The sign-up process is tedious, requiring you to input information multiple times. It also offers credit monitoring at Equifax, one of the three credit bureaus. After three months of this I have given up all confidence in Lifelock to manage my account and personal information based on the incompetency of their support people they hire. Read our full. As noted, though, promotional pricing is often available. Like other services, LifeLock offers tiers of protection. However, if that happened, having identity restoration specialists working on your behalf does sound helpful. You also get up to $1 million in stolen funds reimbursement coverage, up to $1 million in personal expense compensation and up to $1 million in coverage for lawyers and identity theft experts if you become a victim of identity theft. While that data cannot be removed, you can take proactive steps such as changing passwords or notifying the agency that issued identification, such as your drivers license to make it less useful. Coverage for two adults and up to five children runs $48.99 a month the first year and then auto-renews at a higher rate. LifeLock Ultimate Plus with Norton 360 comes with all the benefits of the lower tier plans plus monitoring of all three credit bureaus, a VPN for an unlimited number of devices, annual credit reports and scores from all three credit bureaus, 401(k) and investment account activity alerts, phone takeover monitoring and home title monitoring. Home Title Lock's insurance policy costs $19.95 per month. All Identity Guard plans also come with up to $1 million in broad identity theft insurance, whereas the basic LifeLock plan separates out its coverage with only $25,000 in reimbursement for stolen funds, $25,000 in personal expense compensation coverage and up to $1 million in coverage for lawyers and experts. On "Smart Money," Sean talks with Nerds across the NerdWallet Content team to answer listeners' personal finance questions. When I inquired about the size of their vast network of financial institutions, I was told they dont have an exact number because it increases every month. You have checked and don't have adequate identity theft monitoring, keep an eye on changes to your credit reports. I signed up for LifeLock after discovering that I was a recent victim of identity fraud, someone had taken out a $3,500 loan in my name and of course never made a payment. Before coming to NerdWallet, she worked for daily newspapers, MSN Money and Credit.com. Nice protection! Your "must-have" services may already be available to you as an employee benefit or because you were affected by a data breach. After that 40-minute call -- in which I got a lot of sales double-speak and somewhat misleading claims -- I was exhausted. Shares of NASDAQ:NLOK opened at $19.51 on Thursday. NortonLifeLock Inc. has a 52 week low of $20.12 and a 52 week high of $30.92. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Features include credit monitoring, financial reimbursement and more. 1. Wrongly. If you were inclined to pay $25/month for basic credit monitoring from a company like Experian, for example, then Id say yes. MORE: Cybersecurity guide to protecting yourself. When reading the fine print, though, you'll see that this coverage is secondary to other coverage that might be offered by the financial institution. But if you have a cheaper credit monitoring option, it may not be worth the extra spend. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment based on your own personal circumstances and consult with your own investment, financial, tax and legal advisers. This bumps up potential reimbursement to $1 million, adds credit monitoring at all three major credit bureaus and monitors investment activity. Read More: Best Identity Theft Protection Services, Michael Toub is an IT geek and condo-board Treasurer who loves solving problems and sharing knowledge. Also be sure to do the math after year one in order to avoid a nasty surprise on month 13. Lifelock offers several tiers of coverage to help protect your identity. So here it is and this is why I will not be using Lifelock services any longer, my experience as it unfolded over the last three months. Editorial Disclosure: This content is not provided or commissioned by the bank, credit card issuer, or other advertiser. Some areas to think about include: All LifeLock plans come with a standard roster of protective benefits, yet some of them stand out. These add-on services are bogus. If I were inclined to spend hundreds of dollars each year for identity theft protection services, Id have a number of companies to choose from. The Forbes Advisor editorial team is independent and objective. Our stress-free guide will answer all your taxing questions (pun intended). If you're on a tight budget, consider using free methods to make yourself less of a target. When evaluating offers, please review the financial institutions Terms and Conditions. The free credit report was a nice addition. We value your privacy. But alerts just flag you after the fact; they can't prevent someone from stealing and misusing your financial data. LifeLock was acquired by computer security company Symantec in 2017 for $2.3 billion. If someone hacks your information and uses it maliciously, these companies can help you recover lost money and help undo the damage to your credit. Beyond answering listeners' money questions on "Smart Money," Sean also interviews guests outside of NerdWallet and produces special segments to explore topics like the racial wealth gap, how to start investing and the history of student loans. Price-sensitive customers who want to have their social media accounts scanned as part of a package. This content has not been provided by, reviewed, approved or endorsed by any advertiser, unless otherwise noted below. I call to have issues resolved and they go through the action of doing so and insure me that all is correct and then a month later I get another email and text message telling me my subscription has expired. She earned a bachelors degree in journalism and mass communications from the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, MarketWatch and elsewhere. