Having an identity protection plan in place can help limit your identity theft risk, spot fraud fast, and help you recover quickly and safely if you become a victim. That’s why we think these services are a smart investment for just about anyone. But it makes even more sense when you get a bargain deal on a reliable monitoring service. AAA members can do just that, thanks to ProtectMyID.
ProtectMyID works much like other identity protection services. When we tested the service, it monitored our personal information, alerted us to potential threats, and even provided identity theft insurance and recovery services. But unlike top competitors like LifeLock, ProtectMyID isn’t available to just anyone. You have to be a AAA member to sign up for this exclusive option.
So if you’re a card-carrying AAA member — or you’re thinking about signing up soon — keep reading as we share everything you need to know about ProtectMyID plans, packages, and prices.
Key Features
Here’s what you get with ProtectMyID
Credit monitoring for up to three bureaus
Social security number monitoring available
Managed identity theft recovery
Identity theft insurance coverage of up to $1 million available
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We were attracted to ProtectMyID’s low monthly fees right away. There are three plans to choose from: Essential, Deluxe, and Platinum. The Essentials plan is free, and we found the Deluxe and Platinum packages to be cheaper than most competitors in the industry. At any rate, with ProtectMyID you can get solid identity monitoring starting at only $10.95 per month, while most brands charge $15-$20 per month for similar protection.
ProtectMyID Price Snapshot
Plan
Price for AAA members
ProtectMyID Essential
Free
ProtectMyID Deluxe
$10.95 / month
Add child monitoring for $3.95 / month
ProtectMyID Platinum
$15.95 / month
If you’re an AAA member, we think you’ll want to give this service a closer look. The pricing tiers are pretty straightforward. And note that you can add child monitoring to ProtectMyID Deluxe, while Platinum includes child monitoring for free. As for the Essential plan, that one doesn’t offer child monitoring as an option. So that’s something to keep in mind if you have little ones at home.
The child monitoring feature isn’t the only difference between these plans, though. Let’s dig a little deeper to help narrow down your options.
ProtectMyID Notifications
ProtectMyID Plan Options
Not all identity theft protection plans are created equal, as the features vary depending on the plan you choose. Thankfully, all of these options do come with credit monitoring. This is something that really impressed us in our ProtectMyID review. With that said, if you want three-bureau credit monitoring (highly recommended), you’ll have to spring for ProtectMyID’s top-tier plan.
Note that only the paid plans offer social security number monitoring and identity theft insurance. And the high-end ProtectMyID Platinum plan has some extra perks that ProtectMyID Deluxe just doesn’t have. Now let’s see what each plan brings to the table.
ProtectMyID Essential
We really appreciate that ProtectMyID Essential has credit monitoring. Not bad — especially for a plan that’s free to AAA members! Of course, it’s not comprehensive credit monitoring, as the monitoring covers only one of the three major credit bureaus. The one bureau is Experian, which makes sense, since Experian runs this service.
The Essential plan comes with some other nice perks, too. If you sign up with this plan, we think you’ll like the lost wallet protection, an Experian credit report, and help with fraud resolution should you become a victim of identity theft. Other top brands like Identity Guard and IdentityForce offer extra bells and whistles like this — and it’s something we always like to see.
ProtectMyId Lost Wallet Protection
Keep in mind that the Essential plan doesn’t automatically include insurance coverage. If you’re an AAA Premier member, you’ll get $10,000 in coverage. But that’s not as much as the paid plans offer, and standard memberships don’t include it anyway.
Who it’s best for: ProtectMyID Essential is best for AAA members who just want the basics and don’t want to pay for a comprehensive identity protection plan.
ProtectMyID Deluxe
ProtectMyID Deluxe includes more of the features we expect from an identity protection service. In our research and testing, we found that it offers AAA members quite a lot for only $10.95 per month.
This plan came with everything in the Essential plan, plus we had $1 million in insurance coverage for extra peace of mind. If you’re not familiar with identity theft insurance, it covers things like stolen funds and recovery expenses related to identity theft. While $1 million might sound like a generous insurance package, it’s actually the industry standard nowadays.
With the Deluxe plan, we also received real-time alerts. This is a big deal, as early detection is a big reason why we sign up for coverage like this in the first place. The Deluxe plan’s monitoring is stronger, too. It includes social security number monitoring, and our credit monitoring bumps up from one-bureau to three-bureau coverage. ProtectMyID Deluxe also scans the Dark Web, which the Essential plan doesn’t do.
FYI: What is the Dark Web? It’s a private and anonymous part of the web that you need a special browser just to visit. There are legitimate reasons to use the Dark Web, but criminals use it to buy and sell stolen private information.1
Unfortunately, we don’t get access to child monitoring by default with the Deluxe plan, but we can add it for $3.95 per month. If you’re doing the math, you’ll pay a total of $14.90 per month for protection for you and your kiddos. Not bad.
