IDX (MyIDCare) Identity Protection Review

Testing IDX, formerly called MyIDCare, over the past several weeks was a good experience overall, but I wouldn’t recommend them to most people – not when Aura is available. 

It offers comprehensive monitoring, knowledgeable customer service representatives, and an excellent bundle of additional features. Still, it has limitations. 

With Aura, you get better family plan options, more monitoring services, and a few added features, like antivirus software, that it doesn’t have, and you get it all at a better price.

So, I recommend Aura over IDX, but you don’t have to take my word for it. You can read all about how I came to these conclusions below.

You can, lock in our OFF discount on Aura, , they won’t increase your price next year.

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IDX Review: Is It Worth Getting?

No, it isn’t worth getting unless you care about an aesthetically pleasing interface more than the breadth of services.

It offers a streamlined user experience that beats just about any other service I’ve reviewed, but it’s missing some of the features I consider crucial, like investment account monitoring. It’s also pricey, especially if you’re shopping for family coverage. 

There are more comprehensive, less expensive identity protection services available. 

Aura is my top pick because it offers everything it misses at a much better price point. But if you’re still curious about IDX, I understand. Let’s dive into everything it has to offer.

Editors Ranking Table

Monitoring & Alerts: 8/10

It doesn’t provide the most comprehensive monitoring I’ve seen, but where it’s watching, it’s watching closely. Better yet, it provides clear and actionable alerts so you can take proactive steps towards better identity health. 

With it’s top-tier plan, you get:

While that’s a fairly broad list, it’s missing a few key areas I like to see, namely investment account monitoring and home title monitoring. 

It attempts to make up for these misses with a couple of unique monitoring tools – some of which are more helpful than others. 

First, it offers a “privacy score.” 

The privacy score rates your identity health on a scale based on its expert guidelines. Then, it gives you actionable steps to improve. Gamifying your identity health makes it more likely that you’ll practice safer habits, so I’m a fan of this feature. 

Second, it has a very comprehensive social media monitoring service. 

The aptly named “SocialSentry,” monitors your social media presence by tracking your name and any aliases you use. It goes beyond alerting you to fraudulent activity and also watches for any inappropriate content in your name. 

Many services offer something like this (albeit with less catchy names), but it’s unique that allows you to remove or block content directly from your dashboard. 

Unfortunately, it also has some issues. It flags a lot of things it shouldn’t. As an example, posts that use colloquial but harmless terms, like “on steroids,” get flagged for drugs. After receiving a plethora of false positives, you might decide you’re better off without its social media monitoring activated.  

Dark Web Alerts

It pulled three dark web alerts on my information. These were all alerts I expected to find, but I was impressed at how quickly they found them – it took just 20 seconds. 

Many services I’ve tested take days or even weeks to find that information, so 20 seconds is very good. 

My only frustration with this area is in how many fields it allows you to monitor. It offers five personal data fields for things like your medical ID and bank information, and it only allows you to monitor one driver’s license. 

More generous services, like Aura, offer more personal data fields (ten in Aura’s case). And a few services offer more than one driver’s license, that way, you can monitor your maiden name if needed. 

Alerts Dashboard

The alerts dashboard is clean and easy to navigate. It also includes something that few other services think to include – alerts when there are no threats. 

If it scans for your information and comes up with nothing, it lets you know. So, if there are no signs of your information in court records, as an example, you’ll get a friendly alert that says as much. 

Many of the other services I’ve tested don’t do this. So, you’re left wondering if the service is doing its job. Instead, with IDX, you walk away feeling reassured. 

Credit and Financial Monitoring 

It’s top-tier plan comes with three-bureau credit monitoring and a few helpful credit tools, like a credit lock feature and instant credit inquiry alerts. Lower plan levels don’t offer these features and only come with single-bureau monitoring. 

As far as further financial monitoring tools, IDX is lacking. 

There are NO investment account alerts, which means it’s not watching for fraudulent activity in your retirement accounts. The best services, like Aura, offer investment account monitoring. And, given it’s price point, I would expect them to offer it, but no such luck. 

Public Records Monitoring

Here, again, it has a few missing features. Though it monitors court records, it’s missing any sort of sex offender monitoring. Ideally, your identity protection service will keep track of sex offenders in two ways: 

First, to alert you if one moves into your neighborhood.  And second, to ensure no one registers under your name. 

It also fails to offer home title monitoring. This is a feature I like to see because title fraud is such a heinous crime. Aura offers it along with auto title monitoring, but many other services skip it, so it’s not that surprising that they misses it. 

Threat Resolution: 7/10

Even if you act on every alert it (or any other identity protection service) brings to your attention, you can’t always prevent identity theft. That’s why a thorough service includes top-notch threat resolution too. 

It has some great threat resolution features, but they’re far from perfect. I’d call them middle-of-the-pack in this area. Here’s what I mean…

Customer Service

It has a helpful customer service team. When I called them one Wednesday afternoon, I reached a representative in under two minutes. She was knowledgeable and professional. 

Unfortunately, their customer service is only available Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. PST. Those aren’t great hours. The best customer service teams are available 24/7/365.  

