ID Watchdog, a publicly traded company, is an identity theft protection service that helps prevent your personal information and your accounts, like your Social Security number or credit accounts, from being taken over or changed by identity thieves.
ID Watchdog’s service can detect identity theft from many points of vulnerability. It differentiates itself from other monitoring services since it doesn’t only scan credit records. In addition to credit records the company has the ability to check the DMV, medical records, utilities, credit bureaus, government databases and more to provide a more thorough evaluation of whether thieves have been handling your information. IDWatchdog scan 1000’s of databases monthly and was the only company that had Pay Day Loan monitoring till LifeLock launched Ultimate Plus.
Though ID Watchdog does not guarantee or insure you against financial loss they have the most straight forward guarantee when it comes to restoring your good name. A resolution agent will do all the hard work for you such as contacting creditors, writing letters, resolving issues or whatever it takes to completely restore your identity and unlike other identity protection services they not only do this for financial identity theft but all types of identity theft including medical and criminal. Note that they are one of the few companies that actually do the hard work with minimal involvement on your part. Most others have you do the majority of the work as they only provide assistance and advice.
Baseline Profiles
When you initially sign up for the service, the company scans thousands of databases to look for your personally identifying information. It then creates a Baseline Profile with the information it finds and asks you to approve it. This makes it easier for IdWatchDog’s patent-pending technology to recognize illegitimate changes if they occur. The service then rescans these databases every month to look for differences in this information. You’ll either get a report that your records match up with your Baseline profile, an all clear signal, or you are notified of any alterations. Then you get the chance to either approve the alterations and add them to your new Baseline Profile or to report any incorrect information or identity theft situation.
When you do have a dispute or possible identity theft attack, IDWatchdog will look into it further with their ID Snapshot service. The ID Snapshot pulls information on addresses, phone numbers, property deeds, driving records, banking accounts, credit history, and more to pinpoint fraudulent data and help their Resolution agents understand the damage, and what agencies they need to get involved to restore your good name under the ID Rehab service.
Note that ID Watchdog will not report misspellings that are obvious mistakes. Instead it will focus on times when an identity thief changes the personal information such as your address and/or name on your accounts in order to assume them.
More about ID Watchdog’s ID Snapshot and ID Rehab Services
ID SnapShot is for the person who finds out upon enrolling in ID Watchdog that he or she may already be an identity theft victim or for a person who finds an unauthorized change on his or her monthly baseline report while enrolled. The company will again use their extensive database network, but this time it will look a bit deeper, with a specific concentration on altered driving records, medical records, fraudulent new credit accounts, banking accounts and much, much more that could be the work of said thief.
People who are already enrolled in ID Watchdog can use the service free of charge. People who have only gotten as far as their first Baseline Profile, just enrolled, and find mistakes on their baseline profile are documented as having a “preexisting condition†and are subject to a one time fee of $99.95 for the ID Snapshot. Don’t worry, ID Watchdog’s unique ability to tell you if you are already a victim or about to become one is highly accurate and the $99.95 will be about the best money you could possibly spend as it will give you, and them, a true picture of the damage that has been done. After receiving you ID Snapshot victims can then pay for and avail themselves of the ID Rehab service to restore their good name and standing. Identity Theft Labs advises you to place a fraud alert on your credit accounts at this point if you have not done so already.
ID Rehab helps identity theft victims restore their good credit and repair their good names. If you are victimized while under the ID Watchdog plan, the company will allow you to work with its Resolution Agents once you’ve filed a police report and Id Theft Affidavit detailing your loss. The Agents will work on your behalf to help you get back on good terms with your creditors and restore your identity to pre-theft levels. Note that you will be required to sign a Limited Power of Attorney so the company can act on your behalf. Again, this service is free for ID Watchdog members, but it is $79.95 per incident if it occurred before you became fully covered by the service because of the preexisting condition clause. In other words, if the identity theft situation happened before you enrolled you will have to pay but if it happens after you enroll it is a free service.
ID Watchdog Promotional Code
We are no longer partnered with ID Watchdog nor recommending their services. As such we have removed the promotions listed below. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
ID watchdog offers three payment plans: monthly, yearly and every three years. New members are invited to take advantage of a 30 day free trial on the monthly option which costs $19.95 ($14.96/month with our promotion).
The real savings come when you pay yearly, and use this IDWatchdog Discount (no longer available). That’s a 50% savings off their regular price. You don’t even have to enter a promotional code as the discount is automatically applied saving you $90 every year you remain a member. In fact, there is no promotion code anywhere near this good.
But wait, that is not all. Due to our partnership ID Watchdog will also give you a full version of Panda Global Protection (no longer available), an internet security suite that “protects you from viruses, spyware, rootkits, hackers, online fraud, identity theft and all other internet threats.” Panda Security, www.pandasecurity.com is a leading online security company with 20 years experience.
These prices are for ID Watchdog Plus, their top of the line service which includes Watchdog service, plus SnapShot and Rehab as needed and Panda Global Protection for internet security. The services are only sold as a package and each package covers one person though a 2nd family member can save 50% if they too wish to enroll. Panda internet security will not be included for the second family member since the initial license is for three computers.