NordProtect ID Theft Protection Review: VPN Plus Basic ID Theft Features

NordProtect

Buy at NordProtect

Like

• CNET's pick for top VPN for speed
• Up to $100,000 in cyber extortion coverage, in addition to ID theft insurance
• Steep discounts available for annual and two-year plans

Don't like

• No financial account monitoring
• No three-bureau credit monitoring available
• No family plans to choose from

NordProtect

Buy at NordProtect

Pros

• CNET's pick for top VPN for speed
• Up to $100,000 in cyber extortion coverage, in addition to ID theft insurance
• Steep discounts available for annual and two-year plans

Cons

• No financial account monitoring
• No three-bureau credit monitoring available
• No family plans to choose from

NordVPN earned a spot on CNET's best VPN list for its lightning-fast speeds. But customers can also sign up for Nord's latest offering, NordProtect, which provides a suite of identity theft protection features.

Like other ID theft protection companies such as Aura -- and VPN companies that have gotten into the ID theft space -- NordProtect product offers VPN services, dark web monitoring, one-credit bureau monitoring and up to $1 million in identity theft protection.

Customers can add NordProtect's benefits in two ways -- through NordVPN's Prime plan or as a standalone service called NordProtect Silver. Each offers a set of identity theft protection and monitoring services. In our opinion, Prime is the better option. However, both tiers lack comprehensive financial account monitoring and full three-credit bureau monitoring.

It's still early days for NordVPN's identity theft protection offering, the company told CNET. But as an avid NordVPN user for the past few years, I was excited to test out the company's ID theft service. Here's what I learned.

Who should use NordVPN's NordProtect?

NordVPN's NordProtect works well for anyone who wants a top VPN and views identity theft protection as the cherry on top as a means to further online protection. For this reason, we recommend signing up for NordProtect through NordVPN's Prime plan instead of the NordProtect Silver standalone service. The latter doesn't include a VPN and other features you could get for just a couple of dollars more monthly through Prime.

Both NordVPN Prime and the NordProtect Silver plans include dark web monitoring, which notifies you if your Social Security number and other sensitive information is found on the dark web. It'll also monitor your TransUnion credit report and provide an updated monthly VantageScore 3.0 credit score.

Included identity theft insurance of $1 million can help you financially recover if criminals steal your identity, gain access to your accounts or rack up new debt in your name. NordVPN Prime and NordProtect Silver also offer coverage for cyber extortion of up to $100,000 and $50,000, respectively. This rare benefit can help cover the costs of professional assistance or payments you make to a cyberattacker threatening to make your personal data public.

NordVPN falls short compared to industry leaders in a few areas. For one thing, the company doesn't monitor as many accounts as some other ID theft protection companies. 

For example, NordProtect doesn't oversee your investment accounts, bank accounts, home's title, address changes with the United States Postal Service, or social media accounts. No family or couple plans are available, either. 

NordProtect also only monitors your TransUnion credit report, leaving you vulnerable to fraud if a criminal opens new accounts reported only to Experian or Equifax. For good reason, many other identity theft protection companies, including Aura and Lifelock, offer monitoring and alerts for all three credit bureaus.

What plans does NordProtect offer?

All NordVPN plans include its VPN service, but you'll have to pay for its top Prime tier to get identity theft protection. In March, NordVPN also rolled out a standalone NordProtect service.

As is typical with identity theft subscription plans, NordVPN offers discounts if you sign up for one year or two-year plans. NordProtect provides a 30-day money-back guarantee no matter what plan you choose.

Basic

With Basic, you can use a secure, high-speed VPN on up to 10 devices, and it also protects you from unwanted ads and malicious domains. 

The basic plan costs $12.99 per month, $59.88 per year ($5.99 monthly) or $81.36 for two years ($3.99 monthly).

Plus

The Plus plan offers Basic features plus additional perks like anti-malware protection, advanced browsing protection that prevents you from visiting fraudulent websites, ad tracking and blocking on your desktop and a password manager with a data breach scanner. 

The Plus plan costs $13.99 monthly, $71.88 for the year ( $5.99 per month) or $107.73 for two years ($3.99 per month).

Complete

NordVPN's Complete plan offers everything in Plus and one terabyte of encrypted cloud storage. 

This tier costs $14.99 monthly, $83.88 for the year ( $6.99 monthly) or $134.73 for two years ($4.99 per month).

Prime

The Prime plan includes all the VPN protection and benefits of the Basic, Plus and Complete plans. However, it's the only tier of coverage that includes NordProtect benefits. It'll cost you $17.99 monthly, $107.88 annually ($8.99 monthly) or $188.73 for two years ($8.99 monthly).

