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The Best Identity Theft Protection Services of 2026
Aura and LifeLock topped our 2026 rankings with their extensive identity and credit protection, generous insurance coverage, and digital safety tools designed to prevent online identity theft.
Max Sheridan, VPN & Identity Theft Protection Expert
Updated February 12, 2026
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Best Family Protection
Aura Identity Theft Protection
SecureScore™: 9.7/10
Aura offers comprehensive identity protection and doubles as a VPN to help keep you safe online. It’s not the cheapest option, but you simply can’t beat Aura if you’re looking for robust protection that you can count on.
Lifelock comes stacked with real-time threat alerts, robust credit monitoring, and a user-friendly app. It’s not cheap, but Lifelock customers will enjoy a 60-day money-back guarantee and 42% off of their first year of service.
Identity Guard provides comprehensive credit monitoring and identity protection, and also has extra tools, like investment monitoring and home title monitoring. Enjoy up to 40% off on our top-ranked, all-around identity monitoring service for a limited time only.
Identity Guard offers thorough credit monitoring and identity protection at competitive prices. The service includes valuable extras like investment account monitoring and home title monitoring, making it an excellent value for budget-conscious consumers.
Protecting your identity has become more accessible with specialized identity theft protection services. But which provider matches your specific needs? We evaluated 20 leading platforms and developed our expert-recommended top picks. Here's what we found:
Choose Aura if you want comprehensive protection for yourself or your entire family.
Choose LifeLock if you want robust identity protection for individual use.
Choose Identity Guard if you want affordable identity protection.
Choose IdentityIQ if you want focused credit-based protection.
Choose McAfee if you want comprehensive digital protection.
We'll explore these five services in detail below, along with five additional options to consider if you have niche circumstances. >> Related:Compare Identity Theft Protection Services
Our team has developed a fair and objective way to score the services and products we test. But how exactly did we come up with those scores? Well, the process involves testing out the services ourselves and grading them in terms of customer service, value, features and services, and ease of use. You’ll find our full methodology at the very bottom of this guide.
Here’s what we looked for specifically in every identity protection service we tested:
Identity and credit protection: These two are the core functions of ID theft protection services, and how each service performed in these greatly affected their scores in the ‘features and services’ category.
Monitoring and alerts: As part of our ‘ease of use’ assessment, we looked at how timely and reliably each service delivered alerts. We looked for balance — a service that delivers neither too few nor too many notifications while providing assurance that if someone stole our identity, they’d know and we’d be alerted.
Price and value: Lastly, to assess each service’s value, we looked at how much their identity protection subscriptions cost and how affordable or expensive they were relative to the features offered. We also gave bonus points for free trials or generous money-back guarantees.
Using those metrics, we came up with our top-five picks, all of which have a SecureScore™ of over 9.0 out of 10. Without further ado, let’s meet them!
The Top 5 Identity Theft Protection Services of 2026
All-in-one digital security platform with VPN, antivirus, password manager, and identity monitoringTracks data sources overlooked by many competitors, including home titles and court filingsProvides up to $1 million in identity theft insurance coverageOffers flexible solutions tailored for small businesses
Cons:
Business pricing requires contacting sales or starting a trial
Limited scalability for enterprise organizations
VPN features are basic compared to dedicated VPN providers
Our Experience:
Why We Like Aura
Aura offers affordable but quality identity protection for families, with Aura’s Family subscription $32 per month (billed annually). It delivers solid value, especially since Aura lets you add up to five adult family members and an unlimited number of children in one household.
Identity and Credit Protection (9.6/10)
All Aura subscriptions include the same core identity and credit protections, so even though we tested the Individual plan, we got a glimpse of how the Family plan works.
Aura monitors a lot. In the identity department, it kept watch of our:
Online accounts
Information on the dark web
Social Security number
Home and auto titles
Personal information in court records and public databases
On the credit side of things, Aura gave us:
Real-time, three-bureau monitoring
Monthly credit score updates
Experian credit lock
Monitoring of credit card, banking, and investment accounts
401(k) monitoring
Bank fraud (account takeover) monitoring
Annual credit reports
We also enjoyed active protection from digital identity theft through the Aura antivirus software and VPN, which kept us safe from privacy intruders and data-stealing malware. There’s also a password manager that secures your logins. If you go with a Family plan, you get additional tools packaged in parental control software to help you protect your children’s digital identity.