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money. You know that you wont go through the effort of actively monitoring your own credit. You can purchase LifeLock Junior for an additional cost for dependents under the age of 18, but you have to purchase an adult plan first. Cost: $19.95 a month or $219 for an annual plan for ID Watchdog Platinum, which offers three-bureau credit monitoring. for free online on sites like NerdWallet. I would never use (or trust) them again. Pls. Like other credit monitoring services, LifeLock will alert you to credit inquiries from the 3 credit major bureaus. So the reason I am leaving this information is to alert potential customers that you can sign up but you may experience much difficulty when it comes to getting help and a straight answer to your questions and when interacting with phone support you will be talking to people overt seas or who knows where and will in most cases have much difficulty understanding what they are saying and be left feeling that your information is not really secure, it leaves me feeling at unease. OK92033) Property & Casualty Licenses, NerdWallet | 55 Hawthorne St. - 11th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105. Heres a look at some popular products in the identity protection industry. Pre-qualified offers are not binding. My personal feeling is Symantec should have their own web site so the web site isn't so confusing. Alerts: Notify you of instances where your personal information has been used, like if someone tries to open a bank account in your name. Identity theft protection companies keep an eye on your accounts and your credit report in order to spot the early signs of fraud. Pre-qualified offers are not binding. LifeLock Ultimate Plus is the only plan that monitors your credit reports from all three credit bureaus, which is crucial when it comes to finding accounts opened in your name. LifeLock agreed to pay $100 million to settle allegations that it "misled consumers with deceptive advertising" and failed to establish and maintain proper information security requirements to. Address? The service also auto-renews, which can be a convenience or a nuisance. With Norton, it's $29.99/month for the first year and then $34.99/month. A Credit Freeze Offers Stiffer Protections. I am posting this after 18 years with LifeLock. If you find discrepancies with your credit score or information from your credit report, please contact TransUnion directly. FAQ. Once you join, you simply make monthly payments and the company closely monitors your information. They read off all of the information to verify the account, I keep telling them I don't know anything. I reported my identity theft to LifeLock because that is what they specialize in. Apparently, they weren't interested in keeping me as a customer. However, this does not influence our evaluations. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today and elsewhere. Something went wrong. They're supposed to stop this sort of stuff not instigate it. Now I feel like I've been scammed and ripped off twice, once by the person who took out a loan in my name, and once again by LifeLock. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, USA Today, MSN Money and elsewhere. So it started 3 months ago and I remind you I have been a Lifelock member for almost a decade and always was provided great customer service and always got an individual on the phone that was American and I could fully understand and I was left feeling confident that I was being provided a valuable service and my identity was being protected. Ultimate Plus: Offers $1 million in reimbursements for stolen funds, security for an unlimited number of devices, bank and credit card alerts, 401(K) investment alerts, alerts for crimes in your name, and reports from all three credit bureaus. LifeLock provides identity theft protection and monitoring services. It seemed no one had any idea how to resolve the issue. I was given a refund within the 60-day refund policy. This sounds like a good feature, but plays on your fears. Each of your credit reports from the three credit bureausExperian, Equifax and TransUnionmay have different information. Probably not. Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus: This bumps up potential reimbursement to $1 million, adds credit monitoring at all three major credit bureaus and monitors investment activity. You can freeze your credit files at all three major credit bureaus Equifax, Experian and TransUnion for free, something an identity theft protection company cannot do for you. We do not offer financial advice, advisory or brokerage services, nor do we recommend or advise individuals or to buy or sell particular stocks or securities. You want to sell anti-virus software? I like the fact that it can actually monitor my bank and charge accounts with site credentials and get actual balance information. However, Ive grown to appreciate the email confirmation each time I buy groceries or transfer between accounts. Knowing which cards were in the wallet was a snap.