IDnotify Identity Theft Protection

Overview of Plans and Pricing for IDnotify

Most identity protection services offer the same basic features: They monitor your credit and personal information, alert you to potential threats, and have identity theft insurance and recovery services in the event a calamity occurs. But what you pay depends on the level of protection you desire. Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect for IDnotify’s monthly fees.

IDnotify Price Snapshot

We’ve been doing this for a long time, and we can say that IDnotify’s prices are pretty typical for the industry. In fact, $10 per month for entry-level coverage — and around $20-$30 per month for extensive coverage with three-bureau credit monitoring — is spot on with some of the best identity theft protection services out there.

Price is just one consideration, though. Now we have to ask what we get for our money. Let’s take a look at IDnotify’s individual plan options to get a better idea.

IDnotify Plan Options

We’re going to unpack all three IDnotify plans: the Essential Plan, the Select Plan, and the Premier Plan. Keep in mind that most brands offer a three-option menu like this. We appreciate the simplicity here, as shopping for identity theft protection can feel overwhelming if it’s your first time.

One thing we always look for when considering plan differences is how each one handles credit monitoring. In our experience, credit monitoring is the biggest factor that separates service tiers. With IDnotify, the Essential Plan has no credit monitoring. The Select Plan has credit monitoring for one bureau. And the Premier Plan covers all three major credit bureaus. As you’ll see, we’re big fans of three-bureau credit monitoring.

IDnotify – Credit Reports

Credit monitoring aside, there are other differences, too. But don’t worry, we’re going to take a closer look at each IDnotify plan to see which one (if any) makes sense for you. Let’s start with the essentials!

Essential Plan

In our experience, it’s fairly common for entry-level plans to skip credit monitoring. We’re used to seeing it, and that’s exactly what you get (or don’t get!) with the Essential plan. But you have to keep in mind that it’s a budget-option under $10 per month — so you get what you pay for.

The Essential Plan from IDnotify is also missing some other identity monitoring features. For instance, there’s no social security number trace and no monitoring of public records like court filings or change-of-address requests.

It does include social media monitoring, which is nice. From what we’ve seen, it’s rare that a basic plan offers a more advanced feature like social media monitoring. So kudos to IDnotify for this.

Last but not least, the plan includes some nice recovery services. But if you’re looking for identity theft insurance, you’ll have to upgrade to the Select Plan.

Who it’s best for: This budget option didn’t impress us in our IDnotify review. We recommend either upgrading or looking at affordable plans from other providers.

Select Plan

With IDnotify’s $17.99 per month Select Plan, we start to see the services we’ve come to expect. The Select Plan covers us with credit monitoring for one bureau and includes our one-bureau credit score and report once per year. It also gives us more extensive identity monitoring services, like public records monitoring.

The Select Plan includes recovery services, just like the Essential Plan. But it also adds identity theft insurance coverage. This insurance covers us for up to $1 million in identity theft-related losses. We always recommend choosing a plan with an insurance policy, as you never know if (or when!) you might fall victim to a fraudster’s schemes.

Who it’s best for: The Select Plan is for folks looking for affordable middle-of-the-road coverage that covers the essentials.

Premier Plan

IDnotify’s fanciest option is the Premier Plan at $25.99 per month. This plan will give you everything that’s included in the cheaper plans, plus a few nice perks. For instance, the credit monitoring you’ll get with the Premier Plan covers all three major credit bureaus. You’ll also get annual three-bureau credit scores and reports, plus a monthly one-bureau VantageScore update.

If you choose IDnotify’s Premier Plan, we think you’ll also like the additional monitoring features, such as financial accounts monitoring and sex offender registry monitoring. When we took the Premier Plan for a test drive, we really appreciated the credit simulator and financial planning tools. These extra bells and whistles will come in handy if you’re striving after financial goals.

Who it’s best for: The Premier Plan is best for people looking for the full three-bureau coverage we recommend, as well as anyone who wants solid personal finance tools included in their identity protection plan.

All of these plans have something to offer, but we recommend that you focus on finding a plan that includes all of our must-have features: credit monitoring, social security monitoring, recovery services, and insurance. With that said, IDnotify’s Select Plan and Premier Plan look strongest to us.

IDnotify Current Deal

Looking for a deal on IDnotify’s identity theft services? We’re constantly looking for the best prices on subscriptions. While the company doesn’t have any current deals being offered, you might find discounts throughout the year. Also, the holidays are a great time to shop for identity theft services (think Black Friday and Cyber Monday). Thankfully, IDnotify won’t break the bank, even at full price. Here are the lowest prices that we found on IDnotify right now.

Overall Value of IDnotify

We’re always looking for the best identity monitoring options. But there’s pretty stiff competition in the industry. So you might be wondering how IDnotify measures up to its competitors in value.

In our review, we weren’t thrilled by IDnotify’s cheapest plan. We thought the price was typical for an entry-level option, but we thought the features were comparatively weak. Some competitors, like Zander Insurance, skip credit monitoring at this price point. Others, like PrivacyGuard, skip the insurance. But IDnotify skips both, which is a bit odd to us.

This plan is cheap, but we think it’s a little overpriced when considering all-around value. The value is much better with IDnotify’s Select Plan and Premier Plan. In fact, we think these two upper-tier packages are pretty straightforward and reasonably priced.

Another thing to bear in mind is that child monitoring is going to cost you with IDnotify. So we suggest you look at brands that include child coverage at no extra charge. Sure, child identity theft is rare,2 but we think that you should get any kids in the home covered just in case.

IDnotify – Main Alerts Page

About IDnotify

IDnotify is owned by Experian, which is one of the three major credit bureaus.

Experian has a growing credit file with your name on it. The information in your credit file shows how you’ve handled debt and credit in the past. It’s useful to the people and organizations that might lend to you in the future. For instance, a potential landlord might run a credit check to see if you’re likely to pay your rent on time and in full. And a credit card company will check your credit before issuing you a new card or raising your credit limit. As you know, it’s part of life!

All sorts of criminal activity might show up in your credit file. For instance, if a bad guy takes out a loan in your name or runs up debt on your credit cards, Experian is likely going to flag the activity. So it makes perfect sense that Experian is in the identity monitoring and protection business. After all, they see what goes on behind-the-scenes, so why not get paid for it?

IDnotify isn’t your only identity monitoring option from Experian. Experian also owns Experian IdentityWorks, which is very similar. And the credit-reporting giant has two more identity protection services that are exclusive partnerships with other brands. For instance, Experian and Costco offer Complete ID to Costco members only, and Experian and AAA offer ProtectMyID exclusively to AAA members.

IDnotify FAQs