Monitoring and Alerts (9.5/10)
As we added information to our Aura profile, our coverage expanded significantly. During the initial setup process, we accumulated 23 unread alerts as the system began monitoring our personal data.
Our Aura dashboard with 23 alerts
We received those alerts during the setup process, as we were adding information for Aura to monitor. Once we cleared them, we only received relevant notifications — like when we made a large online purchase with our credit card or applied for a car loan. The alert system struck an excellent balance between comprehensive monitoring and avoiding notification fatigue.
Pricing and Value (9.2/10)
Aura Subscriptions
Individual
Family
Couple
Kids (Add-On)
Coverage
1 adult
5 adults, unlimited children
2 adults
Unlimited children
Price Per Month
$15
$50
$29
$13
Price Per Year
$144
$384
$264
$120
Annual Plan Avg. Monthly Cost
$12
$32
$22
$10
Aura keeps its pricing structure straightforward. You choose an Individual, Couple, or Family plan and decide between monthly or yearly billing. Aura typically costs more than some competitors because all plans include full protection. There are no stripped-down budget tiers with limited features. Fortunately, Aura offers a 14-day free trial and a 60-day money-back guarantee on annual plans if the service doesn’t meet your needs.
Pro Tip: If your household includes you, your spouse, and children, you’ll save money by purchasing a Couple plan and adding the Kids add-on if you plan to pay monthly. The Kids add-on provides the same additional features as the Family plan, including access to parental control software.
Up to $3 million in identity theft coverage per adult
Can be bundled with Norton 360, a high-quality antivirus
Includes alerts for bank account takeovers, and 401(k) and investment accounts
All plans include at least $1 million in identity theft coverage
Quality notifications with helpful descriptions and tips for minimizing exposure
Cons:
Expensive even with an annual plan discount
Only the highest subscription tier includes three-bureau monitoring (the others have just one-bureau monitoring)
Prices increase after the first year
Our Experience:
Why We Like LifeLock
LifeLock offers a solid range of options that scale with your security needs and budget. From the entry-level Standard plan starting at $7.50 per month for the first year to the Ultimate Plus plan for $19.99 per month for the first year, there’s flexibility to match what you’re looking for. You can even add Norton 360 digital protection to any plan, though it’s completely optional.
Identity and Credit Protection (9.6/10)
Your identity and credit protection scales with your subscription. We went with the top-tier Ultimate Plus plan so we got the whole nine yards. Besides the usual identity monitoring, we received:
Phone takeover monitoring
Synthetic identity theft monitoring
USPS address change verification
Utility alerts
Data breach notifications
Stolen wallet protection
Plus, we enjoyed credit protection with:
401(k) and investment account monitoring
Buy Now, Pay Later alerts
Credit, checking, and savings account activity alerts
Bank account takeover alerts
Unless you go with the Ultimate Plus plan like we did, you’ll only get credit monitoring for one bureau (Equifax). That’s better than the entry-level plan from Identity Guard (our third pick) that doesn’t offer credit monitoring at all, but we expected three-bureau monitoring from LifeLock’s mid-tier Advantage plan.
Setting up LifeLock took roughly 10 minutes. We entered basic details—name, email, phone number, bank accounts, driver’s license, and more. For full monitoring—which we strongly recommend—you can also add sensitive info like your mother’s maiden name, insurance numbers, and even gamer tags for online accounts.
Alerts with LifeLock are infrequent but meaningful. We’ve been using it for several years and only receive two or three critical alerts per year. All the noise and unnecessary notifications are filtered out, but when there’s a potential threat, LifeLock makes sure you know. They send emails, texts, and app notifications to ensure the important events don’t slip through the cracks.
Our LifeLock alerts over the years
As for alerts, they were few and far between. We’ve had a LifeLock subscription for several years now, and we get about two to three critical alerts per year. Unless LifeLock thinks something deserves immediate attention, it won’t bother you. But on the other hand, if LifeLock believes something should be looked at, it makes sure you see it by sending email, text, and app notifications.
