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TrustedID Review: Identity Theft Protection |
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Rating: |
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| Best value, especially for families; full credit report monitoring; exclusive 14-day free trial & 10% discount | |
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[Editor's Note: For a limited time, TrustedID is offering NextAdvisor.com visitors an exclusive 10% discount and free 14-day trial. There is no coupon code required for this offer but you must click on a link from our site.]
TrustedID is the only service we've found that also gives you medical record protection. The service will help you request your medical benefit history from all your providers so you can make sure no one else has been receiving benefits in your name. They then monitor your account for any suspicious usage on an ongoing basis. When you sign up for TrustedID you are given an Identity Threat Score, with additional information about any other steps you may need to take to protect yourself. This score provides a gauge of your individual risk level based on an analysis of the various records and databases that TrustedID monitors. Your score will help TrustedID's protection specialists determine the necessary steps to proactively protect your identity. TrustedID helps protect your identity at home too, with free anti-spyware, anti-phishing and anti-keylogging software included with your membership. This is definitely a nice added feature. The software is branded with TrustedID's brand but is developed and maintained by Sana Security, a highly reputable and well-reviewed identity theft prevention software company. In addition, TrustedID helps you send letters to opt out of junk mail in general and credit card and other lending offers in particular. Not only do these clog your mailbox and kill trees, but they are also a prime target for identity thieves to steal, gain your personal information and open a credit card account in your name. You will get access to your credit scores and reports from all three bureaus as soon as you sign up for TrustedID, as well as your three-bureau credit report monitoring. While three-bureau credit monitoring is not included in all identity theft protection services, we think it's a very valuable id theft protection tool and a last line of defense to detect financial account identity theft when other methods may have failed to prevent it. We also think monitoring all three bureaus is critical as many financial accounts only report to one of the bureaus. Thus, IDEssentials is actually one of the better-priced credit monitoring services out there in addition to being a great value for identity theft protection. Since the service includes reports, scores and monitoring of all three bureaus, it's also one of the most complete. The only thing it lacks is frequent updates to your credit scores and reports as the ones you get at sign-up are only updated annually, and not quarterly or monthly like some of the other identity theft protection services we review. Of course, you'll be able to continue tracking any changes to your credit reports with the credit monitoring which is an ongoing part of the service, but you won't be sure how exactly how these changes affect your score. For those that want to take the additional step of setting fraud alerts on their credit files, Trusted ID has developed a simple interface that walks you through the process of setting your own fraud alerts online with Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus. Once your fraud alerts are set, Equifax will notify the other two credit bureaus, Experian and TransUnion, on your behalf and fraud alerts will be set on your credit files at those two bureaus as well. After you set your fraud alerts the first time they will need to be renewed every 90 days and TrustedID sends an email notification that reminds you to reset your fraud alerts before they lapse. TrustedID's ID theft service warranty starts the moment you sign up and covers you for up to $1,000,000 in costs to recover from identity theft. While this is a great benefit, direct monetary losses from identity theft are almost always much less, since you are not legally responsible for paying any fraudulent debt accumulated by a thief. The real cost of identity theft is the loss of ability to get credit for an extended period of time, the time and effort it takes to restore your good name, and many other adverse consequences that can even include mistaken incarceration. Thus, we think the most valuable part of the warranty is the identity theft restoration service that TrustedID gives you as part of the warranty. In the extremely unlikely event that your identity is stolen while you're a TrustedID member, they will pay for and perform all the tasks necessary to restore your identity, which can be extremely time-consuming, difficult and costly. We've found TrustedID customer service representatives to be very helpful and easy to reach at any time of the day or week. TrustedID's pricing structure offers a choice of individual plans or family plans. A monthly individual plan costs just $9.38/mo with annual prepay, or $13.49/mo with a monthly payment. The family plans cost $18/mo with annual prepay or $25.19/mo with monthly payment. TrustedID is a particularly good value for large families, as the family plan is a little less than twice as much as the individual plan. You can add everyone in your household, so it makes sense if you have at least two people in your household. You should note that the family plan limits credit monitoring, credit reports and credit scores to two adults, but all the rest of the protection can be provided to everyone at your address. Overall, TrustedID offers a great identity theft protection solution and a comprehensive yet cost-effective option for those serious about preventing identity theft. With strong features like vigilant monitoring for your personal information, 3-bureau credit reports and scores, 3-bureau credit report monitoring, medical record protection and free computer protection software, it's a terrific choice. Sign up for TrustedID | Compare to Other Identity Theft Protection |
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| Price: | Free 14-day trial & 10% discount; $9.38/mo w/ annual prepay |
| Fraud Monitoring: | Monitors 3-bureau credit report, credit cards, public records, Social Security number, bank accounts, medical records |
| ID Theft Insurance/ Guarantee: | $1,000,000 warranty |
| Reports Delivered: | All 3-bureau credit scores & reports each year |
| Computer Security: | Anti-spyware, anti-phishing & anti-keylogging protection |
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