Being a victim of identity theft is particularly biting because it can stay undetected until the consequences are right in your face. Your personal information can be floating around on the dark web or stamped on a criminal charge without you realizing it. Identity theft protection services can detect any breaches in your identity and protect it from further harm.
One option to consider is IdentityIQ. Business Insider's personal finance team compared Identity IQ to the best identity theft protection services and found it to be a middle-of-the-road identity theft monitoring service.
$6.99 to $29.99 per month, or $101.90 to $305.90 per year
- Family coverage with no extra cost
- VPN and anti-virus protection plans
- No refunds
- Monthly 3-bureau credit reports and scores for Secure Plus plans and higher
- 3-bureau credit report monitoring
- One million dollar stolen funds reimbursement
Overview of IdentityIQ
What is IdentityIQ?
IdentityIQ is an identity-theft protection service owned by IDIQ, which also owns the credit monitoring site MyScoreIQ and rent reporting service ResidentLink. Compared to IdentityIQ, other services offer more features for more competitive rates.
That said, IdentityIQ is a decent service if you're looking for identity theft protection for your entire family, as IdentityIQ's most comprehensive plan, Secure Max, offers some light protection for children. However, you will find better coverage in other plans with more comprehensive family plans.
User Reviews and Ratings
Users have reported difficulty in canceling their IdentityIQ subscription on the company's Better Business Bureau website. The BBB gave IdentityIQ an A+ with a customer review rating of 2.94 out of 5 stars. IdentityIQ also received an average of 4.3 stars out of 5 on TrustPilot across 400 customer reviews.
Positive reviews focused on ease of use, solid customer service, and assistance with fraud. Negative reviews discussed difficulty canceling the service and the lack of a refund policy.
IdentityIQ Identity Theft Pricing and Plans
IdentityIQ offers four levels of identity theft protection: the base plan, Plus, Pro, and Max. It's worth noting that you can get anti-virus and VPN services for an additional $2 per month on each plan.
Here's what the base plans offer:
| Secure Plan | Secure Plus | Secure Pro | Secure Max | |
| Price (Monthly) | $6.99 | $9.99 | $19.99 | $29.99 |
| Credit monitoring | TransUnion monitoring | TransUnion monitoring | 3-bureau monitoring | 3-bureau monitoring |
| Credit reports | None | Annual 3 reports | Bi-annual 3 reports | Monthly 3 reports |
| Stolen fund reimbursement | $1 million | $1 million | $1 million | $1 million |
| Dark web & internet monitoring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lawyer and expert coverage | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SSN Alerts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Synthetic ID theft protection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lost wallet assistance | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ID restoration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Crime alerts | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Score change alerts | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Credit score simulator and tracker | No | No | No | Yes |
| $25k ID Theft insurance - family protection | No | No | No | Yes |
| Fraud restoration with limited power of attorney | No | No | No | Yes |
IdentityIQ Features and Services
Looking at all of IdentityIQ's features is a lot to process, so let's break them down.
Credit monitoring and credit reports
If an identity thief obtains your Social Security number, they will usually try to use it to borrow money under your name. It's important to catch any instances of identity theft early to mitigate damages. IdentityIQ reviews your credit report and notifies you of any changes it detects. IdentityIQ reserves monitoring of all three of the major credit bureaus for its upper subscription tiers, but a little credit monitoring is better than none.
Depending on which plan you sign up for, IdentityIQ also affords you credit reports from the three bureaus. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you are allowed one free annual credit report per credit bureau.
Reimbursements
IdentityIQ offers up to $1 million in identity theft insurance for stolen funds, any lawyers and experts you need, and additional personal expenses resulting from identity theft. The Secure Max plan offers $25,000 in reimbursements for family members if they're under 24 and live in your house as a permanent resident.
Dark web and criminal activity monitoring
Dark web monitoring and criminal activity monitoring are two identity theft protection services that are hard to replicate on your own. Dark web monitoring scans the dark web for any personal information that may be exchanging hands, which services like IdentityIQ can spot for you.