Who it’s best for: ProtectMyID Deluxe is a safe bet for AAA members looking for a deal on solid identity coverage with three-bureau credit monitoring.
ProtectMyID Child Identity Monitoring
ProtectMyID Platinum
ProtectMyID Platinum is our high-end option from ProtectMyID. It includes a few extra monitoring and credit-related perks. This plan level monitors sex offender registries, and it also checks payday loan applications and other public and online records.
With the Platinum package, we also had credit-related alerts that really come in handy when it comes to tracking personal finance goals. As you know, staying on top of your credit is extremely important, especially if you’re looking to take out a home mortgage loan soon.
ProtectMyID Platinum also gave us social media monitoring, which helps to identify hacked accounts (a serious cyber-security concern). Social Media monitoring can also help us to key into our own authentic posts to see if they might be hurting our reputation. As you can see, this plan already has a number of extra features that the Deluxe option doesn’t offer.
Finally, the Platinum service also includes child monitoring features; unlike the Deluxe plan, you don’t have to pay extra to protect your kids from identity thieves and fraudsters.
Who it’s best for: Platinum is great for families and folks who want additional personal finance tools added to their identity protection service.
Did You Know? Child identity theft is rare, but it’s easy to miss when it happens. If a crook uses your child’s social security number to get a credit card, a loan, or government benefits, it could be decades before anyone finds out — unless, of course, you have child monitoring.2
Current Deals on ProtectMyID
We’re always tracking the best prices on ProtectMyID so that you don’t have to. Note that ProtectMyID offers some pretty good prices to begin with, but it never hurts to save money. The brand has been known to offer rolling discounts throughout the year. Just remember that you have to be an AAA member to take advantage of a ProtectMyID special promotion.
ProtectMyID
$15.95/mo
Services
Dark Web Monitoring
Lost Wallet Protection
Identity Theft Resolution
Free Experian Credit Report
$1 Million Identity Theft Insurance Coverage
Options
ChildSecure Identity Theft Protection
Overall Value of ProtectMyID
We’ve tried many different identity protection services over the years. And we must say, along with Zander Insurance and IDWatchdog, ProtectMyID is one of the most affordable options out there. The brand exists so that AAA can offer a special discounted option to its members. So it makes sense that ProtectMyID offers really good value to AAA members.
Right from the start, we were really impressed with the helpful features that AAA members get for free. In fact, it’s somewhat rare to see credit monitoring included in cheap plans (Zander, for instance, doesn’t offer it). But ProtectMyID puts it on the table… for free! That’s a pretty good deal in our book.
With that said, we recommend you pay for a little more protection, as the free ProtectMyID Essential plan doesn’t offer recovery or insurance. On the other hand, ProtectMyID Deluxe offers a pretty great deal on three-bureau credit coverage, identity monitoring, recovery, and insurance.
Sure, the Platinum option is the most expensive plan, but it comes with some great features like child monitoring. So if you have a family, the top-tier plan makes a lot of sense. Instead of paying for the Deluxe plan and adding child identity monitoring, we recommend just upgrading to the Platinum plan for $1 more per month. That little bit extra couch-cushion change will give you child identity monitoring plus loads of other features.
About ProtectMyID, AAA, and Experian
We’ve established that the major credit bureau Experian owns and runs ProtectMyID. You might be surprised to learn that ProtectMyID is one of three different Experian products that deal with identity security.
FYI: There are three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. And each of these bureaus offer some type of identity theft protection.
Experian’s main identity protection service is Experian IdentityWorks. But Experian also partners with other organizations (like AAA!) to make special identity protection products that they can offer their customers and members. Note that Experian is also behind Complete ID, an exclusive offer to Costco members.
Now what about AAA? Well, you probably know that the AAA is the American Automobile Association. It’s a national lobbying group that offers a ton of perks to paying members. Some of those perks and bonuses are car-related, like roadside assistance through AAA partners. But plenty of other bonuses, like ProtectMyID, have nothing to do with cars or driving at all.
In our research, we found that Experian has a strong reputation in identity monitoring. Interestingly enough, when the credit reporting bureau Equifax suffered a major data breach, it was Experian that stepped in to provide identity monitoring to the victims.3
Remember: Identity theft insurance plans tend to be similar when it comes to insurance policies. We typically see companies offer $1 million in coverage; in fact, that’s the minimum to stay competitive these days. So no matter which brand you go with, expect $1 million in identity theft coverage.
ProtectMyID offers three tiers of service. As price increases, so do the number of services. The Essential package is free, the Deluxe package costs $10.95 per month, and the Platinum package costs $15.95 per month.
SafeHome.org only uses high-quality sources to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial guidelines to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Patterson, D. (2016, September 1). How the Dark Web Works. ZDNet.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-the-dark-web-works/
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 September 28, 2023
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