You might not think you’ll need customer service at midnight on a Sunday, but there are situations where you would. Say you’re traveling through Europe and find your wallet’s been stolen, or say you notice someone’s hacked your bank account at 8 p.m. on a Friday. You’re not going to want to wait until Monday for help. 

So, limited customer hours are a major point against IDX. 

Concierge Restoration 

I give credit where credit is due, though. It offers full-service threat resolution. They’ll walk you through the process of restoring your identity should you need it. 

Almost every service I’ve encountered says they’ll do this, but it goes a step further by offering a money-back guarantee. If they can’t restore your identity to its pre-theft state, they’ll refund the full cost of their services. 

Lost Wallet Protection

Like other identity protection services I’ve reviewed, it offers lost wallet protection. So, if you lose your wallet or find it’s been stolen, they’ll help you cancel and replace your bank cards, insurance cards, and identification documents. 

Of course, as mentioned, it has limited customer service hours. So, hopefully, you lose your wallet between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. on a weekday. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait for their help. 

Theft Insurance: 7/10

The costs associated with identity theft and restoration can add up quickly, which is why most identity protection services come with some form of theft insurance. 

Like most other services, offers $1 million in theft insurance coverage. This coverage includes reimbursement of reasonable expenses associated with identity restoration and any legal fees you incur.  

Unfortunately, this policy doesn’t increase when you add a second adult to the plan. Though $1 million sounds like more than enough, it might not be, especially if you and your spouse run into an identity issue in the same year. 

Aura is the only service I know of that increases its insurance coverage as you add adults to your plan, $1 million EACH. And they let you include up to five adults. That’s up to $5 million in coverage.    

Family Plans: 7/10

It offers family plans for two adults and up to five children under 18 years old. Some services I’ve reviewed fail to offer family plans at all so that it includes one is something, but it’s not much. 

Ideally, family plans allow for some flexibility. Not all families fit the two parents plus young children mold. Many need to protect college-aged kids, in-laws, or grandparents that live in their house. 

That’s why I’m such a big fan of Aura’s family plans – they don’t assume what a family means.

Instead, they leave things open. You can choose to protect yourself and a partner with a couple’s plan, or you can opt for a family plan that lets you include up to five adults and an unlimited number of children.  

Ease of Use: 10/10

Here’s where IDX really excels. 

Right from the start, I was impressed by how simple it makes things. Sign-up was straightforward and took me about 15 minutes (that included entering all of my information to monitor). 

Once inside the dashboard, everything is very intuitive. It’s easy to navigate from one area to another, and I didn’t feel like I needed a tutorial. 

Your IDX privacy score shows up prominently to the left, your alerts show to the right. Directly below that is a credit score module and a private search bar. Powered by DuckDuckGo, this allows you to search the internet without being tracked. 

All of this is useful to have at your fingertips right away. Within minutes of logging in, you know how your identity health and credit score are doing. You can also see anything you need to address, and if everything looks good, you can start browsing the internet. 

If you need to navigate deeper to input more of your data or address alerts, that’s easy too. A simple side menu lets you jump from page to page. 

Overall, it is one of the best services I’ve experienced from this perspective, and if I was judging on ease of use alone, I’d highly recommend it. 

Additional Services: 8/10

It offers a VPN, password manager, and safe browser. It also offers ForgetMe data removal services, so you can take your name off third-party marketing lists. 

Their password manager is exceptionally detailed, and I like that their safe browser is so usable (it’s on the main dashboard page). 

But IDX still misses a few things. 

Other services, like Aura, include Antivirus software and parental controls. Aura, in particular, includes safe gaming features that offer parents the ability to monitor their kids on gaming platforms – allowing them to spot signs of cyberbullying and predatory behavior. 

That it doesn’t include these isn’t a fireable offense by any means (most services don’t). But, given it’s price point, I expect it to include everything and then some. This leads me to my next point…

How much does IDX cost per year?

Pricing Comparison

Their top-tier plan is expensive. 

It’s $32.90 per month for an individual and $64.99 for families. And unfortunately, you need the top-tier plan to get most of the features we’ve discussed. 

Their basic “Identity” and mid-level “Privacy” plans are pretty affordable, but they don’t include enough to be considered comprehensive protection. 

It has several stand-out features, but they don’t justify this price point – not when you can get Aura, with all of its added features, flexible family plans, and exceptional monitoring capabilities, for less using our discount coupon. 

FAQ

It has some great qualities. Its interface is excellent, and I didn’t have any major complaints about its services, but it’s not the best choice. 

Choosing IDX would mean you’re paying a premium but not getting everything you could be. 

Instead of paying more for less, you should consider Aura. Aura offers a larger breadth of monitoring services, better customer service hours, more flexible family plans (with more insurance coverage), and a bigger bundle of additional features – all at a better price!

So, don’t let IDX’s sleekness fool you. Get the services you actually need to protect yourself and your family. In other words, get Aura.

Related Articles:

Citations:

1. https://www.opm.gov/cybersecurity/

2. https://www.secureworldexpo.com/industry-news/dark-web-vs-deep-web

3. https://www.cnbc.com/select/why-are-my-credit-scores-different/

4. https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/22/uk/most-common-passwords-scli-gbr-intl/index.html