Best Identity Theft Protection for Seniors

1. Aura - Most Comprehensive

Editors Rating:

9.6 /10

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How We Review

Aura is our top choice when it comes to protecting seniors from identity theft. The company offers all the services you’d expect from a top-tier ID theft company, like online account monitoring, dark web scanning, and spam call site removal. In addition, it offers services you might not expect, like financial fraud protection, antivirus software, and a VPN. Plus, seniors can sign up for coverage through individual, couple, or family plans.

Family Plan Coverage

Aura offers great individual coverage, but it also offers plans for couples and families. Family plans cover up to five individuals, and Aura doesn’t distinguish between adults and children. That means seniors can get their own plans or sign up as part of a total family package. All Aura’s plans come with the same great features, like account monitoring, ID verification monitoring, and lost wallet assistance.

Multi-factor Identification

Aura doesn’t just alert users about data breaches. It helps protect users from data breaches. One way it does this is by requiring multi-factor authentication for all its own transactions. Basically, this kind of security requires users to provide at least two different pieces of information about themselves to verify their identities before they log on. Users might be asked, for instance, to supply a password and to answer a personal security question. Measures like these are especially important to protect seniors, who are among the most targeted populations for identity thieves.

24/7 Customer Service

Another important feature for any senior using an identity theft protection service is responsive customer service. Setting up monitoring or navigating through an app can be tricky for any of us. Dealing with an actual instance of identity theft can be downright scary. That’s why it’s so important that a company like Aura provides 24/7 customer service.

Customers can access live chat on the Aura homepage, or they can call directly and speak to someone with a real live voice. And, when a theft happens, Aura offers full-service, U.S.-based white-glove service, with trained specialists to help customers recover.

2. Identity Guard® - Best With the Most Choices

Editors Rating:

9.5 /10

877-719-0299

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How We Review

Identity Guard is all about service and convenience. Sure the company offers all the identity theft features you’d expect. Even better, it uses IBM Watson technology to monitor accounts and scan the dark web. Identity Guard goes the extra mile, though, to make things easy for its customers. For example, Identity Guard offers a range of subscription plans so you can choose exactly the level of coverage you need. In addition, it offers bonus features like risk assessments to help you better understand what you can do to protect your identity.

AI-based Protection

Identity Guard doesn’t just monitor your online accounts and scan the dark web looking for information about you. It uses IBM Watson to do these jobs. You may have heard of IBM Watson: it’s famous for having beaten some of the smartest chess champions in the world. It’s more than just a computer. It thinks. That means it doesn’t just look for fraudulent uses of your data online. It interprets what it finds so it can give you the most accurate, up-to-date alerts and reports.

Risk Management Reports

One of the great things about Identity Guard is that the company understands that not everyone is fluent in the language of identity theft and financial fraud. Quite frankly, there’s a lot to know, and it can all be pretty confusing to the average customer. To help make sense of it all, Identity Guard provides a risk management service that explains exactly where customers may have weaknesses when it comes to safeguarding their identities and how to go about addressing those weaknesses.

A Range of Pricing Options

Identity Guard plans start at just $7.50 a month if you sign up for a one year subscription. Of course, you don’t get all of Identity Guard’s features for that price, but then you may not need all those features. In other words, the company lets you select the amount of coverage that’s right for you. At the other end of the spectrum, for instance, Identity Guard offers its Ultra plan for $25 a month with an annual subscription. That plan includes extras like address change monitoring and access to a three-bureau credit report. Finally, you can also get any of Identity Guard’s plans in a family version that covers everyone in your household.

3. LifeLock - Best With AARP Discounts

LifeLock customers enjoy ID theft monitoring and device protection with Norton 360 antivirus.

Editors Rating:

9.2 /10

1-800-943-2151

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How We Review

LifeLock is part of the company Norton, which many people may already know for their impressive suite of digital security products and services. Meet LifeLock, the only identity theft protection service that gives seniors discounts through AARP. Available on its own and as part of Norton 360, LifeLock goes above and beyond to protect seniors from identity theft along with other online risks like phishing and viruses.

