Identity Guard® The Company
The Identity Guard® package of services is the brainchild of Intersections Inc., a publicly traded company with over twenty years of experience helping protect consumers from the threats associated with identity theft. The company does business with many leading financial institutions in the U.S., assisting them in creating identity solutions catered to their specific products and customer base.
Intersections Inc. has helped protect more than 47 million customers since its inception, has over 500 employees and has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. It offers solutions to businesses worldwide, and Identity Guard is their award winning consumer identity theft protection service and just one of many products they have developed in this area.
Identity Guard recently created a new set of products utilizing IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence. These products are now the flagship offerings for consumer protection replacing Identity Guard® Total Protection®.
Click Here to Save up to 33% on Identity Guard or continue with review below.
What is Watson
IBM Watson is powerful artificial intelligence that Identity Guard integrated with their own offerings, and now provides a comprehensive and sophisticated identity theft protection service with the fastest alerts which can be as quick as 3 seconds1.
Watson works intelligently and tirelessly, constantly scrubbing and scanning millions of data points daily, analyzing the data relevant to each and every customer and alerting each individual about potential threats to their identity.
“Identity Guard with Watson is true, next-generation identity theft protection,” said Melba Amissi, Intersections’ Chief Operating Officer. “It goes well beyond traditional credit monitoring to provide customized preventative protection, powered by artificial intelligence and based on an individual’s unique profile and actions both online and in the real world. No other service comes close to providing the same level of financial and lifestyle protection.”
In virtually seconds after a potential threat emerges, we can tell customers of the risk of that potential threat and help them stop the problem from happening before it actually happens. And I’m not talking about personal information being stolen. It’s been stolen, whether at Anthem, Yahoo!, Equifax or any of the thousands of data breaches. I’m talking about the prevention of that information being misused for something nefarious, says Amissi. Using the Watson platform, we have found a way to proactively work with consumers to help them take back their privacy and personal information.
Watson uses artificial intelligence, natural language processing, self learning and data mining to quickly process vast amounts of data that are 10 times larger than traditional monitoring and notifies you in near real time of any potential threats it discovers.
What This Means to You
To put it simply, the more you know and the quicker you know it the better off you will be in terms of reducing your risk of identity theft. Here are some ways Identity Guard can benefit you.
Identity Guard scours the Web to see if your information is being released or shared by identity thieves. This is possible because the service scans the online markets and channels used most often for the illegal trading and distribution of personal information.
Identity Guard will alert you if it finds your SSN, health insurance number, credit card or financial account numbers exposed on the dark web including thousands of black market websites, secret chat rooms, and underground forums where identity thieves routinely buy and sell your personal and financial information. They even scan the dark web for your child’s registered personal information.
Importantly, Identity Guard can alert you to high-risk transactions such as account takeovers, wire transfers, payday loan applications and tax refunds. Even utility and cell phone applications can initiate alerts to you. With the Total plan (more on that later) you will even be notified if an identity thief accesses existing accounts, opens a new account in your name or applies for credit using your personal information.
The service will also check public records databases for inaccurate information regarding your accounts, which may occur because a thief has compromised your information or may simply be errors, but either way, you can correct them in a timely fashion. In other words, you will be alerted of certain changes to your sensitive information to help you stop identity thieves.
You will even get proactive alerts for breaches, phishing scams and malware vulnerabilities that could affect you.
Additionally, Identity Guard provides you with a personal risk-assessment report which you can use as a gauge to see how changes in your online and offline activities might affect your score for better or worse. This will help you understand where and how you are at risk of identity theft and teach you to reduce this risk.
Identity Theft Recovery
Identity Guard assists you in restoring your identity if you find that you have been victimized. If there are unauthorized changes to your accounts for example, or any other stolen identity event for that matter, then Identity Guard will assign you a US-based personal case manager and provide expert assistance to you through the entire process of recovery by staff well-versed in the workings of the credit world.
