10-second breakdown:
Many identity theft protection companies offer a ton of different plans to help fit your budget but it can end up being pretty confusing. FICO takes a different approach with their Ultimate 3B identity protection – there’s only one plan and it includes everything you need to keep yourself protected.
The good:
All the intel to improve your credit score is yours for the taking. Access to all three credit scores, your FICO score, and advice on the things that are keeping your number from being where you want it.
There is an intuitive mobile app that will allow you to track your identity’s health anywhere. You can do just about everything you can with the desktop platform including checking your credit reports and other tools.
If anything significant happens to your account, you’ll know about it almost immediately. Users can opt to get an email, text message or both.
The bad:
The price is a bit higher for this service, but it does include features that usually aren’t in the budget plans.
Credit reports only refresh every quarter. Most services don’t include them, but the reports themselves get updated monthly.
How it works:
Having your identity stolen is a very personal and stressful event. You want someone on your side that you can trust, not a company that will drop you like a hot potato when you come calling.
Although FICO may be more famous for their self-titled FICO scores, they offer a rock solid identity theft protection service as well. FICO has been around for quite a while now, and they have built a reputation for transparent business practices over the years. With fewer complaints lodged against them than any of the other businesses combined, FICO is a company you can rely on when you are at your lowest.
Businesses build trust by providing value to their customers and FICO is no different. Their Ultimate 3B identity protection covers all of the bases. They scan the internet, databases and black market sites for any hint of your personal information. They go above and beyond the call of duty with this by searching for information that isn’t included on credit reports like email address, phone number, passport number and more. It’s an amazing service if you have multiple credit cards or bank accounts, FICO Ultimate 3B includes up to 10 cards and 5 bank accounts.
When you first sign up with FICO, they do a comprehensive scan of all information you submit to them to compile an ‘Identity Analysis Report.’ It includes a change of address scan to tell you if a change of address was requested in your name, a public records scan to tell you if a crime has been committed in your name and more.
If they do find something off, FICO alerts you immediately through email, text or their mobile app if you have it installed. The Identity Analysis Report provides daily scanning, so if you’re ever in doubt you can open it up to see if FICO has found anything.
FICO also offers wallet protection. If you lose your wallet, FICO can help you cancel any cards and order new ones, including credit and debit cards, your driver’s license, passport, social security card and more.
As you would expect from a financial company that provides scores to credit bureaus, FICO really stands out head and shoulders from the crowd in financial monitoring. Ultimate 3B comes with daily 3-bureau credit monitoring that gets packaged up into a nice report and sent over to you every morning via text email or mobile app. You also get a daily update of your FICO score and how it’s changed over time.
FICO also offers a comprehensive credit score simulator. You can experiment with things like paying off credit card debt or student loans to see how it will affect your credit score. Since the simulator is based on the actual FICO scoring formula, it’s by far the most accurate on the market bar none.
Although FICO offers plenty of protection, they do fall short a little bit when it comes to loans. There’s no proactive defense here, you may not find out that a thief stole your identity until you get a bill in the mail. They do have stand-out service to help you reclaim your identity if the worst does occur, but it would be nice to see a more active defense for loan applications.
FICO offers a single plan, the ‘Ultimate 3B’ identity protection package. It costs $29.95 per month or if you’re willing to sign for a full year you get one month free – the entire lump sum is $329. As Ultimate 3B is FICO’s only offering, it comes with everything under the sun. You get access to their 3-bureau credit report with FICO score, quarterly updates for the report, credit monitoring from all of the bureaus, $1 million identity theft insurance, comprehensive identity theft monitoring and more. Although it’s not cheap, this is comparable to the top-tier offerings from other companies, and is way out in front of the pack in terms of financial monitoring.
It’s not a full identity protection plan, but FICO does offer a one-time purchase to their 3-bureau report with FICO score for $59.98. If you’ve been trying to mend your credit you could purchase one or two of these in-between quarters to chart your progress.
FICO’s Ultimate 3B protection offers simple coverage with everything you could possible need bundled up nicely into their single plan. With 24/7 service and plenty of protection to boast about, FICO is a great choice if you are concerned about your identity and want to be up and running as quickly and stress-free as possible.
For complete rankings of all identity theft protection services, go here.
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