Would it be overkill to use both Trusted ID and Identity Guard for identity theft protection and credit report monitoring?

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June 4th, 2010 - Posted by Tasha

Q:   Would it be overkill to use both Trusted ID and Identity Guard for identity theft protection and credit report monitoring?  I feel that although some of the features that the two companies offer overlap, each one seems to offer something a little different. Also, what happens to the personal information that we provide if the company we use goes out of business?

A: Good question!  This boils down to what features you need and how price sensitive you might be.  Trusted ID and Identity Guard do offer many similar features, but there are some differences between the two.  Specifically, Trusted ID offers protection of your medical records and the ability to opt out of junk mail (Identity Guard does not).   Identity Guard provides daily monitoring of your 3 credit reports and quarterly credit scores (Trusted ID does not).

In my opinion Identity Guard is the most robust overall, as you can go to Opt Out Prescreen and remove yourself from junk mail lists for free.  However, it is priced slightly higher than Trusted ID.  If price point and the ability to protect your medical records are important to you, and you're not as concerned about credit report monitoring,  Trusted ID might be the better choice for you.

Regarding how the personal information you provide to these companies is protected (even if the company goes out of business) , both Identity Guard and Trusted ID use 128 bit SSL encryption to protect any data you enter online during your signup.  They then put that data in an encrypted, PCI compliant database.  PCI compliance is the industry standard for protecting sensitive credit/debit card information – credit card companies like Visa and Mastercard are PCI compliant.  In the event of company bankruptcy, or any situation where the company goes out of business, this database would then be completely wiped clean of your personal information.