Pricing and Value (9.5/10)
LifeLock’s pricing can be confusing, but let’s focus on the individual plans. We encourage you to check out our complete LifeLock pricing page to see what’s in every package.
LifeLock subscription
Standard
Advantage
Ultimate Plus
LifeLock with Norton 360 Select Plus
LifeLock with Norton 360 Ultimate Plus
Monthly billing
$11.99
$22.99
$34.99
N/A
N/A
Annual billing
$89.99
$179.88
$239.88
$69.99
$299.99
One of LifeLock’s downsides is that subscription prices increase significantly after the first year — sometimes by $100 or more. While promotional introductory pricing is standard across the identity theft protection industry, the jump can catch subscribers off guard when renewal time comes around.
On the plus side, LifeLock offers a free 30-day trial for all standalone LifeLock plans and a free 7-day trial for all LifeLock-Norton 360 bundles. There’s also a 60-day money-back guarantee for annual plans and a 14-day refund window for monthly subscriptions, giving you plenty of time to test the service risk-free.
Family plans cover five adults so they can work for small businesses
Tiered subscriptions means you can customize your protection to fit your business
U.S.-based customer service and expert fraud resolution
Near real-time alerts
Cons:
No specific plan for couples
Entry-level Value plan lacks credit and financial monitoring, as well as identity resolution services
Total and Ultra Family plans are expensive when billed monthly
Insurance coverage is the same regardless of the plan
No dedicated fraud resolution service in Value plan
Our Experience:
Why We Like Identity Guard
Identity Guard takes a budget-focused approach to identity protection, especially for those who monitor their own credit. And that’s possible now that anyone can get a free copy of their credit report once a week. If you’re willing to handle some credit monitoring yourself, you can get identity monitoring from Identity Guard starting at $7.50 per month when billed annually. That includes insurance, access to a U.S.-based customer care team, and a password manager to help keep your online accounts secure.
Identity and Credit Protection (9.3/10)
Identity Guard can be as simple as Zander Insurance’s entry-level service (one of the cheapest in the industry) or almost as comprehensive as an Aura plan. It depends on which plan you go with. But since Identity Guard is our budget pick, let’s focus on its entry-level Value plan.
Feature-wise, it doesn’t offer extensive monitoring, but that’s expected for its price point. For $7.50 per month billed yearly, we got:
Data breach notifications
Dark web monitoring
High risk transaction (e.g. payday loan) alerts
Password manager
$1 million identity theft insurance
U.S.-based customer service
The Value plan is notably missing credit protection. But remember that the $1 million identity theft insurance covers any instance of identity theft, not just the monitored areas. So, if you fall victim to credit fraud, the Value plan gives you just as much insurance coverage as the Ultra (top-tier) plan even though it doesn’t provide credit protection.
Monitoring and Alerts (9.4/10)
We received more notifications from our Identity Guard app than we did from both Aura and LifeLock, but that’s because we were moving some money around during our testing. Two things stood out about Identity Guard’s alerting and monitoring.
First was the speed at which it sent notifications, which was almost real-time. It was so fast that we received a withdrawal alert before we left the bank.
Identity Guard ‘What should I do?” section
Second was the “What should I do?” section that comes with each alert. It provides practical and actionable steps to take. We think it’s a neat feature, since it allows you to react quickly and prevent further damage. You stand a good chance of doing that if you know what to do next.
Pricing and Value (9.3/10)
Identity Guard is our budget pick, but it offers good value plans across the board. THowever, the Ultra plan carries a premium price tag, costing more than an Aura individual subscription while delivering fewer features. It’s still a good pick, but not as good as the Value or Total plan. We also like how all long-term plans come with a 60-day refund. Here are your options from Identity Guard.
All premium plans include triple-bureau credit monitoring
Entry-level plan starts at under $7.50 per month
Extra security tools, including an antivirus and VPN
Top-tier plan offers identity theft insurance for family members up to $25,000
Cons:
No dedicated family plans
Online dashboard could be made more user-friendly
No free trial and money-back guarantee
Some notifications are delayed
Our Experience:
Why We Like IdentityIQ
IdentityIQ offers one of the best credit protection services we’ve seen. For starters, it offers one-bureau credit monitoring in its entry-level plan, which is priced similarly to Identity Guard’s Value plan. It has three-bureau monitoring in its two upper-tier plans.
