ID Watchdog has two identity theft protection plans you can choose from to help you protect yourself from fraud. It monitors your address, social security number and credit report. It also offers a service guarantee: If you experience identity theft while using the service, ID Watchdog's risk management specialists will work to restore your identity and resolve problems with your accounts.
The ID Watchdog Plus plan performs basic identity monitoring, advanced identity monitoring, cyber monitoring, full-service identity restoration and credit report monitoring. The ID Watchdog Platinum plan gives you all this, plus it provides you with your credit reports and scores.
The basic service monitors your social security number and information that's available in public records databases. The advanced monitoring keeps track of the National Change of Address database, verifying that no one's trying to redirect your mail to another location. This fraud protection service also scans payday loan databases to make sure no one is using your data to obtain noncredit loans. The cyber monitoring this identity theft protection service performs looks for your personal information on black-market websites that sell and trade credit card data, social security numbers and more.
In addition to monitoring databases, ID Watchdog monitors the information that the credit bureaus collect about you. It keeps track of your open lines of credit and identifies attempts to gain additional credit. The Plus plan monitors just the TransUnion credit bureau report while the Platinum plan monitors the reports from all three credit bureaus.
ID Watchdog guarantees its service 100 percent. If someone steals your identity, ID Watchdog will employ its certified identity theft risk management specialists to work directly with you to restore your good name and resolve problems. While it's good that this ID theft protection provides a guarantee, it lacks what other companies offer – a service guarantee and insurance that covers your losses.
Should you need to contact this identity protection service, you can call or email ID Watchdog. The customer service hours are between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Mountain Time, Monday through Friday. Some of the other services we reviewed provide 24/7 customer support, so compared to that, ID Watchdog doesn't offer as much customer service assistance.
ID Watchdog has some effective, helpful resources and features to protect you from identity theft. However, it doesn't offer as many monitoring and alert options as some of the other ID theft protection services we reviewed. If you're looking for basic monitoring options, this will be a great service for you.