$1 Million Identity Theft Insurance with Loss Reimbursement is included**, with no deductible and covers costs (affidavits, application fees, private investigators, long distance calls, etc), lost wages ($2000 per week, max. 5 weeks), travel expenses ($1000 per policy period), legal defense fees and expenses, elder spousal and child care ($2000 per policy period) and importantly, unauthorized loss of funds for which you have not been previously reimbursed.
They have a straight forward simple promise to their customers… if identity thieves steal your money, we will make sure you get it back. Period!
DISCLAIMER: Regardless of service levels you must report your loss to them within 90 days; you must let them help you recover your losses; and you must apply for reimbursement from your financial institution.
All of the above is included in their Value plan and regularly costs $8.99 per month or $14.99 per month for families living in the same household, but you can save up to 33% on those prices with our discount.
Its one of the best deals in the industry and a great start for anyone looking to protect their identity but we highly recommend stepping up one level to the Total plan, at least for those who can afford it. Here is what you get in addition to the benefits already mentioned.
Credit Protection
The first service the Total plan gives you is credit account protection. If any fraudulent changes are made to one or more of your credit accounts, the Identity Guard With Watson service will send you an app notification and email with the change so that you can quickly block and/or close the accounts and report the matter to the authorities.
Bank Account Takeover Alerts
The service will alert you if an identity thief attempts a bank account takeover by changing your name, address or email on your bank account or adds their name to your account. Even requests to open a brand new checking or savings account with your personal information will be detected at the vast majority of national, regional and local banks and credit unions throughout the United States.
Credit Monitoring
Another valuable service is comprehensive 3 bureau credit monitoring.
This includes a search for applications for credit in your name, such as credit cards or loans, as well as a search for applications for other accounts, like cell phone registrations. This application search takes place on a daily basis.
The main benefit is that your credit files are monitored to notify you if certain changes have been made to your file without your knowledge. If certain information changes at any of the three major credit bureaus you are promptly notified, in fact you are notified in near real-time from Experian and TransUnion.
This may be the best credit monitoring service available, surpassing those offered by the credit bureaus themselves in our rankings. They also have a mobile app so you can get credit monitoring alerts, even credit scores, on your mobile phone in addition to email.
In addition, you also get a monthly Vantage 3.0 credit score* based on TransUnion data.
Learn more at IdentityGuard.com now. 26% Savings on Value and 33% Savings on Total and Premier Plans automatically applied.
Premier Plan
The Premier plan doesn’t add a whole lot but then again it doesn’t cost much more.
You get a 3-bureau credit report annually with information from Experian, Equifax and TransUnion but you could do this yourself for free by visiting AnnualCreditReport.com (the only government mandated site and truly free service).
You will also be provided with a social insight report based on information gathered by IBM Watson, which is essentially an assessment of your online image and recommended actions you can take to improve it.
Importantly however, especially for parents, is that you can get alerts about potential cyberbullying and access to the Megan Meier Foundation for assistance. If you’re not familiar they are a fantastic global organization dedicated to end bullying, cyberbullying, and suicide and their assistance should the issue arise could be invaluable. It is worth noting here that the alerts you receive include details of the detected bullying, the people involved and guidance on next steps.
For most people the Total plan will be the right choice but for some spending the extra $4 or $5 per month is worth the extra benefit.
Identity Guard Promotion
The price for Identity Guard is regularly $8.99/month for Value, $19.99 for Total and $24.99 per month for Premier but by clicking the link below you will get a discount up to 33% on the above prices for every month you remain a member.
When you consider that Identity Guard goes far beyond other credit monitoring services by offering such an extensive array of services that are all designed to help protect your identity, it really does become an easy choice for those looking for comprehensive identity theft protection.
Click Here to Save 26% to 33% – Protect your identity today!
Family Plan
Identity Guard is one of the best value deals for families covering all adults and children residing within one household. Prices are regularly $14.99/month for Value, $29.99 for Total and $34.99 per month for Premier but once again by clicking the link above you will get a 26-33% discount every month for as long as you continue your membership.