We particularly appreciate that the two upper-tier plans, Secure Pro and Secure Max, include advanced credit tools like real-time credit score change alerts and a credit score simulator. This simulator is especially useful. It simulates how major financial decisions, like applying for a mortgage or paying off a credit card, will impact your credit score.
Identity and Credit Protection (9.3/10)
With credit monitoring being its main feature, our Secure Max subscription gave us one of the broadest credit and financial protection feature sets we’ve seen. The list includes:
Credit score simulation and tracking
Credit score change alerts
Social Security number monitoring
Checking account reports
Utility payment reporting
Monthly three-bureau credit reports and scores
Real-time credit fraud alerts
Expanding on those features, we received identity protection in the form of:
Synthetic ID theft monitoring
Dark web monitoring
Change of address monitoring
Lost wallet assistance
Opt-out assistance (junk mail, Do Not Call lists, etc.)
We would have liked to see additional features such as home and auto title monitoring like we found with Aura, but we’re confident that IdentityIQ delivers solid protection across the board.
Monitoring and Alerts (9.0/10)
IdentityIQ’s mobile app has matured since its initial launch, though we still primarily relied on the online dashboard to monitor our account and make adjustments. The dashboard isn’t straightforward though. Look at how many panels there are in one page:
IdentityIQ web dashboard
Fortunately, we didn’t need the dashboard to receive alerts. We viewed our action items from it, but alerts came in through emails and texts. That made it easier for us to screen and address them on time, as the alerts themselves contained enough information to let us know if they were urgent. The app continues to improve, with it now taking over as the easiest way to manage your IdentityIQ account.
Pricing and Value (9.6/10)
IdentityIQ offers four tier-based subscriptions and lets you add antivirus and VPN protection as a paid add-on for just $2 per month. The prices are affordable, but we don’t like how there are no family plans, and how IdentityIQ also lacks a free trial or a refund policy.
Here’s a quick look at all of the provider’s plans:
IdentityIQ plan
Secure
Secure Plus
Secure Pro
Secure Max
Cost per Month
$8.49
$11.49
$21.49
$31.49
Cost per Year (avg/mo)
$7.44
$10.00
$18.49
$27.00
FYI: Bitdefender antivirus and VPN typically cost around $6 per month via standalone subscriptions. That’s the service included with IdentityIQ if you add antivirus and VPN protection for an extra $2 per month. Now that’s a good deal.
Full-suite antivirus software, VPN, and password manager included
First-year price averages to under $5 per month
A.I.-based detection of phishing scams
Up to $2 million in identity theft insurance coverage
Offers credit lock
Cons:
Price increases after first year
No monthly billing option; all plans are paid yearly
Apps can be overwhelming as antivirus software, VPN, and other features are crammed into the same software
Family plans are for up to two adults only
Our Experience:
Why We Like It
Our other top picks come with some form of cyber protection, but none of them included a full-featured cybersecurity suite like McAfee did. McAfee included its antivirus software, VPN, password manager, and other cybersecurity tools in its identity protection subscriptions. LifeLock and IdentityIQ only offer cybersecurity tools as add-ons. Compared to Aura and Identity Guard’s complementary antivirus software and VPN, McAfee’s cyber protection is more well-rounded.
Identity and Credit Protection (8.7/10)
McAfee goes all out in the cyber protection department, but it doesn’t offer as many identity and credit protection features as our other top picks. It covers the basics like monitoring the dark web, public records, online accounts, and Social Security number verifications. However, it lacks advanced protections like auto title monitoring, synthetic ID theft detection, and phone takeover monitoring, which Aura and LifeLock offer.
On the bright side, McAfee covers a broad spectrum of credit and financial fraud with credit protection features like:
Three-bureau credit monitoring
Credit lock
401(k), investment, and loan transaction monitoring
Bank and credit card transaction monitoring
Security freeze
Most of those features are available only with the top-tier McAfee+ Ultimate subscription, which is what we tested.
