EverSafe identity theft protection
Our series on identity theft protection apps will evaluate the features, pricing options, competition, and also the overall value of using each app. However, these are not full hands-on reviews since evaluating identity theft protection apps is almost impossible. It would require several months of testing, purposefully hacking accounts to see if the protection app works, handing over personally identifiable information, performing multiple credit checks, and risking exposure of the reviewer’s personally identifiable information.
EverSafe has a name that doesn’t exactly spark immediate excitement, or in fact most folks have even heard of. If you don’t look into the product or explore the company website, you might not even know it is intended for identity theft protection as opposed to an app for your kids or storing files safely.
Under further investigation, EverSafe does provide a solid feature set and fair pricing. The website is more extensive than some, offering a blog (although the last update is from 2018 which is not exactly recent), a scam watch section (which was last updated 2 months ago, somewhat better than the blog), and information about the identity theft field.
Plans and pricing
For pricing, EverSafe isn’t the lowest priced option available - ADT Identity Protection and Complete ID are both cheaper - but it’s far from the most expensive. There are three tiers of plans for a user to select from.
At the lowest rung is the Essentials plan. For $7.49 per month, you can see basic alerts and track your identity without having access to credit bureau information and without any identity theft protection insurance. It also includes Dark web scanning, and to protect savings and credit cards.
Moving up from there is the Plus plan which for $14.99 per month starts with all of the features of the lower plan. The upgrades include $1 million in theft protection insurance, fraud remediation and one credit reporting service.
At the top is the Gold membership plan for $24.99/month, which has all the features of the two lower plans. You’ll also see results from all three credit reporting agencies; this plan also adds protection for your investments and access to a support team to resolve fraud issues. The Gold plan is similar to the premium plans from other companies like Norton LifeLock and about the same price.
One additional pricing option has to do with real estate holdings. Sometimes hackers and criminals can do damage in terms of a lien you have on a property or make changes to your property listings. With all three pricing plans, you can add real estate monitoring for $4.99 per month per property, which is a unique feature we have not found elsewhere. This specifically adds monitoring for lien changes, title changes, lien filings, and an estimated quarterly valuation.
We also take note and appreciate the 25% family member discount, and the 20% senior discount.
Interface
Let’s be clear about what EverSafe provides. It’s a solid app with somewhat predictable features, and the pricing is fair. The interface is also a bit generic. While the app doesn’t quite look like a tax program or your online bank account, relying a bit more on a clean white and light blue look and feel, it’s also not that remarkable. Norton LifeLock is much better in terms of showing the status of your theft protection efforts and what you can accomplish. The wizards and status indicators help you see the overall picture and action steps to take, but that’s missing in EverSafe, which tends to split everything into buckets on a dashboard.
Features
To say EverSafe is an average identity theft protection app is selling it a bit short. When you analyze the pricing, features, website, and protection as a whole it’s compelling enough to warrant serious consideration. All of the basics are here. You can see credit reporting problems, bank account fraud notifications, and for an extra fee monitor real estate holdings.
The one main call-out here, though, is that the EverSafe website, which is always an important factor with identity theft protection apps, is more extensive. You’ll find a blog with quite a few explanatory articles, although the last post was in 2018. A scam watch section includes information about how hackers and criminals are trying to take advantage of the coronavirus pandemic and related fears to prey on unsuspecting website travelers.
In general, the website is more extensive and detailed, including a pricing section that lists all features for every pricing plan, such as the types of bank fraud protection available in EverSafe.
There is also extra protection for seniors, as EverSafe indicates that it has “Enhanced algorithms provide deeper protection for seniors.” It goes on to further explain that the software has compatibility with situations that seniors often require, such as a power of attorney, guardian or trust. Unfortunately though, it is difficult to confirm the validity of such a claim.
Also disappointing, is that there are no smartphone apps, for neither Android, nor iOS, which is another shortcoming in this day and age. Furthermore, to further confuse the issue, there are apps in both stores with the “Eversafe” name, although they are from a different company as well as screenshots of the company's official app on its site. However, we were unable to find it on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
The competition
In terms of overall value, EverSafe is a good option because it costs a bit less than competing products like Norton LifeLock. The problem is that the features on offer are a bit unremarkable - there isn’t a killer feature where you could justify registering for the app right away, other than the real estate protection.
There are also several cheaper options for identity protection, including Complete ID (although it does require you to have a Costco membership) and ADT Identity Protection (which may be a lead generator for other ADT security products). There are also more expensive options as well on any of these plans, although the basic plan is quite affordable if all you are interested in is monitoring your online identity.
The exception here is the real estate monitoring add-on, which costs $4.99 per month per property. That is unusual and makes EverSafe more compelling, although it also makes the product cost more especially if you add several properties to your main pricing plan.
Final verdict
At its core, EverSafe is a solid identity theft protection app that is somewhere in the middle of the pack. It costs less than Norton LifeLock but is more expensive than ADT Identity Protection and Complete ID. Because EverSafe is not tied to credit monitoring agencies like Equifax or Experian, there are not as many concerns about trusting the main brand. (Both Equifax and Experian have experienced massive data breaches in recent years.)
The final analysis is that this is a fairly average product that does add real estate monitoring for those that really need that level of protection and are willing to pay a bit extra for the privilege.
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