In a Nutshell
pros
- Free 30-day trial
- Family plans available
- Affordable and cost-effective
cons
- Customer support is not available 24 hours, 7 days a week
- Have to pay for extra full credit reports
A brilliant solution for:
- Individuals looking to keep their identity and personal info safe
- Families who want to affordably protect parents and children
How does it work?
Sign up with IdentityWorks by choosing a plan and entering your personal information into the secure site. Experian will begin monitoring your accounts within 48 hours of signup, though it can take up to 4 days to get total coverage (including Equifax and TransUnion monitoring).
You’ll receive some introductory emails from Experian explaining exactly how to set up your account. Unlike some software-based options that scan your devices for questionable behavior or data breaches, IdentityWorks monitors your personal accounts and sends out notifications if any red flags are triggered.
What does this service watch out for?
IdentityWorks has exceptionally good coverage for identity theft protection. Probably because it is Experian (a credit bureau that knows an awful lot about credit, personal data, and identity theft), IdentityWorks offers more than the average spread of credit monitoring services. Some of them include:
- Credit monitoring
Monitoring of all 3 major credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion.
- Credit alerts
Notifies you of new credit inquiries, new account openings, credit utilization, positive activity, dormant accounts in your name, and basic FICO score alerts.
- Reports
You’ll get daily FICO score reports based on Experian data. Plus, if you are on the Premium plan, you’ll get quarterly 3-bureau scores.
- Dark Web surveillance
No matter what plan you choose, you'll get dark web surveillance. IdentityWorks scans more than 600,000 dark web pages for personal identifying information.
- Public records monitoring
This service includes monitoring of many types of social records including court records and arrests. This will also let you know if someone changes your mailing address (redirects your mail to go to a new address, something scammers often do to intercept your mail).
- Loan monitoring
This is a huge benefit. IdentityWorks will notify you if someone attempts to take out a loan in your name. This can include payday loan monitoring and other types of loans as well.
- SSN monitoring
Another vital ingredient to identity theft protection, Social Security monitoring tells you any information that is linked to your Social Security number including any associated addresses or other names.
- Financial account takeover monitoring
This will send you an alert if anyone tries to take over your bank account or to open an account using your name or other personal identifiers.
- Sex offender registry
Be the first to know if someone on the registry moves in near you.
Additional services include:
- CreditLock
CreditLock is an IdentityWorks exclusive feature. Basically, it is an automatic lock on your Experian credit file. What’s neat about this feature is just how simple it is to use. It is literally just a toggle switch that you can tap to lock or unlock your Experian credit file to prevent unauthorized access to your credit file.
Additional features such as fraud resolution and ID theft insurance are covered below.
Recovery services - what can IdentityWorks do if my identity is stolen?
Nobody wants to think about having their identity stolen, but with statistics rising every year, it’s something that everyone should be prepared for. Having an identity theft protection plan is an excellent step, but no software is foolproof. So, the question becomes, what will the company do if your identity is stolen. In the case of IdentityWorks, quite a lot.
ID theft insurance up to $1 million
Dealing with identity theft is an expensive and painful process. One thing that IdentityWorks does to make the process less difficult for you is covering most of the expenses. Depending on which plan you purchase, you can receive up to $1 million in reimbursements. This can cover things like legal expenses and professional advice, fraudulent charges, and personal expenses that build up quickly.
A restoration specialist
This is an invaluable representative that takes charge of your case in the event of identity theft. The project manager will handle your case from beginning to end, walk you through the complicated legal and technical procedures, and help to ensure that your claims are filed properly, moved along quickly, and resolved completely.
Lost wallet replacement assistance
IdentityWorks will also help you clear up the mess of losing your wallet by helping you contact providers, cancel cards, and get replacements.
Reporting a dispute is also much simpler with IdentityWorks than it is with many other identity theft providers. You are given the option to initiate a dispute from your smartphone, over the phone, via the online Dispute Center, or by mail. You’ll receive email updates to let you know your status at every stage of the dispute process. In general, Experian resolves all disputes within 30 days, which is super fast for this type of work. Plus, IdentityWorks goes the extra mile by getting in touch with whatever third party agencies are required to resolve the dispute.
How easy is it to use?
Experian really makes IdentityWorks easy to use. After you download the software, you are pretty much free to go. You can set up alerts and decide how you want to be notified. Otherwise, the rest is taken care of by IdentityWorks.
Pricing
IdentityWorks offers 2 pricing plans, Plus and Premium. Additionally, if you signed up for the annual plan, you'll get a 17% discount.
The fact that IdentityWorks offers a family plan really makes it one of the most affordable options out there. For example, competitors may offer a lower individual rate (though $9.99 a month is pretty cheap), but those same competitors will not offer a family plan. So, you’ll have to sign up for a new coverage plan for each family member, skyrocketing your identity theft coverage.
Plus, the family plan offers child identity protection features like Social Security number trace and social network monitoring.
Help & Support
IdentityWorks offers personal assistance through its customer support center. This is manned by US citizens who understand your issues and speak your language. The one downside to IdentityWorks’ customer support is that it is not available at all hours of the day. Instead, you can reach a representative via the below phone number from 6am to 8pm PT on Monday-Friday, and 8am to 5pm PT Saturday and Sunday. This limited customer support access may leave some consumers uncomfortable about their coverage.
Bottom Line
IdentityWorks holds up to the expectations that you would have coming from a big name like Experian. You’ll get all the ID theft protection you could ask for including credit report monitoring, Social Security number monitoring, and Dark Web surveillance. Additionally, with the family plan included, IdentityWorks offers some of the most affordable protection available today. Take a look at this ID protection. You’ll be glad you did.