Monitoring and Alerts (9.2/10)
The McAfee app impressed us with its user-friendly design, though the sheer number of features packed into one interface can feel overwhelming at first. All the protections — credit monitoring, privacy tools, malware defense, and more — live within a single app. That occasionally made navigation challenging despite the intuitive interface.
Data breach alert from McAfee
Once we got used to McAfee’s app — which took a couple of days — we realized that the features were organized based on the subject they are most relevant to. The VPN was under Privacy, the antivirus software was under Device Protection, and identity and credit monitoring were both in the Identity Column. Overall, McAfee did a great job organizing its app and streamlining the alerting process.
Pricing and Value (9.3/10)
It struck us as odd that McAfee didn’t have monthly plans. Instead, we had to pay upfront for one year of service. Unlike Aura, which offers a 14-day trial and a 60-day money-back option, McAfee provides only a 30-day refund period. These are the options from McAfee:
McAfee+ subscription
Premium
Advanced
Ultimate
For individuals (first year only)
$49.99/year
$89.99/year
$199.99/year
For families (first year only)
$69.99/year
$119.99/year
$249.99/year
FYI: At approximately $4.17 per month, the McAfee+ Premium individual plan represents one of the most budget-friendly identity protection options on the market. However, you’ll need to pay the full annual amount upfront, and renewal pricing increases to $12.50 per month after the first year.
Product Specs:
Identity monitoring
Yes
Credit monitoring
1-bureau or 3-bureau
Insurance
Up to $2 million
Free trial
No
Money-back guarantee
30 days
Other Good Options
Looking for alternatives? Here are five additional identity theft protection services worth considering. Each earned a SecureScore™ above 8.0, placing them in elite territory — just slightly below our top picks. They all deliver robust identity and credit protection with distinctive features that may suit your specific needs.
IDShield (8.8/10)
IDShield stands out for its competitive pricing, with family plans beginning at $29.95 and individual coverage as low as $14.95 per month. The service provides exceptional financial protection with coverage up to $3 million for stolen funds, legal fees, and personal expense reimbursements.
ID Watchdog (8.7/10)
ID Watchdog serves as a solid alternative to IdentityIQ, delivering comprehensive credit and financial safeguards, particularly with the Premium tier. The service monitors subprime loans opened in your name, flags high-risk financial transactions, and can establish an initial fraud alert on your credit file to prompt lenders to verify your identity before approving new credit applications.
Allstate Identity Protection (8.6/10)
Allstate Identity Protection excels at monitoring and safeguarding both identities and credit accounts. A standout feature is its home title fraud reimbursement coverage of up to $2 million. The service also includes up to $1 million in stolen fund reimbursement and $1 million for personal expense coverage.
Zander Insurance (8.6/10)
Zander is a budget-friendly alternative to Identity Guard, as personal plans from Zander featuring identity-only protection start at $6.75 per month with annual billing. This makes it an exceptionally affordable option that still delivers solid identity protection.
IdentityForce (8.5/10)
IdentityForce delivers comprehensive identity and credit protection alongside strong safety net features. We particularly recommend it for families, as it includes dark web social media monitoring and identity restoration services covering up to 10 children. IdentityForce's pricing runs higher than average, but its feature set rivals premium services like Aura and LifeLock.
What Is Identity Theft?
Identity theft is an umbrella term for different kinds of fraud with one thing in common — the criminal poses as someone else. That could be as sophisticated as using RFID sniffers to lift bank card information from your wallet, or as simple as someone looking over your shoulder at the ATM to get your PIN.
There are various types of identity theft. You're probably familiar with Social Security identity theft, where a thief obtains your Social Security number to open new accounts in your name. Another common one is financial identity theft, where a fraudster fakes your credentials to take over your accounts. But there are other, more troubling types of identity theft that you might not know about.
Types of Identity Theft
Identity theft is as broad as it is complex. Here are a few scenarios you should be concerned about:
Criminal identity theft: This is when a criminal spoofs your identity as insurance before they commit a crime. If they’re caught, they’ll present a fake ID with your personal information. You’ll get a criminal record and if the real criminal makes bail, the police will be after the person they think committed the crime — you!
