Preparation Over Paranoia: Keeping Safe from Identity Theft

Identity theft is a criminal act whereby your personal data is stolen and used, typically for financial gain. There are different types of identity theft, all involving some kind of fraud or deception. The six common ones are credit card fraud, bank fraud, phone/utilities fraud, employment/tax-related fraud, loan/lease fraud, and government/benefits fraud.

If you’ve never experienced it, it’s easy to dismiss identity theft as something that only happens in the movies or to the rich and famous. However, according to LifeLock, almost 60 million Americans were affected by identity theft based on a 2018 online survey by The Harris Poll. With such an alarming number of cases, it’s clear that protection against identity theft is necessary.

While doing the basics like not oversharing on social media and using different, secure passwords for your online accounts helps, it’s only the bare minimum. You might fall victim to identity theft through a business or government agency that has access to your personal information if they do not take the necessary precautions to protect it.

Identity theft protection is necessary because it helps in monitoring your personal information and alerting you if something is amiss. That way, you can take action faster and it reduces the costs of recovering from fraud and other results of identity theft.

The best way to protect yourself is to get identity theft protection from a trustworthy provider like LifeLock. Although it might be a little costly, you can’t put a price on your safety. Besides, we’re here to help you get the best deal on the best identity theft protection available. This article provides a breakdown of the LifeLock products available, how they can keep your identity safe from theft, and how you can get them at a discounted price.

Standard

The LifeLock Standard membership offers basic protection and the option to pay monthly or annually. With this membership, you’ll get identity and social security number alerts, credit monitoring (one bureau), along with standard identity theft protection benefits such as:

● The Million Dollar Protection Package with Stolen Funds Reimbursement up to $25,000, Personal Expense Compensation up to $25,000, and Coverage for Lawyers and Experts up to $1M.

● 24/7 Live Support

● Dark Web Monitoring

● Data Breach Notifications

LifeLock offers each plan at a discounted price for the first month or year of your subscription. For example, the Standard plan costs $9.99 per month for the first year and renews at $11.99 per month after that. If you select the Paid Annually plan over the Paid Monthly plan, you can save 15%, thanks to LifeLock deals. We also have a LifeLock promo code for up to 25% off the first year of your membership, valid up to the 4th of October 2020. Annual membership plans also have a 60-day money-back guarantee so you can get a refund if you're not happy with the service.

Select

The Select membership plan combines Norton 360 with LifeLock to give you all the benefits from the Standard plan, plus security and VPN for up to 5 devices. Norton provides an added layer of security, blocking more than 7 million cyberthreats daily on average when combined with LifeLock technology. You can pay it monthly or annually, with a LifeLock discount provided for the introductory period. The Million Dollar Protection Package benefits for the Select Plan are similar to those of the Standard Plan. Some extras you get with Select are device security benefits such as:

● PC Cloud backup (100GB)

● Parental control

● Ad-Tracker blocker

● Anonymous browsing

● PC SafeCam

Advantage

Advantage is another membership plan that combines Norton 360 with LifeLock at a great discount for the introductory period and affordable renewal price. With this membership, you get the basics of the Standard plan, plus security and VPN for up to 10 devices, bank account and credit card activity alerts, as well as alerts if any crimes are committed in your name. The Advantage plan has better identity theft protection benefits in the Million Dollar Protection Package, which are:

● Stolen Funds Reimbursement up to $100,000

● Personal Expense Compensation up to $100,000

● Coverage for Lawyers and Experts up to $1M

You also get activity alerts for your credit, checking, and savings accounts, plus fictitious identity monitoring, Identity Lock, and annual credit report and credit score. The Advantage Device Security Benefits are:

● PC Cloud Backup (250GB)

● Virus Protection Promise

● Parental Control

● Anonymous browsing

● Ad-Tracker Blocker

● PC SafeCam

Ultimate Plus

As the name suggests, Norton 360 with LifeLock Ultimate Plus membership is the ultimate plan for the highest level of identity theft protection. In addition to the Standard benefits, you also get:

● Security and VPN for an unlimited number of personal devices

● Bank account and credit card activity alerts

● Alerts of crimes committed in your name

● 401(k) and investment account activity alerts

● Annual three bureau credit reports and scores

● Home title monitoring

The best thing about the Ultimate Plus plan is the Million Dollar Protection Package which gives you up to $1M each for reimbursement of stolen funds, compensation of personal expenses, and coverage for lawyers and experts. Other features of the plan include:

● Bank account takeover alerts

● Sex offender registry reports

● File-sharing network searches

● PC Cloud backup (500GB)

Ultimate Plus is the most costly of the plans, at a charge of $25.99 per month for the monthly plan and $21.67 per month ($259.99 total for the year) for the annual plan. These two are the price for the introductory term, after which the renewal cost is $34.99 per month for monthly and $349.99 per year for the annual plan. In the long run, the annual plan is the most affordable, even without the introductory LifeLock discount.

The Bottom Line

The more our lives become digital, the more vulnerable we are to all kinds of cyberthreats, especially identity theft. While Norton LIfeLock technology may not protect you from every kind of crime, fraud, or threat out there, it does give you a fighting chance at keeping your personal data safe. With the Lifelock coupons and promo codes we offer on our site, you can get a discount and save on one of the best forms of protection for all your sensitive information