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Best overall ID theft protection
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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
Best for basic ID theft protection
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Identity theft protection service that provides up to $1 million in coverage
Can protect 1 adult and up to 10 children with its base price
We compared Norton LifeLock vs. Discover Identity Theft Protection and found that LifeLock took the cake as the better ID theft protection service. It has more robust monitoring, alerts, and plans to keep you and your family protected.
That said, the other option isn't a bad choice for Discover clients looking for some basic protection.
Here are the details on our comprehensive comparison of these two services.
LifeLock and Discover Identity Theft Protection plans both offer fraud detection services you’d expect from an identity protection plan, including credit monitoring and fraudulent alerts and notifications. Both plans offer a mobile app and a desktop version. They both also offer credit alerts, so users are notified of activity on credit reports.
It's only once you get into the nitty gritty details that you start to notice the differences.
 LifeLock |
 Discover ID Protection |
|
| Star rating | ||
| Price | $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr | $15.00/mo |
| Types of monitoring | Identity and SSN, dark web, phone takeover, home title, social media | SSN, bank account, dark web, alternative loan, address change, and more |
| Credit monitoring | ||
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million |
| Identity restoration services | ||
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Learn more | Get LifeLock | Get Discover ID Protection |
Discover ID Protection makes sense if you’re already a Discover card customer looking to fill in gaps in your identity protection. The low, flat monthly rate gets you enough protection to give you and your family peace of mind. Discover covers one adult and up to 10 children, whereas LifeLock family plans allow up to only five children.
Although at a higher monthly expense, LifeLock also offers monitoring across all three major credit bureaus, as well as social media monitoring, which Discover ID Protection doesn’t. LifeLock also covers up to $3 million in recovery expenses versus Discover ID’s $1 million protection.
Though the higher-end of LifeLock's plans can get pricey, the extra benefits you get with the service makes it the overall better value.
LifeLock Best Value
|
Discover ID Protection |
|
| Price range | $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr | $15.00/mo |
| Best value plan | LifeLock Ultimate Plus for $19.99/mo (billed annually) for first year | Discover ID Protection for $15.00/mo |
| Identity theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million |
| Learn more | Get LifeLock | Get Discover ID Protection |
LifeLock offers three subscription plans: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Within those subscriptions, users can choose coverage for themselves only, a family of two adults, or a family of two adults and up to five children. LifeLock’s identity theft insurance provides reimbursement for lawyers and experts, as well as personal expense and stolen funds reimbursement.
You can choose to pay for a LifeLock plan on a monthly or yearly basis. We should point out that, if you believe you need the protection features and insurance coverage it offers, LifeLock’s annual plans are the better value.
While testing for this article, we received an offer for a free trial, but it required credit card information. LifeLock offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for customers to try protection plans.
Discover ID Protection offers a no-frills protection plan at a single-cost monthly rate. The plan, priced at Discover ID Theft Protection, covers one adult and up to ten children. Another adult can be added for an additional $15 monthly. Discover ID doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee, but users can cancel at any time and may receive a prorated refund.
Norton LifeLock offers much more comprehensive identity theft monitoring, though Discover does cover all the basics.
| Feature | LifeLock Best Features
|
Discover ID Protection |
| Credit monitoring | ||
| Bank account monitoring | ||
| 3-bureau credit reports | Yes - Experian, Equifax, TransUnion | Experian only |
| Credit score | Yes (Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans) | |
| VantageScore | ||
| FICO score | ||
| Credit lock and freeze | ||
| Identity recovery | ||
| Dark web alerts | ||
| Social media account alerts | ||
| Social Security number monitoring | ||
| Home title monitoring | ||
| Address change alerts | ||
| Learn more | Get LifeLock | Get Discover ID Protection |
While Discover offers the basics of identity theft protection, LifeLock has all that and more, like social media and home title monitoring.
These added features certainly go above and beyond what many identity theft protection plans offer. Home title information is stored online, making it accessible for cybercriminals to hack, enabling them to take out a loan or lien against your home. While some home insurance policies provide coverage, some don’t. LifeLock’s home title monitoring alerts users of any changes in property ownership, new lenders detected, or any updates with loans associated with your name.
While social media connects people worldwide, it introduces new threats to cybersecurity and online protection. LifeLock offers social media monitoring, which alerts you of suspicious activity on your social profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.
