ID Watchdog Review 2026: Identity Theft Protection and Valuable Bonus Features

ID Watchdog is one of the best identity protection services because it provides lots of useful features to protect your personal information, credit profiles, and even devices from malicious actors. With two plan tiers and options to add family members, it can suit a variety of households and budgets.

The Essential subscription provides all the basics, but you’ll get the most out of the Premium subscription. It comes standard with three-bureau credit reports and scores, up to $2 million in identity theft insurance plus stolen reimbursement, and extras like NordVPN and Bitdefender antivirus.

In our ID Watchdog review, we dug in to the service to provide a full view of what it has to offer. 

At a glance

Price	$12.50–$34.95/mo
Number of people covered	1 - 2 adults, up to 4 children
Identity theft insurance	Up to $2 million
Types of identity monitoring	Credit, SSN, dark web, public records, change of address
Credit monitoring	Yes
Credit reports	Yes — TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian
Credit score	Yes
Identity restoration services	Yes
Extras	Antivirus, VPN, password manager, phishing and malware alerts, and more
24/7 Support	Yes
Details	Get ID Watchdog

Our experience

Testing ID Watchdog this time around was seamless. We were surprised that elements of the site, like the signup forms, look so dated, but the dashboard is clearly labeled and easy to navigate. 

The dashboard provides an account setup percentage and leads you to the next steps to complete. We got to 71% and were prompted to customize our alert settings but it never progressed from there for some reason. 

 

Once our information began loading in the dashboard, we found ID Watchdog to be similar to many of its competitors. You'll find a list of alerts broken down by type (credit, identity, ficnancial, and cyber) with dates and description. Below that, you'll also find a snapshot of your Equifax credit score.

Overall, we found the service to be helpful once it loaded and working properly. Note that we've had issues with signing up for ID Watchdog from Safari in the past, as the site wouldn't allow us to create an account. Support even confirmed we should use a Chrome browser. 

Who is ID Watchdog best for?

• Recommended for individuals or families who want to bundle services like antivirus, a VPN, and a password manager with identity theft protection. 
  

ID Watchdog offers plans for both individuals and families, which means you can cover everyone in your home. The family plans cover two adults and up to four children.

Plus, the Premium plan includes Bitdefender antivirus, NordVPN, and NordPass password manager. Whether you already use these services or want to start, you can get a bundle for a reasonable monthly price. 

Prices and subscriptions

ID Watchdog’s pricing is on par with the competition with a range of $12.50–$34.95/mo. Your plan price depends on the number of people you wish to cover, your subscription term length, and your selected plan tier.

You can apply the family add-on to all plans. This will include another adult and up to four children, which is lower than some of ID Watchdog’s competitors, who include anywhere from 10 to an unlimited number of children. 

If you’re a big family, you may want to find another service, like Aura, which offers plenty of coverage options for large families.

Plan	1-month cost	1-year cost
ID Watchdog Select Individual	$14.95/mo	$12.50/mo
ID Watchdog Premium Individual	$21.95/mo	$18.33/mo
ID Watchdog Select Family	$23.95/mo	$20.00/mo
ID Watchdog Premium Family	$34.95/mo	$29.17/mo

Plan comparison

There are also two plan tiers: Select and Premium. The Select plan for an individual is the least expensive option and offers you basic identity monitoring, one-bureau credit monitoring, identity restoration services, and identity theft insurance.

If you want to get in-depth with your ID theft prevention tools, then you’ll want the Premium plan. This plan offers more monitoring options, including monitoring across all three credit bureaus and social media monitoring, which keeps an eye on your accounts for hacking or fraudulent activity in your name. 

Plan	Select	Premium
Who’s covered	1 adult	1 adult
SSN monitoring
Financial account monitoring
Credit monitoring
Credit reports	Yes — Equifax	Yes — Equifax, TransUnion, Experian
Credit score	Yes — VantageScore	Yes — VantageScore
Credit lock
Identity theft insurance	Up to $1 million without HSA, up to $2 million with HSA	Up to $1 million without HSA, up to $2 million with HSA
Identity restoration services
Dark web monitoring
Social media monitoring
Home title monitoring
USPS address change alerts
Learn more	View plan	View plan

Features

While ID Watchdog includes standard features like credit monitoring and fraud detection, it also offers a virtual private network (VPN) and password manager through Nord in addition to Bitdefender’s antivirus software. 

You can find these features from some identity theft protection competitors, but not all. We appreciated that they come from trusted names like Nord and Bitdefender.

What does ID Watchdog protect against?

ID Watchdog is a comprehensive service that provides alerts and monitoring services for different aspects of your identity. You have the ability to set up dark web alerts, check for registered offenders in your area, prevent child identity theft, and even monitor social media accounts for imposters. 

