Aura Identity Theft Protection review

As a cybersecurity and identity theft protection expert, I’m well aware of the ongoing significant rise of identity theft cases. The 2023 numbers from the FBI and FTC came out around 1.1 million total cases, with costs ranging from a few hundred to millions of dollars in each instance. And, with the advent of AI-powered hacking and fraud tools, it’s clear that identity theft protection is no longer optional; it’s critical.Given this background, I decided to join my colleagues in the Cybernews research team in really evaluating some of the top providers of identity theft protection to determine whether they’re as good as they claim to be. We’re testing every aspect of the user experience, from pre-purchase through to the process of actually making claims if cybercriminals ever target you.

Today, I’m evaluating Aura Identity Theft Protection. I’ve broken down every aspect of this service, and I’ll walk you through it to help you make an informed decision about whether Aura does what it claims to and offers you good value for your hard-earned money.

I’ll focus on four key criteria:

• Features. I’ll break down what you get when you sign up for Aura’s identity protection toolkit, covering the range from personal information monitoring to online security.
• Plans and pricing. I’ll go through Aura’s subscription options to help you choose the plan with the best value for your specific needs.
• User experience. I’ll share my firsthand experience using Aura’s platform and mobile app, along with relevant screenshots, so that you can familiarize yourself with the platform before you decide to purchase. I’ll redact any sensitive information, as you should do if you ever share such sensitive information online.
• Insurance and customer support. We hope you’ll never need either of these, but it’s critical that you can rely on both if the worst ever happens. We’ll evaluate Aura’s insurance coverage and the responsiveness of its customer support team.

Whether you’re new to identity theft protection or just considering switching providers, I’ll give you everything you need to make the right decision for your particular use case.

⭐ Rating:	4.8 ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
🥇 Overall rank:	#2 out of #11
💵 Price:	From $10/month
✂️ Free version:	No
🖥️ Platforms:	Windows, macOS, Android, iOS
💰 Credit monitoring:	Yes
🔒 Insurance:	Yes
🔥 Coupons:	Aura Identity Theft Protection coupon 63% OFF!

Visit Aura Identity Theft Protection

Pros and cons of Aura Identity Theft Protection

Aura Identity Theft Protection Features

During my examination of Aura’s feature set, I was impressed with the range of features available and the depth of information available on its site and apps. If anything, it’s now starting to branch out so far that it’s no longer just “Identity Theft Protection.” Instead, it’s trying to become an all-singing, all-dancing personal data and information security platform.

I’ll break these features down by top-level subject area, with more information on each one below. Since my primary concern is the aspects of identity theft protection, I’ll focus largely on these and only briefly address the wider security services Aura offers.

Identity Theft Protection

• Personal Information Monitoring. Aura scans data broker lists, public records, the open internet, and the dark web for sensitive and identifying information. If you’re like me, you’ll find that your details are out there in a few places, even if you already knew about the breaches and had taken previous action.
• Social Security Number Monitoring. Aura monitors your SSN, specifically checking for new accounts or credit applications using it, suspicious activity involving it, or evidence of it being bought or sold on the dark web.
• Online Account Monitoring. Aura continuously scans the open internet and the dark web for any evidence of your accounts – or the credentials to access them – being compromised. This means searching for leaked usernames and passwords, for your email address appearing in data breaches, and for unauthorized use of your account details.
• Change of Address Monitoring. Aura continuously checks your home title details. This means that Aura will detect if someone tries to steal your identity by using your home title to get a collateral loan. You can also add auto title monitoring as an additional charge.

Financial fraud protection

• Three-Bureau Credit Monitoring. The ‘Big Three’ in credit monitoring are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Aura tracks credit reports from all three in real-time or something extremely close to it.
• Credit Score Updates. Aura uses the VantageScore 3.0 model. Note that this is different from the FICO scores many lenders use, so the numbers won’t match perfectly. It will still be accurate and up-to-date, and this feature will let you monitor your credit health over time.
• Financial Account Monitoring. You can connect Aura to your bank details via open banking using Plaid so that Aura can read the data directly and securely within your accounts. I’ve found its suspicious transaction monitoring to be more responsive and useful than my credit card company’s periodic telephone calls.
• Financial Fraud Monitoring. Aura continuously scans for financial red flags in your name, such as large transactions or fraudulent loan applications.

Online and device security

• VPN. Aura’s Virtual Private Network has passable speeds and doesn’t leak data.
• Antivirus. Aura’s antivirus software is fairly proactive against malware and other threats, with fewer false positives than some alternatives. It’s not as fully featured as dedicated antivirus software, but your risk profile may not warrant the added protection or additional subscription.
• Password Manager. Everyone should use a password manager. Aura’s is pretty feature-light for power users, but if you’re moving from not having one to simply using one, you can’t go wrong here. It generates strong random passwords and securely stores your login credentials.

Parental control tools

• Device Management. To monitor and manage your children’s electronics.
• Screen Time Limits. Cultivate healthy digital habits through schedule-based or quantitative screen time restrictions.
• Content Filtering. Enables you to block inappropriate content with fairly granular settings to protect younger users.

How does Aura look for data leaks?