AARP Discounts

If you or your loved one is a member of the AARP, then you can get discounts on LifeLock. While for non-members, LifeLock starts at $8.99 a month, it starts at $7.99 a month for AARP members with a promo code. You can also get this deal by calling LifeLock directly and explaining your AARP membership. LifeLock is the only identity theft protection service we’ve tested out that offers discounts for seniors, so this is a clear choice for those 50 and older.2

Comprehensive Coverage

In the modern world, there are many areas in which identities can be stolen from, whether it’s the dark web, which many seniors may not be aware of, or even something as seemingly innocuous as a bank account. Well, LifeLock covers it all, including but not limited to monitoring for:

• Sex offender registries
• Bank account takeovers
• Investment accounts
• Home titles
• Alerts on crimes committed
• Data breaches
• Credit scores and reports.

If you’ve read our page on LifeLock’s pricing, you can see which subscription contains which monitoring areas to find the perfect plan for the elder in your life.

Device Security

In addition to being pretty extensive when it comes to monitoring our credit and identities, LifeLock also has bundles with Norton 360 which offers things like:

• PC cloud backup of up to 500 GB
• VPN coverage
• Ad-blockers
• Anti-virus software
• Parental controls
• Safe webcam.

If you’re new to identity protection and want to protect yourself further online, then Norton is your one-stop solution for digital security.

4. IdentityForce - Best for Working Seniors

Protect the whole family with IdentityForce family plans and get comprehensive credit monitoring.

Editors Rating:

9.4 /10

How We Review

Our fourth pick for the best identity protection for seniors is IdentityForce. The fact of the matter is that many seniors are still in the workforce, about one in five adults in the U.S ages 65 and up according to recent estimates.3 IdentityForce knows that, which is why they offer seniors plans for personal as well as business use. Let’s take a closer look below.

Good Option for Working Seniors

Many people may not know that businesses are also susceptible to identity theft, as criminals can gain access to a business’ cards, bank accounts or tax identification numbers, along with other personal information.4 For seniors still actively involved in the workplace, this is a problem, but IdentityForce has a solution with monitoring for online payments, medical records, website registrations and more. While their pricing isn’t listed online, businesses can try out IdentityForce for free for a period of time, so take advantage of this offer while it’s still hot.

Credit Monitoring From All Three Bureaus

If you’ve lived on this planet for a while, then you’re probably already aware of the fact that in the U.S, the three major credit-reporting bureaus are Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. With IdentityForce’s top-tier UltraSecure + Credit package, senors will get credit scores and reports from all three bureaus along with a tracker and simulator so they can see how certain actions might affect their credit scores. Whether you’re saving up for a vacation home or paying for a grandchild’s first semester at college, credit can greatly affect your chances of securing loans, but IdentityForce makes monitoring your credit a breeze.

AES-256 Encryption

Think of encryption as a treasure box with a lock, and inside the treasure box is your personal information. IdentityForce uses something called AES-256 to protect customer data, which, if it were a box and lock, would be top of the market. This ensures that your personal information like your credit card numbers, bank account info, name, address, and more are safe within their (digital) hands.

5. ID Watchdog - Best with Dark Web Scan

Enjoy full-service identity theft protection backed by credit-reporting agency Equifax.

Editors Rating:

9.0 /10

How We Review

Speaking of Equifax, let’s talk about ID Watchdog, owned by the credit-reporting agency itself. But while their ID Watchdog Plus plan only covers Equifax, their ID Watchdog Premium plan covers all three bureaus with daily updates from Equifax specifically, so you can stay on top of your credit on a day-to-day basis.

Easy Setup

While we don’t want to contribute to the stereotype that people of a certain age aren’t the most adept at technology, we’ve all tried to explain to our grandmothers over the phone how to check Facebook, and we’ll never get those hours back. So when it came to the best identity monitoring services for seniors, we prioritized those with simple setups, and ID Watchdog made the list. To sign up, all we had to do was select a subscription, enter in our personal and payment information, create usernames and passwords, verify our identities with a few quick questions, and voíla; our identities were monitored in several criminal and financial areas. Overall, the process was relatively painless, saving kids and grandkids ample time explaining things over the phone.

