Identity Guard vs Complete ID Comparison- Save 50% Today….

We spent 30 days testing Identity Guard vs. Costco CompleteID. The results were clear – Identity Guard is the better identity protection service.  

Identity Guard offers more comprehensive identity theft monitoring, including features like home title and 401(k) monitoring – CompleteID doesn’t include either.  Identity Guard is also fast, finding 15 unique dark web alerts in a matter of minutes.

Identity Guard also protects your entire family with $1 million in identity theft insurance, 24/7 customer service, and plans that include up to five adults (and unlimited children). CompleteID maxes out at two people over eighteen.

And, unlike CompleteID, Identity Guard doesn’t require you to purchase a Costco membership. With our discount code, you can save on Identity Guard for life – no membership necessary.

Still, I get why you might find yourself thinking about Complete ID vs. Identity Guard. 

If you’re a Costco member, purchasing your identity protection service through them makes some sense. And, if you’ve been doing any research on identity protection benefits, you’ve probably seen Identity Guard’s name come up. 

So, in this review, I’ll cover everything you need to know about these two services – where they succeed and where they fail.

Complete ID vs Identity Guard Reviews: Head-to-Head Comparison

Putting these two services head-to-head was interesting. I went in expecting to find CompleteID trailing behind in almost every way, but that wasn’t the case. 

CompleteID is an Experian product, and my past experiences with Experian haven’t been great. Experian’s customer service is notoriously bad. 

But as it turned out, CompleteID was better than Identity Guard when it came to threat resolution. CompleteID also offers more added identity theft services, and their identity theft monitoring accuracy is top-notch. 

It wasn’t enough for me to declare them the winners overall. Identity Guard offers a wider breadth of monitoring services and has more flexible family plans. Plus, Identity Guard is easier to use. 

Still, the Complete ID vs Identity Guard match was tighter than I thought. Want to see what I mean? Keep reading.

Editor’s Ranking Table

Monitoring and Alerts

Winner – Identity Guard

Identity Guard offers comprehensive coverage. CompleteID, on the other hand, takes a more bare-bones approach.

Let’s start with what both services include:

Now let’s look at the additional services you get with Identity Guard plans: 

Identity Guard’s breadth of services clearly outpaces Complete ID, which is the main reason Identity Guard comes out ahead in this category. 

Still, monitoring services don’t mean much unless they work – let’s see what happens when I put them to the test. 

Dark Web Monitoring

CompleteID and Identity Guard both caught a lot of vulnerabilities. Identity Guard found 15 unique dark web alerts, and CompleteID came back with 27. 

That’s a lot! And, it’s a point in Complete ID’s favor – or it would be. There’s just one issue with Complete ID…

It’s slow. 

I mean, really slow. What Identity Guard found in two minutes, Complete ID took two days to uncover. Even after the initial scan, alerts would come up with Identity Guard long before Complete ID caught them. That’s a problem if you’re trying to take a proactive approach to your identity theft protection. 

Waiting days to address identity theft alerts gives criminals more time to commit crimes – stealing your information and your assets. So, you want a monitoring service that can alert you to threats right away. Complete ID fails to do that. 

Alerts Dashboard

How alerts appear determines how useful they ultimately are. If they don’t prompt you to take proactive steps, aren’t helpful in the information they provide, or are difficult to decipher, they won’t do any good. 

In this area, I like both of these identity theft prevention services. 

Complete ID offers categorized identity theft alerts, color-coded by severity, so you can quickly tell if something needs to be addressed urgently. 

Identity Guard’s alerts also provide at-a-glance information. Each alert tells you what happened in a succinct way. For example, it might read, “A new inquiry appeared on your credit report.” 

When you click on identity theft alerts with either service, you get a detailed guide on what to do next, allowing you to take proactive steps to guard your personal information. 

Credit and Financial Monitoring

As far as financial and credit monitoring goes, Identity Guard is the better choice. They offer three-bureau credit monitoring, Experian credit lock capabilities, and investment account monitoring. 