Estate identity theft: This is where a criminal steals the information of a recently deceased loved one and uses it to open up new credit lines, take out loans, or access government benefits. Since the identity theft victim is deceased, these crimes often go unnoticed and unresolved.
Medical identity theft: This is where a thief assumes another person’s identity to commit insurance fraud or receive medical care using the victim’s name. This one is particularly insidious because it can drive your insurance premiums through the roof.
Identity theft is frightening because most victims don't realize what happened until it negatively affects them. For instance, they might find out through a call from a collections agency about a debt they didn't know existed. The best thing to do is prevent it from happening in the first place. That means being proactive about your protection. Don't passively sit by thinking it won't happen to you.
Did You Know? The odds of becoming the victim of identity theft are about 1 in 15. So it can happen to anyone.
First, watch for warning signs. Anything unusual, like unexpected bills, account changes, or suspicious emails, shouldn’t be ignored, as it may indicate your identity has been compromised.
Second, practice safe habits online and offline. Shred documents with personal information, be cautious when shopping or browsing online, avoid sharing sensitive data on social media, and use strong, unique passwords for every account.
Finally, consider a reputable identity theft protection service, like the 10 we reviewed. Beyond monitoring, these services provide peace of mind, plus reimbursement and remediation support to help you recover quickly if your identity is ever stolen.
What Is Identity Theft Protection?
Identity theft protection refers to a whole suite of services that work to prevent, detect, and resolve identity theft. Features offered by these services often fall under one of these five categories:
Identity protection: Features like dark web monitoring and Social Security number monitoring aim to keep your personal information out of the wrong hands and/or places like dark web black markets where stolen identities are sold.
Credit protection: These protection features focus on your credit file and financial accounts, monitoring for high-risk transactions, suspicious activity, potential account takeover, and so on.
Cyber protection: With identity theft increasingly going digital, cybersecurity tools like antivirus software and VPNs also play a part in preventing digital identity theft.
Insurance: No service can guarantee your protection; in case you fall victim to identity theft, services offer insurance that reimburse stolen funds, legal fees, and personal expenses.
Identity restoration: Lastly, most services offer a dedicated team that users can contact and seek help from in resolving identity theft. Restoration specialists offer various services including assisting in filing reports to the relevant authorities.
The dashboard of our top-rated Identity Theft Protection Service, Identity Guard.
Many people tune out when they hear the term “identity theft protection.” It sounds complicated and unnecessary, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that identity theft protection is simple to understand. And it’s quite necessary if you want to keep your good name, credit, finances, and other important matters safe and secure.
Unfortunately, identity theft is far more common than most people think. It’s estimated that approximately 10 million Americans succumb to the rising threat year after year. However, there’s really no way of knowing the true number of identity theft incidents, as many victims don’t report their experience to the authorities. This means the real number of identity theft crimes in America might be reaching well beyond 10 million. The bottom line: identity theft is all-too-common.
According to the findings of the National Criminal Justice Reference Service, the most common type of identity theft is government documents and benefits fraud2. This accounts for 34% of all reported cases. After that, credit card fraud isn’t far behind, making up 17% of cases. Phone and utilities fraud is the third most common type of identity theft (14%), followed by bank fraud (8%) and employment related fraud (6%), with loan fraud bringing up the rear (4%).
Sure enough, if your identity is stolen, you’ll find out sooner or later. Hopefully it’s sooner, as this gives you time to cancel credit cards, alert credit bureaus, and take other necessary steps to mitigate damage. Here are a few ways you might find out your identity is stolen:
You check your credit and realize your score has suddenly dipped or dropped without explanation
Your credit report shows signs of opened accounts or credit lines, or failed attempts, that you did not initiate
You receive a bill from a creditor that you didn’t sign up with
You suddenly stop receiving mail altogether, signaling change of address fraud
You notice suspicious activity on social media linked to your name
Your name pulls up in court records for a crime you didn’t commit
Although there’s no substitute for identity theft protection services, there are many precautions you can take to protect your identity. Here are a handful of ideas to help you on your way:
Use discretion. Only submit your information on trusted sites that you feel comfortable sharing. Never over-share, and always stop to consider why the website needs the information it’s requesting.
