite solutions that won’t break the bank. Identity Guard has several different tiers as well as monthly and annual plans, so you can choose the plan that works best for you.
To get access to credit monitoring, you’ll want to sign up for at least the Total plan, which costs $16.67/mo (billed annually).
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Despite the lower price, Identity Guard is still a comprehensive solution for credit monitoring and identity theft. All of its plans include $1 million in identity theft insurance.
For credit features, you'll need to opt for the Identity Guard Total or Ultra plans. You'll get three-bureau credit monitoring along with your monthly credit score.
The Ultra plan adds to thes features by including Experian credit lock and three-bureau annual credit report.s.
Identity Guard’s family plans also allow for unlimited children, which is a great benefit. It doesn't include as many extras as Aura, but you’ll still get family protection with Identity Guard.
Identity Guard offers three tiers of plans for individuals and families. However, the Value plan, which is the lowest tier plan, is too bare bones.
With the Value plan, you won’t receive any credit monitoring services, and you will only get dark web monitoring and data breach notifications. Without credit monitoring, your identity can still be compromised, and you may not know it until the next time you need your credit report to get a loan.
Since your credit score can change based on your credit usage and other factors, the most accurate credit score is one that is pulled recently. The accuracy of your credit score is also dependent on monitoring your credit report to ensure that the information is correct.
Each credit bureau works independently of the others, and there is not one that is better than the other. However, your FICO score is more widely used than a VantageScore, so it may be better for getting a new account.
Credit monitoring costs range depending on the services offered. There are free credit monitoring solutions, and there are solutions that cost more than $30 per month.
Monitoring all three credit reports gives you the most accurate depiction of your credit. Some companies only report to specific credit bureaus, so all of your information may not be in all reports.
Aura is the best identity theft protection with credit reporting because x.
If you’re looking for insurance coverage in case you were a victim of identity theft, LifeLock has the most robust offering. Finally, Identity Guard is the most affordable solution, and you can choose from three different tiers.
If you're looking for additional options or features, check out our guide to the best identity theft protection companies.
| Starting price | Best for | Learn more | |
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Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Best overall | View Plans |
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Starts at $10.42/mo for first yr (billed annually) | Best for identity theft insurance | View Plans |
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Starts at $8.99/mo | Best budget pick | View Plans |
Top-rated identity theft protection service
Provides up to $3 million in coverage
Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
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