Complete ID has credit lock services and three-bureau credit monitoring but doesn’t have investment account monitoring. That means your retirement savings are vulnerable. My 401(k) isn’t something I’m willing to leave unwatched, and I’m guessing you feel the same. 

Public Records Monitoring

Complete ID fails to offer home title or criminal records monitoring the way Identity Guard does, but I do have to note – that their sex offender monitoring is uniquely detailed. 

Complete ID’s neighborhood watch suite gives descriptions of sex offenders in your area, including information on the crime they were convicted for. That level of detail isn’t in any other service I’ve tested. 

Still, I’d rather have a home title, criminal records monitoring, and sex offender monitoring in one service, even if it’s slightly less detailed. So, Identity Guard still comes out on top here.

Threat Resolution

Winner – CompleteID

This is one area where Identity Guard could do better. The best indicator of a good threat resolution team comes from their ability to handle customer service, and, as you’re about to see, Identity Guard has room for improvement. 

Complete ID, however, is first-rate at threat resolution, which surprised me. Complete ID is backed by Experian, a company I’ve had less-than-stellar service from in the past. However, Complete ID managed to prove to me that not all Experian services are lacking. 

Customer Service

I tested Identity Guard’s customer service by phone and by email. 

By phone, they were excellent. A very knowledgeable, U.S.-based representative answered my call in less than a minute. Identity Guard uses the same call center, so the high level of efficiency wasn’t surprising to me. 

By email, though, Identity Guard was slow. Though they promised a 48-hour response time, it took them closer to 72 business hours. I sent my question on a Thursday afternoon and didn’t get a response until Tuesday. Not a huge deal, but I’m not a fan of companies making promises they can’t deliver on. 

The real problem with Identity Guard’s customer service, though, is their lack of hours. The best identity theft protection services offer 24/7/365 customer service. Identity Guard’s customer service team is only available Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. – 6 p.m. 

You might think that’s not a big deal, but what happens if you get a serious alert or, worse, lose your wallet on Saturday at 7 p.m.? You’ll have to wait until Monday morning for help. 

Complete ID offers around-the-clock customer service. When I called on a Friday at 4 p.m., I reached a representative in under two minutes. They answered all of my questions with ease. Knowing that level of identity theft assistance is available at any time is a huge benefit and part of why Complete ID does better in this category. 

Concierge Service

Another reason Complete ID beats Identity Guard for threat resolution is this – Complete ID offers designated resolution specialists with every plan. 

If you become a victim of identity theft, a trained specialist will walk you through the process of restoring your identity. They’ll help you file paperwork, arrange discussions with financial institutions, and issue disputes with major credit bureaus. 

Identity Guard offers this as well – but only with their top-tier plan. Lower plan levels don’t provide any sort of concierge resolution and identity theft assistance and services.

Lost Wallet Protection 

I’ll admit Identity Guard stands out in this area. Their lost wallet protection goes above and beyond what’s required. 

If you lose your wallet or discover it’s been stolen, Identity Guard will help you cancel and replace its contents, including bank cards, insurance cards, and even your passport. That’s pretty standard for identity protection services. But then, Identity Guard takes things up a notch by offering to wire up to $2,000 in emergency funds from one of your accounts. Wow!

Emergency cash can really come in handy, especially if you’re traveling and find your wallet is missing! 

Complete ID only offers the typical lost wallet protection coverage – meaning they help replace your wallet’s contents but aren’t going to wire you emergency funds. 

Of course, with Identity Guard, you’ll have to hope your wallet is stolen within their customer service hours. If you lose your wallet Saturday night, no one will be available to help you replace your bank cards or wire you the necessary funds until Monday morning. 

So while access to emergency funds is nice, it doesn’t make up for Identity Guard’s limited customer service and identity theft support.

Theft Insurance

Winner – Tie

Neither Identity Guard nor Complete ID offers exceptional insurance coverage. Both include the standard $1 million policy that pretty much every identity protection service comes with. 

