TrustedID Review
Introduction
Trusted ID, a privately held company based in Redwood City, California, specializes in proactive identity theft protection for individuals, families and businesses. Founded in 2005 and funded by the California-based venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, TrustedID uses proprietary technology and tools designed to reduce the occurrence of identity theft. The founding members of TrustedID worked in the credit and finance industries, where they recognized the inadequate protection and lack of information consumers had for protecting their personal information. As such, they developed credit monitoring and identity theft protection to addresses those inadequacies.
Key Features
Services – TrustedID offers an individual plan and a family plan that covers everyone living in the household, including spouse, parent, children and other relatives. Both plans feature the company’s flagship IDEssentials product, which identifies 15 areas where a person’s credit and identity are most at risk. Services included are: three bureau credit monitoring, reports and credit score; scanning of the Internet for buying, selling, or fraudulent use of your credit card numbers, social security number, name and address and bank account numbers; medical benefits protection; lost wallet protection that cancels and replaces credit cards and other important identification if your wallet is lost or stolen; junk mail reduction; and anti-spyware and anti-phishing software for your home computers.
Additional Safeguards – Included in IDEssentials is an Identity Theft Score which analyzes a person’s risk for identity theft and recommends measures to minimize it. Members of TrustedID also have the option of placing fraud alerts on their credit reports or freezing their report from third party viewing through its IDFreeze and CreditLock services. TrustedID also provides data breach response services to companies, government agencies and organizations to protect employees and customers from identity theft when a data breach occurs.
Reputation – TrustedID has been a Better Business Bureau accredited business since 2006. It employs a staff of 75 that is led by a management team with expertise in identity theft issues and a board of directors with vast information technology experience. TrustedID is recognized in the industry for its comprehensive identity theft protection and educational efforts that empower consumers to be more aware of protecting their identity. Its IDEssentials identity theft and credit protection service is endorsed by financial guru Suze Orman and recognized as “Overall Best-in-Class” and “Best-in-Class for Whole-Identity Monitoring” by Javelin Strategy and Research. TrustedID lobbies heavily in the U.S. Congress on behalf of consumers and their rights to control who accesses their personal information.
Security – TrustedID shows its commitment to securing its members personal information with a privacy policy that exceeds government-regulated industry standards. It makes its privacy policy available on its website, which also outlines the high level of security measures it takes to protect information it collects from its members. The company’s website is also certified secure by TRUSTe and protected by McAfee Scan and VeriSign. To protect its members from new forms of identity theft, TrustedID takes a proactive stance, developing tools and services to quickly recognize and respond to new trends and threats.
Recovery – TrustedID backs its credit monitoring and identity theft protection services with a $1 million service warranty. It covers members for out-of-pocket expenses caused by identity theft while enrolled in their service. The company also has an on-call personal protection team that responds in the event a member’s identity has been breached.
Customer Service – TrustedID provides 24-hour customer service through a toll-free telephone line, online chat and email. The TrustedID website also offers additional support through a FAQ section and an area devoted to identity theft facts. A blog accessed from the website offers current alerts and additional information.
Discounts and Pricing – A discount through this website is offered at $20 for the family plan and $10.42 for the individual plan. TrustedID offers a 14 day free trial on both its individual and family plan.