Check URLs. Although you think you’re on Visa’s official homepage, it could be a counterfeit site operated by cybercriminals. Check to make sure the URL in the search bar is official and legitimate.
Only use a secure WiFi connection. This one cannot be stressed enough. When out in public, at cafes and other places, only connect to a secure WiFi signal. This will stop criminals from hacking into your system and stealing your sensitive information as you browse websites, shop online, and interact on social media.
Ensure your computer and other devices are equipped with anti-virus and malware software that monitor threats to keep you safe online.
Shred, don’t toss! Shred any and all documents containing your personal information. Tossing them in the trash isn’t good enough. Criminals will stop at nothing to get their grubby hands on the personal information of others, and that includes digging through the dump.
Monitor your accounts daily. Monitor your bank account, credit card accounts, and credit reports every day looking for suspicious activity. Even if you see a suspicious charge for 50 cents, look into it, as criminals often start small before they drain the account.
Be wary of giving out sensitive information over the phone, especially in public spaces.
Use ATMs with caution. Criminals use a tactic called ‘skimming’ to steal credit card information. If the ATM or card reader looks fly-by-night, keep your card in your wallet or purse. Also, if your card doesn’t easily slide in and out of the machine, do not proceed.
As mentioned above, you can protect your own identity, to a point. For instance, if you find a fraudulent charge on your bank statement, you can call in and have the charge removed. But identity theft protection services go far beyond basic monitoring by scanning billions of online data points in real time — including your Social Security number, financial accounts, medical records, and even your personal information on the dark web.
Banks typically reverse fraudulent charges quickly once you report them, thanks to federal protections like the Fair Credit Billing Act and Electronic Fund Transfer Act. However, banks only protect you from unauthorized transactions on your specific accounts — they won't monitor or address the many other forms of identity theft that can damage your life. Bottom line: do not rely on the bank to bail you out of identity theft unless it’s a simple fraudulent charge to your account.
Step 2: Freeze any and all accounts that have been compromised
Step 3: File an official report of the identity theft
Step 4: Contact the credit agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion), notify them of the fraud, and put fraud alerts on your credit report.
Step 5: Continue to monitor your accounts daily
Now, these are the most important steps to take immediately after you become a victim of identity theft. But there are other things to consider, like blocking companies from reporting fraudulent activity on your credit report, reporting the identity theft to local law enforcement as well as the FTC, and contacting your medical care provider to ensure the fraudster isn’t receiving healthcare in your name.
Great question. People often get these three completely different features confused with one another. So this should clear up any confusion.
Identity Theft Restoration — A service many ID protection plans offer that puts a team of professionals in your corner to help cancel compromised credit cards and other accounts, and begin to restore your credit score to pre-fraud status. These services take the reins during an emotionally difficult time. Think home restoration — when a home is restored, it’s not exactly like it was when it was first built, but it’s new and transformed in all the best ways. This feature is not to be missed.
Identity Theft Insurance — A policy typically offers up to $1 million in insurance to cover the steep price of restoring your good name, credit, and finances. For instance, legal fees are covered by identity theft insurance. And good thing, as legal fees can rack up quite the tab pretty quickly. The best identity theft protection services offer $1 million insurance packages, but this varies from company to company. Go with the highest-dollar insurance you can find. (See our ‘Identity Theft Insurance’ section below).
100% Guarantee — A guarantee shows that the identity theft company stands behind their service. Well, sort of. Unfortunately, a ‘guarantee’ is all-too-subjective, and doesn’t have a dollar amount attached to it. If a company ‘guarantees’ to restore your identity, there are typically no mechanisms in place to ensure it happens in a certain time frame, or to the exact specifications that you are happy with. A guarantee is helpful, but don’t stake your entire identity on it. Be sure to also sign up with restoration and insurance.
This form of identity theft happens when a criminal gets a hold of your insurance information. Instead of draining your bank account, they will try to get healthcare, operations, prescription drugs, and other medical-related benefits that belong to you. Of course, nothing in life is free, so when the dust finally settles, the deductibles and claims fall on the shoulders of the victim. The top identity theft services offer medical identity theft protection, which is especially helpful for seniors who use their insurance cards more than the average person.
