Identity Guard review — protect your money and get $1 million in identity theft insurance

If your credit card or bank information is ever stolen, the damages to your finances and credit report can be costly, so it's worthwhile to consider identity theft insurance to guard against the cost of potential fraud.

CNBC Select reviewed more than a dozen identity theft protection services, and Identity Guard ranked high on our list for best for comprehensive identity theft insurance

Identity Guard uses IBM® Watson®™ artificial intelligence to monitor and process information that can alert you to potentially suspicious activity on your accounts.

While many identity protection services stop here, Identity Guard will also help you cancel your credit cards, file a police report and go through the process of repairing what damage the fraudster caused. if you're the victim of identity theft. You can also take advantage of up to $1 million in identity theft insurance to cover costs that are associated with getting everything back on track.

Ahead, we break down the features of Identity Guard, looking at cost, insurance coverage, how many credit bureaus are monitored, dark web scanning and fraud alerts. (Read more about our methodology below.)

Identity Guard offers three different plans for individuals:

• Value: Basic identity protection; costs $6.67 per month (save 25% — regularly $8.99)
• Total: Standard identity and credit protection; costs $13.33 per month (save 33% — regularly $19.99)
• Ultra: Premium identity and credit protection; costs $19.99 per month (save 33% — regularly $29.99)

All three plans provide users with $1 million in identity theft insurance (may not be available in all jurisdictions), data breach notifications, dark web monitoring and high-risk transaction monitoring. Ultra, the most expensive plan, gives users the most comprehensive protection with these additional features:

• White-glove fraud resolution
• Bank account monitoring
• Social media insights report
• Credit and debit monitoring
• 401(k) and investment monitoring
• Criminal and sex offense monitoring
• USPS address change monitoring
• Home title monitoring
• 3-bureau annual credit monitoring
• Experian Credit Lock

All three plans offer the same $1 million identity theft insurance with a $0 deductible. According to the company's website, you can access these funds after reporting that your identity was stolen within 90 days of discovery, according to the company's website. You must also comply with the insurance company's identity theft recovery procedures, which include notifying the major credit bureaus, the FTC and law enforcement agencies.

The limits on what the insurance covers are:

• Aggregate limit of insurance: $1,000,000 per policy period
• Lost wages: $2,000 per week, for 5 weeks maximum
• Travel expenses: $1,000 per policy period
• Elder care, spousal care and child care: $2,000 per policy period

Legal fees and private investigator fees need prior approval and would be included within the limit. You can also receive travel reimbursements for any travel you require to retrieve funds and/or repair damages to your identity.

One caveat is that if you have other insurance policies that also include identity protection insurance, it must be billed before Identity Guard.

The Value plan does not provide credit monitoring, but the Total plan does offer three-bureau credit monitoring.

The Ultra plan offers three-bureau credit monitoring and annual credit reports from all three bureaus.

All three plans include dark web monitoring, data breach notifications and high-risk transaction monitoring. The artificial intelligence program scans the web 24/7 for your data and information to make sure it's not being used by anyone else.

Identity Guard alerts you whenever they find your social security number, credit card numbers, financial account numbers, or health insurance number being used on thousands of black market websites, secret chat rooms and underground forums.

If you're looking for how Identity Guard stacks up against its competition, you've come to the right place.

Identity Guard vs. LifeLock

Both Identity Guard and LifeLock aim to protect consumer identity information but there are a few key differences among what they each offer.

For starters, LifeLock offers higher insurance coverage compared to Identity Guard. The lowest tier offering for LifeLock — the Standard plan — offers up to $1,050,000 in coverage while the highest tier — Ultimate Plus — offers up to $3,000,000 in coverage. Identity Guard on the other hand gives you $1 million in coverage across the board.

With Identity Guard, credit bureau monitoring is not available for their lowest tier offer. LifeLock, however, offers one-bureau credit monitoring with their most basic tier and 3-bureau credit monitoring for the individual Ultimate Plus plan and the 2-individual Ultimate Plus plan.

LifeLock also has a more comprehensive set of identity protections across plans. Users for any of the three plans can take advantage of:

• Identity and social security number alerts
• Stolen wallet protection
• USPS address change monitoring
• Dark web monitoring
• Data breach monitoring
• Utility alerts

Customers enrolled in LifeLock's middle and highest tiers can take advantage of the following services:

• Alerts for credit, checking and savings accounts
• Crime alerts in your name
• Buy now, pay later alerts
• Home title monitoring
• Phone takeover monitoring
• Activity alerts for your 401(k) and other investment accounts
• Social media monitoring
• Sex offender registry reports
• Bank account takeover alerts
• File-sharing network searches
• Daily credit report and scores updates (from one bureau)

Pricing for LifeLock ranges from $8.29 per month for the first year (if paid annually) to $24.99 per month for the first year (if paid annually). So while LifeLock does cost a bit more than Identity Guard, it also offers a few more protections that Identity Guard doesn't.

Identity Guard vs. Aura

Aura is another solid contender with features designed to protect consumers' identities and personal information. Aura's features include identity theft and fraud protection, credit monitoring, spam blocking, a password manager, dark web monitoring and antivirus software.

However, Aura stands out for its couples and family pricing packages. The couples plan costs $17 per month (billed annually) and covers two adults. Covered adults can take advantage of security features for up to 20 devices (10 per adult), up to $2 million in identity theft insurance ($1 million per adult), financial fraud protection and white-glove fraud remediation.

Aura's family plan covers up to five adults and covers an unlimited number of children. This plan costs $30 per month (if billed monthly) but includes device security for up to 50 devices, spam call and message protection, up to $5 million in identity theft insurance financial fraud protection, white-glove fraud remediation, parental controls, cyberbullying alerts and child identity protection.

Aura also offers an individual plan for $12 per month (if billed monthly).

At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every review is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of credit and identity monitoring products. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics.

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