Criminal activity monitoring performs a similar function, monitoring public records for instances of potential criminal identity theft.
Lost wallet assistance
Lost wallet assistance is a particularly helpful service that will assist you with all the hassle that comes with losing your wallet, including canceling and replacing credit cards, Social Security cards, and anything else you keep in your wallet.
Pricing and Plans
IdentityIQ prices range from $6.99 to $29.99 per month, or $101.90 to $305.90 per year. Unfortunately, IdentityIQ does not give refunds for canceled subscriptions, so if you decide to cancel your service at any point in your annual subscription, you won't see any money back.
IdentityIQ offers a week-long trial period for $1 for you to see if IdentityIQ is a good fit. Once the trial period ends, your account will auto-renew into the full-priced subscription.
How to enroll in IdentityIQ
Regardless of which IdentityIQ plan you subscribe to, you should make use of IdentityIQ's $1 seven-day trial. You'll need to plug in all the information you'd plug in as if you were buying the full-price product including your credit card details and Social Security number.
Use this period to explore IdentityIQ's dashboard and see if it's something you'll actually use. Even if IdentityIQ has everything you need at a price you're willing to pay, if you find its user interface off-putting, it might be a good idea to keep shopping around.
If everything is to your liking, you don't have to do anything to buy into the regular subscription. Once your free trial expires, your account will automatically roll into the full-price subscription.
How to cancel IdentityIQ
You can cancel your IdentityIQ by calling their customer care line at 877-875-4347 during office hours (7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST Monday to Friday and 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST on Saturdays).
You will need to confirm your identity to cancel over the phone. You can also cancel through the "cancel" button on your user account.
Drawbacks to Consider
IdentityIQ's parent company IDIQ says that even when you cancel your subscription, IDIQ maintains access to your credit reports under Fair Credit Reporting Act authorization. It can use this access to continue credit monitoring at its discretion or send you promotional offers based on your credit file.
Though you can cancel IdentityIQ at any time, IdentityIQ does not issue refunds regardless of when you cancel your subscription. Reviewers on IdentityIQ's Better Business Bureau page often mention how difficult it was to cancel their IdentityIQ subscription.
IdentityIQ vs. Competitors
IdentityIQ is more expensive than any of the services in our guide to the best identity theft protection services.
| Company | Subscription cost |
| IdentityIQ | $6.99 to $29.99 per month, or $101.90 to $305.90 per year |
| IdentityForce UltraSecure+Credit | $29.95 monthly or $299.50 annually |
| IDShield 3 Bureau Individual Plan | Starting at $14.95/month |
| Aura – All-In-One ID Theft Protection | $15 monthly or $144 annually |
| PrivacyGuard Identity Protection | $9.99 per month |
| Complete ID | $8.99 monthly for Executive members, $13.99 monthly for Business and Gold Star members |
Frequently Asked Questions About IdentityIQ
IdentityIQ offers a seven-day trial for $1 for all plans. Once the trial period ends, your account automatically renews into a paid subscription. You must manually cancel your account if you don't want to continue your IdentityIQ plan.
Identity IQ is as effective as any other identity theft protection company. It offers robust features like credit monitoring and dark web scanning to protect your identity.
Yes, you can monitor your credit scores with IdentityIQ. It provides credit monitoring and score tracking from major bureaus.
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Evaluate ID Theft Companies
Most identity theft services follow the same tiered pricing system, offering more features for more money. Because these companies also offer similar services for their premium service, we rate companies based on what they're willing to provide and what they're charging for these services. Along the way, we make note of exceptional inclusions and exceptional exclusions.
For example, Ultra Secure+Credit includes public records and dark web monitoring in its base plan (Ultrasecure). At the same time, IdentityIQ reserves public records monitoring for its more expensive plans (Secure Pro and Secure Max). That said, IdentityIQ includes $25,000 in identity theft insurance for family members for no extra cost.
While this is primarily how we rate identity theft companies, we also look at a company's Better Business Bureau rating to see how responsive they are to their customers. We also consider other outlying factors, such as a data breach or other cybersecurity mishaps.