You'll get dark web monitoring for your SSN and other sensitive information, one-bureau credit monitoring, up to $1 million in identity theft insurance and up to $100,000 in insurance for cyber extortion.

NordProtect Silver

NordProtect Silver is a standalone plan that offers many of the same identity theft protection perks Prime offers. As a bonus, you also get up to $10,000 in online fraud coverage if you fall for an online scam, excluding investment scams. The plan costs $15.49 per month or $88.89 per year ($7.49 per month).

However, signing up for this plan will mean you lose ancillary services you'd get through the Prime tier, most notably NordVPN's highly-ranked VPN and one terabyte of cloud-encrypted storage.

What’s it like to use NordProtect's ID theft coverage?

I tested NordProtect using NordVPN's Prime plan. Upon signup, the company requires you to verify your identity before proceeding to any other steps. You're also required to set up multi-factor authentication to secure your account first, which adds another layer of security.

You can set up MFA through a physical security key or an account authenticator app. I opted to do the latter, which allowed me to enter my SSN and other sensitive information to set up credit monitoring through TransUnion and dark web monitoring on my account.

Once I set up dark web and credit monitoring through NordProtect, I was sent a barrage of emails and notifications about data breaches that exposed my information. I was already aware of this, but it could help someone signing up for their first ID theft protection service for the first time and wasn't aware. Luckily, I keep my credit reports frozen for added protection from cybercriminals.

The main dashboard from NordProtect is simple and easy to manage, mostly because the product doesn't have too many features to navigate at rollout. 

NordProtect prominently displays where you can manage alert notifications on your dashboard. I found this particularly important since I received somewhere between 10 and 15 emails directly after signing up. I toggled these notifications for my account to receive only updates about actual security alerts and not for special offers or company-related news.

NordProtect also has dedicated tabs for your monitored assets, alerts and notifications, dark web monitoring, ID theft protection benefits, and credit monitoring services.

The monitored assets page on the dashboard provides a place for you to enter email addresses, phone numbers and your SSN for the purpose of tracking this information on the dark web.

The site's alerts component shows all the email notifications you can receive about your sensitive personal information and SSN being found online, including on the dark web. 

The dark web monitoring page shares more information on data breaches you may have been a part of. I was pleased to see that all the data breaches I am aware of showed up in my account, including the AT&T data breach and the massive National Public Data breach last year. However, NordProtect shared some additional breaches I am involved in that I didn't even know about.

The ID theft protection tab on the homepage summarizes the insurance benefits you're eligible for. It also includes the full policy documents for the included identity theft protection and cyber extortion protection if you want to read them over.

I also set up credit monitoring through NordProtect, which is displayed in the corresponding tab. However, this is one area where NordVPN falls short compared with other ID theft protection services. 

Having one credit bureau monitored is better than none, but it's not as secure as possible because criminals could be opening accounts that are reported to my Experian or Equifax reports. If I didn't have other credit monitoring services turned on, I may not have caught all the fraudulent activity. Also, accessing your credit reports directly with NordProtect is impossible, as it is with other ID theft protection companies.

NordProtect breaks down credit score factors contributing to a higher or lower score, which is a nice feature. For instance, despite my TransUnion credit score being 824, it's being hurt by too many hard inquiries and my credit utilization ratio. 

Not to be nitpicky, but NordProtect also says it offers "credit freeze assistance" when you shop for plans. However, after digging a little deeper, I found that the assistance it offers isn't anything you can't do yourself. The company just directs you to TransUnion's website. 

Overall, I found NordProtect's identity theft protection features very basic, although the VPN is fast and easy to use.

How do NordProtect's identity restoration services work?   

NordProtect offers up to $1 million in identity theft protection insurance, which can help make you financially whole if criminals access your funds or rack up debt in your name. NordProtect also includes white glove restoration services, which guarantee the company will do a lion's share of the work for you in restoring your identity. 

According to the policy documents for the coverage, affected customers get access to a dedicated case manager who will assist them through the process. This professional provides services like helping correct credit and other records.

Is NordProtect's identity theft coverage right for me?

If you're looking for a strong VPN and want some built-in identity theft protection features, NordProtect could be a good choice.

You can get identity theft protection with the company's Prime tier or its standalone NordProtect Silver service. Thanks to its cyber extortion insurance, NordProtect offers a higher potential payout than its VPN ID theft competitor, ExpressVPN. However, it, too, falls short of the features that more established ID theft protection services offer.

On the plus side, NordVPN's plans are affordable. You also get a 30-day money-back guarantee regardless of how long you commit, and this gives you the chance to try out the service and cancel to get your money back if you don't love what you see.

But if you want well-rounded identity theft protection, you really need to include monitoring of all three of your credit reports in your plan. This is something you can get through almost all of the identity theft protection and monitoring companies on CNET's best list.

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