We read it in the newspaper and see it on TV. A high-profile company suddenly loses half its stock, a large swathe of customers, and its brand image due to a data breach. But what exactly is a data breach? A data breach, data leak, or data spill are three names for the same unfortunate calamity. By definition, a data breach is what you call the unintentional (or intentional!) disclosure of important, sensitive information to an unsecured environment. When the term is used in the context of identity theft, it refers to when a cybercriminal infiltrates or hacks into a database (or other ostensibly protected data source) and steals the information to then use fraudulently. If the criminal does not use the information himself, he will likely sell it or trade it on the dark web. A data breach is a big deal, and the reason why every business should consider an identity theft protection service.
Synthetic identity theft is a growing form of identity theft, and considered the perfect, victimless crime by many cybercriminals. Synthetic identity theft occurs when a fraudster creates a fictitious identity from scratch. Fake names, addresses, credit card information, you name it. Sometimes they will create a synthetic identity around one source of legitimate identification, such as a social security number. This type of fraud is especially difficult to track, which is yet another reason why it’s best to leave it to the professionals.
Many of the higher rated identity theft plans include credit monitoring, while others offer it as an add-on for an additional monthly fee. Credit monitoring can absolutely be worth the extra cost, especially if you are looking to buy a home in the near future. Sure, there are ways to check your credit report often, but those will cost you nearly as much as a full-on identity theft protection plan with this feature included. Also, it’s nice to not have to manually monitor the reports yourself. You could miss inquiries, or simply become complacent and forget to check it often. A protection plan that offers credit monitoring will keep a hawk-eye on your credit report, day and night, and send real-time alerts if suspicious activity is detected. So it’s ultimately up to you, but we recommend considering this feature when shopping for fraud protection.
In a word, yes. Identity theft can hurt your credit, especially if it goes undetected. When a fraudster attempts to open lines of credit or purchase big-ticket items using your social security number, it counts as an inquiry on your credit report. With each and every inquiry, your credit score is dinged. It turns from bad to worse if the criminal is approved and they don’t pay the bill (and they won’t pay the bill, promise). If undetected, the account will eventually go to collections, resulting in a massive hit to your credit score, up to 100 points or more. However, if you detect the fraudulent activity in time, you can reach out to the credit agencies to have the activity blocked and the inquiries removed. The best identity theft protection services monitor your credit and streamline the process of getting fraudulent activity cleaned up.
A credit freeze or security freeze is when you ask the credit agencies to completely freeze or block your credit file. When frozen, businesses cannot even check your credit score or report, which means no new accounts can be opened. So when Mr. fraudster is at the Mercedes dealership salivating over that new SLS AMG model, they’ll be met with a hard “NO” when it comes time to get the keys. Many businesses will even alert the authorities when they sense suspicious activity like this. While credit freezes can be helpful at times, they should only be used when necessary, as your credit file is closed to the bad guys and the good guys.
Identity Theft Protection Reviews and Our Process
We’ve carefully built a team of experts across multiple disciplines to produce highly informed, expertly reviewed content.
For identity theft protection, our specialists begin with deep research—analyzing industry trends, new products, features, and consumer behavior. Then our panel tests each service for at least a month, running it through a rigorous vetting process to evaluate real-world performance.
This detailed approach feeds into our proprietary SecureScore™, which breaks evaluations into key categories:
Our commitment is to research, test, and publish reviews of the highest quality. Trust is paramount—it’s why we approach every review with you, the reader, in mind. Our foundational values are:
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Our mission is to educate consumers so you can make confident, informed decisions—finding products that fit your lifestyle and budget. This focus drives us to be the #1 resource for home and personal security—and we’re thrilled to have you along for the journey.
Max Sheridan brings over two decades of writing experience to our team. He has spent 1,000-plus hours researching VPNs, identity theft protection, and various topics in cyber technology. Previously, Max was an investigative journalist, and he is also a published novelist. He earned a B.A. in Classics from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Illinois. He currently lives in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Updated February 12, 2026
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