By: Kurtis | Last updated May 27, 2020 
Identity theft is a serious and common problem in this day and age and technology has favored its spread all over the world. Internet has been of great help for cyber criminals, because it makes it possible for them to steal valuable information with a simple mouse click.
Identity theft can be used to commit a lot of frauds, from financial to medical ones and more. Whether you are a simple person or a multinational corporation, you are just as exposed to online threats, unless you take the necessary measures to protect yourself and your data.
Luckily for us though, there are many services out there that specialize in protecting our identity from various types of attacks, by constantly monitoring our data and immediately notifying us in case of any suspicious activities involving our identity. Two of the most popular such services in the United States are LifeLock and Identity Guard and we are going to compare them for you. This way, you’ll be better informed and able to choose the one that best serves your needs.
LifeLock identity theft protection service overview
This identity theft protection service was launched more than 10 years ago by LifeLock Inc., a company that is based in Arizona. LifeLock has a partnership with Norton and uses the Norton 360 LifeLock technology. LifeLock with Norton protects your device from various types of threats by blocking more than 7 million threats daily. Norton Antivirus is also included with your subscription, which is an award-winning software recognized all throughout the world.
What is the price of LifeLock?
LifeLock offers four types of subscription plans and each of them comes with the company’s 60-day money back guarantee, if you opt for an annual membership.
The 4 plans offered by LifeLock are Standard, Select, Advantage and Ultimate Plus.
Standard is the most basic plan and it is priced at $9.99 per month for the first year and $11.99 after the first year. It comes with up to $25,000 stolen funds reimbursement, identity and social security number alerts and credit monitoring for one-bureau, stolen wallet protection, data breach notifications and more.
Select is your second option and is priced at $9.99 per month for the first year and $14.99 after the first year.
With this price you get the same benefits as with the Standard plan, plus 24/7 live member support, VPN for up to 5 devices and security for up to 5 devices.
The next available plan is Advantage and it is priced at $19.99 per month for the first year and $24.99 per month after the first year.
This plan includes up to $100,000 reimbursement for stolen funds, security and VPN for up to 10 devices, alerts on crimes committed in your name and bank account & credit card activity alerts (plus the benefits from the other two plans).
The most comprehensive and expensive plan is Ultimate Plus, which is priced at $29.99 per month for the first year and $34.99 after the first year.
This plan includes up to $1 million reimbursement for stolen funds, credit monitoring for all 3 bureaus, VPN and security for unlimited devices, annual credit reports and credit scores for all three bureaus and more.
All the plans except for the Standard one come with the Norton 360 technology.
LifeLock highlights
- Uses Norton technology to ensure a better protection of your online identity
- Offers up to $1 million reimbursement for stolen funds
- Offers credit monitoring for one or three bureaus, depending on the plan you subscribe to
- Offers VPN for several or unlimited devices
- Offers Dark Web monitoring
- Offers 24/7 live member support (except for the Standard plan)
- Gives you alerts via email, text, phone or through their mobile app if it detects anything suspicious related to your identity
- Helps you fully restore your ID in case of ID theft and offers a specialized agent to work with you to resolve all your ID theft issues
- Offers a mobile app that is compatible with iOS and Android
- Includes lost wallet protection
- Includes black market surveillance, monitoring over 10,000 criminal websites
Identity Guard identity theft protection service overview
Identity Guard is another reputable and very well-known identity theft protection service that operates in both the United States and Canada. The company that launched the service is called Intersections Inc. and the service has been launched over 20 years ago.
Just like LifeLock, Identity Guard also uses sophisticated technology to offer the best identity theft protection there is, through its IBM Watson software, which uses complex algorithms and artificial intelligence. Watson is capable of analyzing and processing billions of bits of data in a very short time, thus monitoring and protecting your ID 24/7.
What is the price of Identity Guard?
There are three available plans with Identity Guard: Value, Total, Premier.
You can choose to be billed monthly or annually with each of the plans, but we are going to give you the quotes for annual billing, because those prices are better.
Value is the most basic plan offered and it is priced at $7.5 per month.
Total is your next option and this plan is priced at $16.67 per month.
Premier is the most comprehensive option and it is priced at $20.83 per month.
All these plans include a 30-day money back guarantee, which is not as good as the 60-day money back guarantee offered by LifeLock.
All three plans include the IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence software, which is slightly more than you get with LifeLock, which doesn’t offer its Norton 360 technology with its most basic and affordable plan.
Identity Guard also includes $1 million insurance with stolen funds reimbursement with all its plans, which is also more generous than LifeLock (the $1 million reimbursement is only available with their most expensive plan).
A mobile app and a risk management score are also available with all 3 plans.
Identity Guard highlights
- Anti-phishing mobile app that is compatible with iOS and Android
- Up to $1 million stolen funds reimbursement with all plans
- The IBM Watson AI software
- A US-based dedicated case manager
- Risk management score feature
- Browser extension that block threats and malvertisements, tracking cookies, Flash and more
- Dark Web monitoring
- Monthly credit score (based on TransUnion data)
- Instant alerts in case of changes related to your name, email or address, in case of tax fraud, bank account takeovers and more
- Social insight report with the most expensive plan (it assesses your Facebook timeline and it gives you recommendations on how to improve your image, it gives you alerts about cyberbullying attempts on social media)
- 60-day monitoring after your ID has been restored
Which ID theft protection service is better?
As you can see from this comparison, both services have strong selling points. LifeLock seems to stand out more through its features and its lengthier money-back guarantee (of 60 days versus 30 with Identity Guard), but Identity Guard is a bit more affordable and offers more benefits even with their most basic plan.
Both use complex software to monitor and protect your data: Identity Guard uses IBM Watson, while LifeLock uses Norton 360.
Identity Guard offers 60 more days of ID monitoring even after your identity has been restored, while LifeLock offers VPN for several devices.
Overall though, we consider Identity Guard to be a bit richer in features and more decent in pricing, but you can’t go wrong with either of the two services.