The insurance covers reasonable expenses associated with identity restoration, including lost wages, child and elderly care costs, and legal fees. 

As with most insurance policies, there are limits on specific expenses. For Identity Guard, those limits look like this:

Complete ID’s policy puts fewer limits in place, offering to cover all base wages lost due to reasonable recovery efforts within the 12-month period following identity fraud. It also doesn’t have a limit on elder or child care. However, Complete ID’s policy does limit attorney and CPA fees to $125 per hour or less. 

Overall, though, these two policies are very similar, and neither one is that impressive. Both are missing a major benefit…

Neither one gives increasing coverage for families. 

Though Identity Guard and Complete ID both offer family coverage (more on that at the moment), neither one increases their insurance coverage when you add adults to the plan. So, if you choose to cover your spouse, the insurance amount stays the same. 

That’s a problem.

One million dollars is probably enough to cover your expenses, but what happens if your spouse becomes a victim in the same policy period? Suddenly, you’re out of luck. 

Family Plans

Winner – Identity Guard

While both Complete ID and Identity Guard offer family plans, Identity Guard is much more flexible. 

Identity Guard allows up to five adults on their family plans, along with unlimited minor children. So, you can include your college-aged kids, your spouse, your in-laws, or your parents – whoever you need to protect. 

With Complete ID, you can choose between a few rigid family options, including:

None of Complete ID’s plans allow for extra adults.

Ease of Use

Winner – Identity Guard

Identity Guard makes things simple from the get-go. Sign-up is fast, taking under 15 minutes, including the time it takes to enter the information you want to monitor. Once you’re in, you’ll find it’s sleek and intuitive, with large graphics that make the dashboard easy to navigate. 

I can’t say the same for CompleteID. 

Complete ID has a lengthy sign-up process. It took me about ten minutes just to get through the initial verifications. Then I had to enter all of my information, which took at least another ten minutes. Unfortunately, Complete ID’s servers are a little slow, so everything took a long time to load.

Once I was inside the dashboard, I found it hard to navigate. Complete ID features excessive white space and a relatively small font, so there was a lot of squinting and scrolling involved.

Additional Services

Winner – Complete ID

Complete ID includes a VPN, parental controls, and a password manager. 

Identity Guard includes a safe browser and a password manager. 

So, Complete ID wins this category simply by including more. However, neither of these services has everything I want to see. 

Ideally, an identity protection service will include a VPN, password manager, parental controls, and antivirus software. If they’re really on top of their game, they might also include cyberbullying detection services and data broker removal services.

Remember, Complete ID is only available with a Costco membership. Add the cost of an Executive membership to Complete ID’s rates ($120 per year, or $10 per month), and suddenly, it’s much pricier than Identity Guard’s Value plan. It’s also slightly above Identity Guard’s mid-tier, Total plan. 

However, given Complete ID’s current offerings, its service is a closer match to Identity Guard’s top-tier, Ultra plan. And that means Complete ID’s cost is lower than Identity Guard. 

However, I would never recommend purchasing the membership solely to have access to this service. It only makes sense if you already have a membership. 

Final Verdict: Winner – Identity Guard

Identity Guard offers a wider breadth of monitoring services and more flexible family coverage than Complete ID. Plus, it’s easier to use. So, though it was a closer call than I expected, Identity Guard ultimately won this match-up. 

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* The score you receive with Identity Guard is provided for educational purposes to help you understand your credit. It is calculated using the information contained in your TransUnion credit file. Lenders use many different credit scoring systems, and the score you receive with Identity Guard is not the same score used by lenders to evaluate your credit.

** Identity Theft Insurance underwritten by insurance company subsidiaries or affiliates of American International Group‚ Inc. The description herein is a summary and intended for informational purposes only and does not include all terms‚ conditions, and exclusions of the policies described. Please refer to the actual policies for terms‚ conditions‚ and exclusions of coverage. Coverage may not be available in all jurisdictions.