Identity monitoring

ID Watchdog checks your social media accounts for takeovers or impersonations, alerts you if someone tries to take out a loan in your name, and scans the dark web for your personal information. That’s not all: You can track your medical insurance and government IDs to make sure they aren’t being used for fraudulent activity.

You’ll receive a comprehensive view of your identity and how it’s being used, which can save you time, money, and resources in the future if anyone tries to steal it.

Credit monitoring

You’ll find identity theft protection tools and credit monitoring information in the main dashboard, as well as in a separate credit monitoring section. Depending on the plan you choose, you’ll either have a report from one or all three credit reporting bureaus. 

Additionally, you can request a credit report to better understand what's impacting your score and how to catch issues before they become a problem.

Most of ID Watchdog is a set-and-forget kind of service. If you do need to lock your credit, you can do that from the ID Watchdog credit dashboard.

Credit reports and credit scores

If you want to buy a car, rent an apartment, apply for a credit card, or sometimes even snag your dream job, you’ll need a good credit score. Keeping an eye on your credit will help you avoid surprises and disappointments in the future.

Depending on the plan you choose, you’ll be able to check your report on one or all three major credit bureaus. You’ll also receive updated VantageScore information daily or monthly.

Identity restoration services

Identity restoration services are one of those things you never think you’ll need. However, if you ever find yourself in a situation where your identity has been stolen, this service is invaluable. 

With ID Watchdog Premium, you’ll receive $1 million to $2 million in identity theft insurance along with the service’s restoration experts to help you with the remediation of identity theft losses. If you have a health savings account (HSA), you can be reimbursed up to $2 million. Without an HSA, you can be reimbursed up to $1 million. 

ID Watchdog also provides you with a restoration specialist and services that will help you take back control of your identity.

Bonus features

While we love the dark web and social media monitoring, the most valuable bonus features are the collaborations with well-known and trusted security brands. ID Watchdog offers Bitdefender antivirus, NordVPN, and NordPass password manager.

When you factor in the cost of these other security products, it makes ID Watchdog a very affordable addition to your security stack. 

Does ID Watchdog keep your data safe?

ID Watchdog’s privacy statement states your data is shared for the following reasons:

• For everyday business purposes, like processing your transactions and maintaining your account
• For ID Watchdog's marketing purposes, to offer its products and services to you
• For ID Watchdog's affiliates' everyday business purposes, such as sharing information about your transactions and experiences

Otherwise, ID Watchdog claims it doesn't share your information for joint marketing with other companies or for its affiliates to market to you. We were disappointed that there's no way to opt out of ID Watchdog's marketing, though. 

ID Watchdog is also vague about its security measures. The privacy policy simply states that ID Watchdog protects your personal information by using "security measures that comply with federal law."

ID Watchdog prompts you to set some security questions upon signing up. Every time we logged in, we had to answer the question. This was even after we selected the option to remember this computer. 

Compatibility

ID Watchdog doesn’t let people know that you can’t use the portal on a Safari browser. We had to speak with a customer support representative after trying to initiate our account. They told us we could only use a Google Chrome browser. We couldn’t find this information listed anywhere on the website.

There are options in your portal to download the app from Google Play or Apple’s App Store. You can also find them in the respective stores on your mobile device. 

The iOS app has a 4.5-star rating, while the Android app has a 4.2-star rating. The last time we checked, the Android app had a 3-star rating, so we feel reassured that it improved so significantly. 

Customer support

ID Watchdog's customer support is truly helpful. We had a lot of issues with creating and logging in to our account. We spent a few hours back and forth on the phone with support, and each time the representative was friendly, helpful, and patient with us. 

When we could finally log in, they let us know that there wouldn’t be any information populating in our portals for a while (and no credit information for a month!) because of the nature of the issue we encountered.

The support page also has a button to contact its support by email and a list of FAQs. ID Watchdog's customer care team is available 24/7.

• ID Watchdog phone: 1-800-970-5182
• ID Watchdog email: idwatchdogcustomerservice@equifax.com 

Top alternatives

ID Watchdog is one of our top-rated identity theft protection services, but maybe it doesn't check all your boxes. We've collected some alternative services for you to review if that's the case:

FAQs

Bottom line: Is ID Watchdog good?

Yes, ID Watchdog is a robust service with many useful features. Whether you’re looking for identity monitoring or want the peace of mind of having remediation services for identity theft, ID Watchdog will provide both. Even though we experienced problems setting up the service, once we were in, it was comprehensive.

If you’re considering an identity theft protection service, ID Watchdog may be a good choice for you. With the added bonus of the VPN, password management services, and the antivirus from Bitdefender, you could potentially cancel other services and bundle it all into this one all-inclusive package. 

We feel those extra features make it one of the best identity theft protection services available. Learn about how ID Watchdog compares to Norton LifeLock, one of our top alternatives.