I’ve already touched on quite a bit of this in prior sections, but it’s an interesting topic if you’re keen on cybersecurity or want to understand exactly how Aura works.

Aura continuously scans the open internet, the credit reporting bureaus, public records and databases, your bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, the criminal and court records systems, data brokers, and the dark web. If it finds any of your details, it can alert you by telephone, text, email, or WhatsApp, according to your preferences.

The system uses proprietary AI-powered hardware and software, with human intervention when breaches occur. I was extremely impressed with both the speed and accuracy of this setup. The alerts from Aura on suspicious transactions come through impossibly fast, with fewer false positives than I’m used to from credit card companies and banks.

Aura plans and pricing

The starting price of Aura Identity Theft Protection is $12.00/month if you choose annual billing. However, there are three subscription plans to select from for the Identity & Fraud Protection service, as we’re not currently concerned with the tier that offers only Parental Controls & Child Safety.

Features	Individual	Couple	Family
Identity Theft Protection	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Financial Fraud Protection	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Antivirus	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Online & Device Security	Up to 10 Devices	Up to 20 Devices	Up to 50 Devices
Identity Theft Insurance	$1,000,000	$1,000,000	$1,000,000
VPN	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Credit Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Credit Lock	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Home Title Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Auto Title Monitoring	❌ No (Available as an add-on)	❌ No (Available as an add-on)	❌ No (Available as an add-on)
Data Broker Removal	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Criminal Record Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Dark Web Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Social Security (SSN) Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Restoration Services	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Investment Account Monitoring	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Annual Credit Report	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes
Spam Call & Message Protection	❌ No(Available as an add-on)	❌ No (Available as an add-on)	✅ Yes
Number of Members	1	2	5 adults + unlimited children
Family Vault	❌ No	2GB	5GB
Parental Controls	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Child Identity Protection	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Safe Gaming	❌ No	❌ No	✅ Yes
Cost per month	$15	$29	$50
Cost per year	$144 ($12/month)	$264 ($22/month)	$384 ($32/month)

Get Aura Identity Theft Protection

After thoroughly examining Aura's subscription levels and pricing, I can confirm that the plans offer a tiered approach that will suit varied household sizes and the needs that go along with them. Let's break down each plan:

Individual Plan ($12/month billed annually or $15/month billed monthly):

• Coverage for one user
• Comprehensive identity theft protection suite
• $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance
• Credit monitoring across all three major reporting bureaus
• VPN and antivirus for ten devices
• Password manager

Couple Plan ($22/month billed annually or $29/month billed monthly):

• Coverage for two adults
• Everything in the Individual plan for two people
• VPN and antivirus for 20 Devices
• Family Safe 2GB vault for secure document storage

Family Plan ($32/month billed annually or $50/month billed monthly):

• Coverage for as many as five adults and an unlimited number of children
• Benefits of the Couple Plan Included
• VPN and antivirus for 50 devices
• 5GB family vault
• Parental controls and identity monitoring for children
• Safe gaming features
• Spam call and text protection

Auto Title Monitoring is a chargeable add-on for all plans, while Spam Call & Message Protection is a chargeable add-on for the Couple and Individual plans that are included in Family.

New customers can take advantage of a 14-day free trial, and Aura offers a 60-day money-back guarantee, giving you more than two months to try the service risk-free. If you choose annual billing, you can secure a 20% discount against the regular monthly price.

In my view, Aura delivers good value for the range of included features. The Family plan is particularly attractive for families with kids, as it offers an extra level of protection and functionality. I also think it’s a nice touch that Aura has kept the plan unlimited as to the number of children. That’s not just a gimmick, given that there really are some child-facing identity theft protection measures included.

Although it may seem more expensive than some of its rivals, the inclusion of additional security features like VPN, antivirus, and password management can justify that cost, potentially saving you from needing to buy subscriptions to those services individually.

My experience with Aura

In my review, I personally went through the sign-up process with Aura. As such services tend to, it asks for a lot of personal information—but that is also necessary for strong monitoring. I found the set of steps easy to understand and tailored for end-users.

With Aura, your data is protected with bank-level encryption, so you can feel secure about how you’re sharing your sensitive information. Signing up was straightforward, with clear instructions and requirements at each step. Be ready to receive text messages or phone calls with two-factor authentication codes because Aura takes its identity verification steps seriously.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to what you can expect:

Buying Aura

1. I went to the official Aura website and clicked Start Free Trial at the top.
2. I clicked Create account.
3. I chose my subscription plan and clicked the ‘Start Free Trial’ button.
4. I entered my email address and clicked “Set up protection.”
5. I continued by giving my full legal name.
6. I provided my full address.
7. I filled in the rest of my personal information (payment details, SSN, etc.)
8. I finished the signup process, logged into the website, and downloaded the Aura app to my devices.

The signup and purchase process for the Aura free trial was remarkably easy and took me under ten minutes. It didn’t send me down any weird navigational pathways, and it didn’t repeatedly try to upsell me with additional features I didn’t want. Solid performance overall on the signup process.

