IDShield vs. LifeLock: 10 Things to Consider When Comparing Them

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Following our popular post on identity theft protection services, we noticed an increasing interest in comparisons between IDShield and LifeLock. More and more people understand the dangers of identity theft and decide to take proactive measures to prevent it. One look at the latest numbers should be enough to explain this state of facts. According to Insurance Information Institute statistics:

• The number of people who have their identity stolen annually has exceeded 16.7 million
• Identity theft causes damages of more than 16.8 billion annually
• Every year, approximately 30% of U.S. consumers receive data breach notifications.
• Most identity theft attempts refer to credit cards, new accounts, employment, tax, utilities, phone, banks, and loans.

Since identity theft usually takes place online, the thieves have their ways of covering their tracks. Once you’ve become their victim, your chances of recovering your losses are close to none. It makes much more sense to protect your identity. That is where solutions like IDShield or LifeLock come in. The two systems are actually among the best on the market. Besides helping you prevent ID theft, they also help you recover and restore your identity, should the unavoidable occur.

Which one should you choose? That is a difficult question. The answer can only come from correlating your needs and expectations with what the two systems have to offer. A thorough IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison should help. Before we get to it, though, it is important to keep in mind that, although the two systems target the same problem, identity theft, they have completely different approaches and offer completely different services.

In order to help you choose the best one for you, we will help you compare the most important ten aspects related to their offers, the ones that will determine your overall experience and satisfaction.

IDShield vs. LifeLock – 10 Things to Compare

1. Approach

Both service providers offer security monitoring and identity restoration services. However, each provider has a different approach. IDShield focuses its services on the number of beneficiaries. It places a strong emphasis on its partnership with Kroll’s Licensed Investigators and offers identity consultation services.

LifeLock lures customers with different service levels and teamed up with Symantec to make Norton Security part of its plans. Besides identity restoration services and antivirus protection, they also offer compensations for legal fees, personal expenses, and stolen funds.

2. Service Plans

IDShield only offers two service plans: Individual and Family. The two plans cover the same services, listed below. The only difference between them is the number of beneficiaries. The Individual plan covers only one beneficiary. With the Family plan, coverage is available for up to ten members, namely the subscriber, their spouse, and up to 8 children.

Both service plans offer:

• Consultation services
• Privacy monitoring
• Security monitoring
• Social media monitoring
• Identity restoration
• IDShield Vault Password Manager
• $5 million service guarantee
• Exclusive member discounts with various retailers and service providers

LifeLock offers five service plans:

1. Standard – It focuses on SSN and credit alerts. It includes a protection package with the following limits: $25,000 for reimbursement of stolen funds, $25,000 for compensating personal expenses, and $1 million for lawyer and expert fees. The plan also provides lost wallet protection, verifications for USPS address changes, dark web monitoring, privacy monitoring, and credit monitoring with one credit bureau.
2. Advantage – It focuses on SSN and credit alerts, bank and credit card activity alerts, and crime in the beneficiary’s name. The protection package has higher limits: $100,000 for reimbursement of stolen funds, $100,000 for personal expense compensation, and $1 million for lawyer and expert fees. The plan offers all the services in the Standard plan, plus alerts on any crimes committed in the beneficiary’s name, notifications in case of a data breach, and monitoring for fictitious identities.
3. Ultimate Plus – It should provide the best and most complete identity theft protection services. Its protection package is limited at: $1 million for reimbursement of stolen funds, $1 million for compensation for personal expenses, and $1 million for lawyer and expert fees. It covers everything included in the other packages, plus: credit monitoring and annual credit scores and reports from three bureaus, monthly tracking of credit score with one bureau, activity alerts for 401 (k) and investment funds, alerts for bank account takeovers and creation of new accounts, network searches for file-sharing, reports concerning listings in the sex offender registry, priority live support.
4. Junior – It is available as an addition to any of the three main plans. It covers identity alert system, dark web monitoring, credit monitoring, lost wallet protection, searches on file-sharing networks, coverage for stolen funds and legal fees according to the limits of the main (adult) package.
5. Senior – It is available as an addition to the other three main plans for members who want to acquire protection for their parents. The seniors have to be at least 55 years of age and give their consent. If they do, they will benefit from the coverage limits available with the Advantage package and the services included in the Ultimate package, plus home title monitoring reduces pre-approved credit card offers.

Following its partnership with Symantec, Lifelock provides a similarly priced upgraded version of its main plans that includes Norton Security. The antivirus can be installed on up to three devices with the Standard plan and on up to five devices with the Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans.

