IDShield Identity Theft Protection

Thinking about getting identity theft protection from IDShield? If so, you’ll need to know a few things first. We’re here to break down the key details for you. We’re going to share everything you need to know about IDShield’s plans, pricing, current deals, and more.

And if you’re not thinking about identity theft protection, you should definitely put it on your radar. The fact of the matter is identity theft is a very real issue that affects millions every year, including 14.4 million people in 2018 alone.1 It also costs the average victim more than $1,300, while it costs others so much more.2 That’s why we’re big proponents of identity theft protection plans.

We’ve spent a lot of time testing and reviewing IDShield. So let’s unpack their options to see if they have a plan that works for you and your budget.

Key Features

IDShield’s core features include:

IDShield Plans and Pricing

We appreciate that every IDShield membership covers the basics across the board. For instance, all plans offer social security number monitoring and other basic identity monitoring services. We also liked the recovery support and the insurance coverage — which are both great safety nets in the event our identity becomes compromised. But we’ll talk more about these features in just a bit.

IDShield – Main Account Overview

You should note that we found some pretty big differences between IDShield’s plans. And there are two main factors that affect the price you pay — one factor being how much credit monitoring you desire, and the other being the type of plan you choose, whether it’s for yourself or your whole family.

No matter which plan you go for, you’ll pay a monthly subscription fee, as IDShield doesn’t offer annual billing. Thankfully, in our experience, monthly plans offer more flexibility. You can cancel at any time and not have to worry about paying one lump sum upfront. Also, it’s one less choice you have to make!

IDShield Prices

Keep in mind that “one bureau” and “three bureau” above is in reference to the number of credit bureaus that actively monitor your credit. We much prefer three-bureau monitoring, and at $17.95 per month, we think IDShield is worth considering. Their pricing is simple and the plans are straightforward. But don’t confuse simple and straightforward with poor quality or limited features. IDShield delivers the goods. Let’s look at their plans and you’ll see what we mean.

IDShield Plan Options and Features

Although it’s not a perfect solution for keeping fraudsters at bay, we like that IDShield comes loaded with features. Similar to top brands like Identity Guard and IdentityForce, we enjoyed a solid set of features in every plan option. No matter which IDShield option you choose, you can expect key features like identity monitoring, recovery services, and insurance. This just isn’t so with many companies we’ve tried. In fact, some don’t offer credit monitoring at all!

IDShield Individual Plan

As the name suggests, the Individual plan covers one adult and includes plenty of protections for your identity. Among these protections are identity monitoring, including social security number monitoring, credit monitoring, recovery services, and insurance (which we’ll discuss in just a bit).

IDShield – Internet Dark Web Alerts

Note that IDShield’s monitoring scours the web (including the Dark Web) and public records looking for your address, phone number, and other sensitive information. Of course, services like IDShield don’t prevent crimes from happening. But the early detection they provide can help you limit the damage and put you on the road to recovery if you fall victim to a fraudster’s schemes.

With this in mind, you should know that IDShield has a fully managed restoration process (a big strength we see in the brand). We appreciated having recovery experts on-call, 24/7, just in case we needed them. This plan also has insurance that offers up to $1 million in identity theft coverage. But this seemingly generous amount is actually the industry standard. And trust us, there’s always fine print!

IDShield’s Individual plan also includes social media monitoring, which gave us helpful recommendations for protecting our reputation online. We found pretty good value in having this feature around; it’s not something that’s offered by every ID theft protection service out there.

So to recap, you’ll either choose IDShield’s ‘one bureau’ plan for $12.95 per month, or ‘three bureau’ for $17.95 per month. The one-bureau option will likely catch most threats, but keep in mind that the credit bureaus don’t share information with each other. That’s why having all three bureaus in your corner is so important — nefarious activity is less likely to fall through the cracks! So needless to say, we recommend the three-bureau option.

Who it’s best for: IDShield’s Individual plan is for anyone who desires comprehensive identity monitoring and recovery services at a fair monthly price.

IDShield Family Plan

The Family plan includes all of the monitoring services that we covered in the Individual plan above (credit monitoring, identity monitoring, identity restoration, and insurance for the whole household). It also includes the bells and whistles like social media monitoring. Note however that the family plan adds coverage for a spouse or partner and up to 10 dependent children. This is on-par with Experian IdentityWorks family plans, only a little cheaper depending on the plan.

Just like the Individual plan, the Family plan lets us choose between IDShield’s one-bureau version and their more comprehensive (and expensive!) three-bureau bundle. If you’re looking to cover the kids under your wing, we also recommend checking out our list of our favorite ID theft protection services for children.

Who it’s best for: The Family plan is for folks who wish to extend credit monitoring, recovery services, and a nice insurance policy to their whole family.

Current Deals for IDShield

We’re always keeping an eye out for IDShield deals and discounts, and we’ll keep you posted on the best savings right here. Currently, the cheapest IDShield option is the Individual plan with one-bureau coverage. If you’re on a budget, we recommend choosing this plan for $12.95 per month. But if you’re just looking for IDShield’s best protection, then three-bureau coverage is the way to go.

IDShield’s Value

IDShield offered us solid identity protection. But remember, there are lots of options for identity coverage, so we’re really looking at the ‘bang for your buck’ factor. It begs the question — is IDShield a good value, or not?

Well, we liked that IDShield offered us credit monitoring even with the cheapest plan. Not all services include this important feature, especially in their budget options. We also found IDShield’s one-bureau Individual plan to be pretty cheap at $12.95 per month. For credit monitoring, recovery, and insurance — we think it’s worth considering. As for family plans, there are better options out there.

On the other hand, IDShield’s three-bureau and family plans are a little more expensive. But when we add up all the features and benefits, we think the prices are still quite reasonable. The industry average is around $20-$30 per month for comprehensive coverage, so $17.95 per month isn’t so bad!

IDShield – Mobile App Alerts

All About IDShield: Brand, History, and More

IDShield is owned by a company called LegalShield. Founded back in the 1970s as Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., LegalShield uses a network of lawyers to provide legal services as necessary to its subscribers. You can think of it as something like a legal insurance policy.

IDShield didn’t come around until a while later. The identity theft service first launched in 2015.4 Over the years, IDShield has earned a pretty good reputation with its customers. The company claimed to save its users more than $20 million in 2019.5 And that’s quite the claim! From our experience using their products and services, we think IDShield is a standout company — a company that we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend to our readers.

IDShield FAQs