Get Aura Identity Theft Protection

Using the Aura Desktop App

After completing my subscription, I entered the username and password I had set during signup, and then the site redirected me to my Aura Dashboard. It led me through a series of setup steps:

1. Dashboard Overview. The dashboard looked sleek and easy to understand, displaying my protection status and main features.
2. I then linked to my bank and credit card accounts through Plaid, a financial account connection service. I started this from the “My Protection” menu by clicking on “Transactions.”
3. Plaid had me select my bank and provide account details.
4. I then configured how I wanted to receive notifications by clicking on the gear icon in the top right and going to “Notifications.”
5. Credit Monitoring Activation. I activated my three-bureau credit monitoring by clicking “Credit” within the “My Protection” menu. For security, it makes you do a text verification every time you enter this menu.
6. VPN and Antivirus. The “My protection” menu guided me through setting up my devices with VPN and Antivirus through the “Online Security” and “Antivirus.”

This whole process took about 15 minutes. I started receiving my first alerts and credit updates within hours, confirming that I was protected and everything was working as it should be.

Using the Aura mobile app

Although I like the more full-featured version of Aura that I can access on a desktop browser, the Aura Identity Theft Protection Android app makes it easy to manage your identity protection and security settings on the go. I’ll walk you through the core features.

When you open the app, you’ll see your Dashboard, which gives you information on your protection status.

Identity Monitoring: In your Vault, you can monitor your personal information and take action. You can easily check the status of your SSN, Dark Web, and Criminal and Court Records monitoring here.

Financial Monitoring: Here, you can track your credit score and credit records and monitor the bank accounts you’ve connected. I find it comforting to know I have access to all of this financial information.

Digital Security: The application lets you directly configure Aura's VPN, antimalware, and password manager on your mobile device.

Alerts Center: This is your dashboard alert workspace, where you can easily view and manage all of your identity, finance, credit, and device security alerts. I find that the centralized location makes it really convenient to keep a tab on any possible problems and then act on them accordingly.

Settings: This category offers customization options for updating personal information and alert preferences. These options give you a reasonable amount of control over your defense, and they let you quickly update your details if you move or otherwise need to change your details.

With the app's simple interface, you can receive identity protection news on the go and respond immediately to any alerts using your Android device. I found that is a useful little addition to keeping your identity details in check, even on the move.

The Aura mobile app – in this case, the Aura Android app – is a well-designed and easy-to-use app that puts most of the Aura experience directly in your pocket. For initial setup and detailed examinations of your credit file, I suggest using the Aura Identity Theft Protection webpage from your desktop or laptop computer. But for on-the-go updates, Aura’s Android app is an accessible window into your protection status.

Drawbacks of Aura

Although Aura is the industry-leading solution for identity theft protection, it may have a few shortcomings, depending on your expectations.

1. No social media monitoring. In contrast with some competitors, Aura does not directly monitor social media accounts for identity threats.
2. No direct USPS address change monitoring. With Aura, you may be slower to discover that someone has stolen your postal mail than with some rivals.
3. User interface. Some users find Aura's dashboard difficult to navigate, mostly because the key features of alerts and identity monitoring are not as easily viewed as they could be.
4. Tech challenges. Some users complain about poor app performance and inability to connect to the VPN, especially on public Wi-Fi.
5. Cancellation. Annual plans canceled after the 60-day trial don’t refund the yearly subscription.
6. Limited specialized monitoring. It does not offer to monitor medical data reports or utility alerts.

Even with these limited drawbacks, Aura's comprehensive feature set and strong core identity protection capabilities make it a solid choice for most users seeking identity theft protection.

Get Aura Identity Theft Protection

Aura insurance and customer support

Aura has comprehensive identity theft protection insurance. Adults are insured up to $1,000,000, with family plans totaling up to $5,000,000. Coverage includes reimbursement of stolen funds, personal expense compensation, and legal fees for resolving identity theft issues.

Aura's customer support is impressive. It offers 24/7/365 US-based service, which is crucial since identity theft can occur at any time. Users are generally very satisfied with the support team, and my test queries confirmed fast, professional, and helpful responses.

For identity theft victims, Aura provides a "white-glove" service. Their resolution professionals guide you through reporting losses, recovering funds, and rehabilitating your credit file.

Overall, Aura's excellent insurance and top-tier customer care should keep your stress levels low and your identity secure.

Aura vs. alternatives

Check out our comprehensive guides on how Aura compares to other identity theft protection services:

• Aura vs Lifelock
• Aura vs IDShield

Aura review: Our final verdict

After testing it thoroughly, I’m impressed with Aura Identity Theft Protection. I’m always skeptical about “feature creep,” but Aura’s inclusion of VPN, Antivirus, and wider online security tools fits well with its core mission of protecting you against identity theft. More importantly, the tools themselves are good.Although the interface won’t please everyone, I found navigating and locating the information I wanted straightforward. I must admit that I wish that Aura had social media monitoring since this is a significant and evolving threat vector for all areas of cybersecurity. At the same time, its dark web scanning is second to none, and I think Aura’s strengths quite dramatically outweigh its weaknesses.

Bottom line: For most users seeking a complete identity theft solution, Aura is an excellent choice that I can absolutely recommend.

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