It can also alert you to suspicious activity, cyberbullying, and inappropriate content on your children’s accounts. In the changing world of social media and the emergence of social media scams, LifeLock’s premium plans’ social media monitoring has substantial appeal.
Additionally, the premium LifeLock plan offers credit reports from three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Discover ID and LifeLock Standard offer credit reports from one credit bureau, Experian.
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While one credit bureau monitoring is sufficient, LifeLock’s premium plans’ added features of social media monitoring, home monitoring, three bureau reports and additional insurance are niceties that enhance the protection plan. You can still obtain identity protection without the added amenities.
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While both companies share your data to some extent, LifeLock at least offers two-factor authentication on all logins.
LifeLock Best Security
|
Discover ID Protection |
|
| Two-factor authentication | ||
| Multi-factor authentication | ||
| Collects data | ||
| Shares data with third parties | ||
| Learn more | Get LifeLock | Get Discover ID Protection |
When considering identity protection plans, security is a primary concern to take into consideration. Plans that offer two-factor or multi-factor authentication are preferable. Discover ID Protection doesn’t offer two-factor authentication on its desktop version, but users can enable facial recognition on the mobile app. LifeLock offers 2FA—users just need to turn it on in the account settings.
These companies monitor your sensitive data, so they store some of your information to facilitate that monitoring. Both Discover and LifeLock gather your information to provide monitoring services.
While both products offer an overall good user experience, LifeLock offers many more ways to get in contact with support.
| Platform | Our Pick LifeLock |
Discover ID Protection |
| Windows | ||
| macOS | ||
| Android | ||
| iOS | ||
| 24/7 customer support | ||
| Customer support options | Phone, email, FAQs, member portal with information | Phone |
| Learn more | Get LifeLock | Get Discover ID Protection |
The customer service from both companies left a lot to be desired. In our LifeLock chat, a representative responded quickly, but with inaccurate information. Discover ID Protection doesn’t even have a chat option, but it does have a phone number customers can call for support. LifeLock offers 24/7 customer service support, which sounds like a bonus in theory, but the responses from the representative made us question if they were providing accurate information.
Both interfaces were clear, intuitive, and easy to navigate, though we found the Discover ID site a little clunkier. Information is hidden in subcategorical drop-down menus, and we had to make our best guess as to which drop-down menu held the key to our question. It was also challenging to find the Discover ID Contact Us page.
LifeLock monitoring dashboard /images/2023/05/05/lifelock-identity-theft-protection_09.jpg)
Discover ID Theft Protection is good if you’re a Discover customer and want to implement identity protection in your online security. For a low monthly rate, you can have credit and account monitoring, up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, and access to Fraud Resolution Specialists.
While adding credit and account monitoring to your cybersecurity repertoire will certainly mitigate the risks of identity theft, no identity theft protection plan can completely thwart identity theft. But with increased monitoring and credit reports, LifeLock will certainly diminish those risks.
Credit score monitoring is considered a baseline feature of identity theft protection, and most plans offer to monitor your credit score. Read our guide to identity theft and credit monitoring for more tips on how to keep tabs on your credit score.
Overall, we recommend a LifeLock identity protection plan for customers seeking a more robust protection plan. The Ultimate Plus plan easily provides the best coverage and the most insurance protection at up to $3 million. In addition to premium features, LifeLock’s added two-factor authentication checks the boxes of identity protection and user security.
Discover ID is a good solution for an existing Discover card customer or someone looking to add a basic identity theft protection plan to their online security measures. With credit monitoring, fraud alerts, recovery services, and even dark web monitoring, Discover ID Protection more than covers the basics of average identity protection plans.
If you want to learn more about what kind of options you have at your disposal, check out our full list of the best identity theft protection services.
Identity protection plans are one of the easiest ways to defend yourself against identity theft and compromised identity. Fortunately, there are multiple plans and options to suit everyone’s needs. If you’re not loving LifeLock or Discover, check out these other best identity theft protection services:
| Service |  |  |
 |
| Individual monthly price | Starts at $14.95/mo | Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) | Starts at $10.00/mo |
| Family monthly price | Starts at $29.95/mo | Starts at $25.00/mo (billed annually) | - |
| ID theft insurance | Up to $3 million | Up to $1 million per adult | Up to $2 million |
| Credit monitoring | |||
| 3-bureau credit reports | |||
| Details | Get IDShield Read Our IDShield Review |
Get Aura Read Our Aura Review |
Get Omniwatch Read Our Omniwatch Review |
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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