According to USA Today, one in four homes in America have been hit by identity theft in the past five years. It's no wonder there's been an increased demand for identity theft protection services. Of course, a market will always rise to meet a demand and the market for identity theft protection is no different. What used to be a nonexistent industry niche has now become big business for dozens of companies across the globe. The Star Reviews team decided to jump in with both feet and compare identity theft protection services to see who was offering what and which services truly offer their customers comprehensive identity theft protection. LifeLock, one of the top identity theft protection services on the Web, was one of the first companies we looked into. Here's what we found out...
What's New?
- $1 Million Service Guarantee
- New WalletLock Service
- Now Offers the World's Only Child Identity Protection Service
Star Reviews Favorite Feature:
The theft of children's identities is becoming an increasingly-common crime. The seasoned criminals know that many adults are monitoring their identities, so they've resorted to stealing the identities of little children to compensate. LifeLock is currently the only identity theft protection service that has risen to the occasion and is protecting children from this crime. They now offer the world's first identity theft protection program for children, and we have to say that really impressed us.
How LifeLock Works:
Unlike many "passive" identity theft protection services, LifeLock takes a proactive approach. First, they have the credit bureaus set fraud alerts on each of your credit reports. This lets lenders know that they need to take certain measures to verify the identity of anyone trying to open credit in your name. Then LifeLock requests that your name be removed from all pre-approved credit and junk mail lists. This drastically reduces the credit card offers that go out in your name. Just to make sure the service is working, LifeLock will also order your credit report for you each year and have the reports sent directly to you.
LifeLock now also includes WalletLock with their service. If for some reason your wallet were to become lost or stolen you just give LifeLock a call and a specialist will assist you in contacting each of your credit card companies and your banks to help you cancel the affected accounts. They will also help you contact document-issuing companies so you can replace lost documents such as your driver's license and social security cards.
If, for some reason you do become the victim of identity theft while using LifeLock's services, they will pay up to $1 million to help you get the issues fixed. Lawyers, investigators, accountants – LifeLock will hire them for you. LifeLock will also replace any money you lost due to the identity theft occurrence.
LifeLock Features:
- $1 million service guarantee
- Regular fraud alerts on credit reports
- Removal of your name from mailing lists
- Annual credit reports
- Free WalletLock service
LifeLock's Pricing:
LifeLock service costs just $10 per month or $110 per year for adults. Children under the age of 16 can receive LifeLock's service for $25 per year if one adult in the household is a LifeLock member.
LifeLock's Customer Service
LifeLock offers wonderful customer service. We called the toll-free number located on the website and our call was answered within 3 minutes. The woman we spoke with was very friendly and explained exactly how LifeLock worked and what they would do for us if we did run into identity theft problems while using their service. The LifeLock website also offers a wealth of customer information, answering questions about how the $1 million guarantee works, what a fraud alert does and what to do if you do become a victim of an identity theft crime. Email support, while adequate, was not as in-depth as phone support and did not offer as much information as the online knowledge base. We received a confirmation of our email to the company within 5 minutes of sending our request but didn't actually receive an answer from them till about four hours after we submitted our request. However, that didn't concern us too much since we were able to access fast phone support and could find answers to most of our questions online.
Upside:
Comprehensive features, children's services available, $1 million guarantee.
Downside:
No all-inclusive family plan available, each member of household must pay separately.