$1 Million Reimbursement Maximum

If any identity theft protection company says that they can guarantee that your identity won’t be stolen, run in the other direction (LifeLock got in trouble for this in 2010 and ended up having to pay the FTC a cool $12 million,5 so it’s more than frowned upon; it’s illegal). That’s why most companies offer identity theft insurance in cases its monitoring doesn’t work out. Fortunately, with either of ID Watchdog’s plans, customers will get identity theft insurance for up to $1 million, the standard across the industry. On top of that, customers will also get 401(k) or HSA stolen funds reimbursement for up to $500,000, which isn’t as typical. Considering the fact that many seniors rely on these funds for their day-to-day expenses, ID Watchdog comes out as one of our top recommendations.

Solicitation Reduction

Since many elderly people are more likely to be home than most, they may receive a lot of spam calls throughout the day, which could be phone scams resulting in identity theft. But ID Watchdog doesn’t only monitor online areas like the dark web. They also offer solicitation reduction, which translates to adding seniors to the National Do Not Call Registry and even reducing the amount of junk mail they receive. Many scammers will use senior’s email inboxes, physical mail boxes and phone numbers to send over phishing messages, as we’ve seen in our study on COVID-related cyber scams, so we loved the fact that ID Watchdog’s coverage extends way beyond the Internet.

6. Zander Insurance - Most Affordable

Low-cost identity theft insurance plans backed by financial guru Dave Ramsey.

Editors Rating:

8.1 /10

How We Review

If you’re a senior that already has credit, bank account, investment account, and payment card monitoring, then adding on identity monitoring from Zander Insurance will be the most cost-effective option. Their services start at just $6 per month, one of the lowest prices we’ve seen, with coverage for many types of fraud including tax, medical, financial, Social Security, and more.

Individual and Family Plans

While many seniors live alone, some live with their families, and many others are still super close with their kids and grandkids. Zander Insurance is a great option for a senior as well as one other adult and up to 10 children in addition to an individual senior. Not all of the services on this list qualify as the best identity theft protection for families, but we dubbed Zander as most affordable. See for yourself below.

User-Friendly Apps

The fastest way to find out if your information has been stolen is to turn on Zander Insurance’s mobile notifications on their iOS or Android apps, both of which were really easy for us to use. And we’re not the only ones who think so; currently, their iOS app has a three-star rating, while their Android app is at four stars. Once we downloaded the iOS app onto our iPhones, we got notified when someone tried to create a home title in one of our names, and because we got the notification so quickly, we were on it as soon as we could be.

Great Phone Support

These days, there are a number of ways you can contact someone: you can text them, Slack them, Zoom them, call them, Facetime them, and a whole lot more. But many people, seniors included, prefer the old-fashioned telephone, which we found was the best way to get in contact with someone at Zander Insurance. We had a few questions about their services, and when we called them, we got a helpful response immediately, much better than their support over email. Sometimes human contact really pays off!

7. IDShield - Best with Free Trial

IDShield offers best-in-class family plans with an impressive $5 million in ID theft coverage.

Editors Rating:

8.0 /10

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How We Review

For seniors, buying anything online may feel a bit strange and dangerous, which is why they’ll appreciate IDShield’s 30-day, money-back guarantee. Sure, they’ll still need to feed their payment information onto IDShield’s website, but they won’t be charged until a month after, which means that they’ll have 30 full days to try out their services for free. If they cancel within that time period, they’ll receive a full refund, taking the risk out of e-commerce.

Dark Web Monitoring

Even experienced Internet-users may not be aware of the risks of the dark web. Basically, the dark web is an area of the Internet where all of the users are anonymous, so naturally, it’s a hotbed for cybercrime, stolen passwords and identity theft galore. But with IDShield, they don’t have to worry about the scary dark web, as the service will monitor it for their credentials 24/7. If their credentials were found, they would’ve gotten alerted as soon as possible.

Private Investigators Included

Like we said earlier, no service can 100 percent prevent identity theft, but IDShield really goes above and beyond when it comes to identity restoration. If you or a senior you know’s identity has been stolen, the company will give access to licensed private investigators who are based in the U.S and available 24/7, 365 days a year. Seniors will love this personal touch, and the experience necessary for them to regain control of their identities.

Public Record Monitoring

Finally, IDShield scans the 78 billion U.S public records for 24 pieces of seniors’ personal information to make sure their credentials aren’t found where they shouldn’t be, like in court records or address changes.