3. Pricing

Both identity theft protection providers offer recurrent memberships to their clients. Their prices are expressed in monthly fees. IDShield charges $9.95 for its Individual plan and $24.95 for its Family plan. LifeLock charges $9.99 for Standard, $19.99 for Advantage, $29.99 for Ultimate Plus, $5.99 for Junior, and $19.99 for Senior.

Leaving service differences aside, the winner of the IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison from the financial point of view would be the former service provider, for having more affordable price offers. However, the balance may tilt in favor of LifeLock if you consider the value of the included Norton Security protection services.

4. Protection

IDShield offers social media monitoring and password management. Lifelock, on the other hand, offers antivirus protection and investment activity alerts. From this point of view, the choice between the two ID theft protection services would be determined by user profile and preferences.

5. Coverage

In case of identity theft, IDShield promises to spend up to $5 million to help recover and restore user identity. However, they make it clear that their coverage does not include personal expenses or legal fees. Otherwise put, if your ID is stolen, they will go to any extent to help you recover it, but recovering any losses or damages is your sole responsibility. With LifeLock, the available coverage reaches $1 million for Ultimate Plus members, but it includes personal expenses and legal fees as well.

As a client whose identity was stolen, you probably care more about recovering your losses than you do about how much money your service provider spends in order to help you. This makes LifeLock the winner of the IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison.

6. Insurance and Guarantees

IDShield assures clients that they work with Kroll’s Licensed Investigators and will spend up to $5 million to restore their identity should the ID theft protection services they offer fail. However, clients have no guarantees they will recover any money or find the person who stole their ID. It is also unclear how they would be able to keep track of the service provider’s expenses.

LifeLock took the next step and backed up their services with a Master Policy within the above-detailed coverage limits. Their insurer is the State National Insurance Company for clients residing in New York State, and United Specialty Insurance Company for clients from the rest of the country. The terms and conditions of the insurance policy are available on their website. They, too, claim to work with reputed identity restoration specialists, but they do not give away the name of the company.

Unlike IDShield, LifeLock offers clients a 60 days money back guarantee.

7. Availability

When it comes to availability, it is difficult to set a winner in the IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison. The former offers coverage in 50 states and 4 provinces, having limited solutions for Canada clients as well.  The latter targets U.S. clients only but poses no limits to its services.

8. Mobile Account Access

Both ID Shield and LifeLock offer mobile apps to iOS and Android users. LifeLock seems to have a few technical requirements for its app, while IDShield does not mention any. However, the LifeLock app seems to be much more popular than the IDShield App, having several thousands of reviews, compared to only a few hundreds of reviews.

The IDShield app, although less popular, has a slightly higher average rating than its main competitor in the IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison. The developer also offers clients the possibility to subscribe to the LegalShield service plans offered by the same developer and install the dedicated app.

9. User Experience and Support

Both IDShield and LifeLock offer 24/7 live support to members needing identity restoration. They also answer questions by live chat, phone, and email. Their websites include a blog section where they publish helpful articles on ID theft and related topics.

However, LifeLock edges out IDShield, offering website visitors access to a comprehensive database comprising advice and resources on ID theft. Their resources promise to inform and educate anyone interested in ID theft protection. Moreover, LifeLock’s website has a friendlier, more attractive, easier to navigate interface compared to that of IDShield.

10. Reputation

Our IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison would not be complete without reviewing the reputation of the two service providers. The Better Business Bureau rated LegalShield, the company behind IDShield, with A+. However, the average customer rating is of 3/5 stars, based on over 60 reviews. It is important to note that most of these reviews refer to LegalShield, not IDShield.

Lifelock does not have a Better Business Bureau accreditation. Their rating is B+ for failing to respond to 3 complaints, and their average rating is of 1.2/5 stars. It seems they were even subject to government action. However, the data available is not entirely accurate, the BBB report referring to two different websites, one of LifeLock Inc. (LifeLock.com), and one of an affiliate (LifeLock.org).

According to our research, most complaints referring to LifeLock come from customers who acquired their services through affiliates and refer to customer service issues, not to the ID theft protection services themselves. Unlike IDShield, the company is accredited by Consumer Affairs and has an average rating of 4.2/5 stars on their website, based on over 750 ratings and 2,100 reviews and complaints.

Since IDShield is more affordable, it seems to raise lower customer expectations. Despite the higher prices and service expectations, LifeLock hasn’t disappointed too many customers either. According to the available reviews, their service canceling procedures should be simplified.

Who is the winner of the IDShield vs. LifeLock comparison from your perspective and why? Do you have experience with any of these two ID theft protection systems? Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts and experience in a comment below!

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