Aura Identity Theft Protection Review

Aura is one of the most well-respected brands in the identity theft protection space, largely due to its all-in-one packages that include monitoring, fraud detection, identity restoration and device security for up to ten people. The company also provides identity restoration and recovery assistance, which can help you mitigate the damage caused by identity theft and data breaches.

Read on to learn more about Aura identity theft protection and its suite of services.

Best for comprehensive protection

Aura offers just about everything you could possibly want in an identity theft protection service. Moreover, it includes all of its main features — identity monitoring and alerts, financial fraud protection, identity restoration and device security tools — on every plan. This is unlike most other identity theft protection services, who offer scaling service tiers.

Aura Identity Theft Protection pros and cons

Pros explained

Single, all-in-one plan for individuals, couples or families

Instead of offering three or even four plans tiers, Aura simplifies the decision-making process by including all of its major features in every plan. The main difference between plans is how many users can be included and how much of a given feature is available. For example, digital vault space and the amount of identity theft insurance scale according to the number of users on the plan.

The other difference is that the Family plan comes with additional device security tools and monitoring services specifically for children. This includes parental controls, cyberbullying alerts and sex offender geo-alerts.

60-day money-back guarantee (only w/ annual billing)

Aura’s regular money-back guarantee is 14 days, which is a reasonable policy in the context of monthly plan payments. However, those who pay for annual billing net a much longer 60-day money-back guarantee — one of the longest in the industry. This gives customers ample time to figure out whether they want to stick with the service or not.

3-bureau credit monitoring on all plans

Most identity theft protection companies only offer 3-bureau credit monitoring with their highest service tiers at a hefty cost. Because all Aura plans come with the same main features, customers get this highly sought-after feature regardless of which plan they select.

Extensive suite of cybersecurity tools

All Aura plans come with several cybersecurity tools that provide wi-fi security and device protection. This includes a VPN, a password manager, an ad blocker, a safe-browsing extension, email aliases, antivirus software and more. The Aura Family plan allows up to five adults and an unlimited number of children to benefit from these features.

Cons explained

Plans are more expensive (and less flexible) than competitors’

Although Aura advertises plans with a large number of features, you may not actually need everything that the company offers — or even most of what it offers. If that’s the case, Aura’s plans turn out to be much more expensive than those of the competition since you can’t pick and choose features or opt for a more affordable plan tier.

Lackluster antivirus and password manager

Aura includes antivirus software and a password manager in its cybersecurity suite, but they are inferior compared to its other, more robust tools. A number of customers have reported that its real-time virus scanner is inconsistent, while its password manager can’t import passwords from your browser or other managers and lacks automated form filling and multi-factor authentication.

No social media monitoring

Despite keeping watch on a wide variety of personal and financial information, Aura does not offer social media account monitoring. The company’s Family plan does have cyberbullying alerts, but this only applies to children while gaming. This is an unusual — and unfortunate — gap in the company’s otherwise thorough identity monitoring service.

Aura Identity Theft Protection plans

Aura offers three plans that all come with largely the same features, some of which scale based on the number of users allowed on the plan — one adult, two adults or five adults and unlimited children. The most noteworthy difference is that the Family plan comes with additional tools and monitoring to protect children online and their identity.

All Aura plans offer regular and dark web monitoring for the following:

• SSN and personal information

• Account breaches

• Home and auto titles

• Identity verification

• Criminal and court records

• Credit files from the three major credit bureaus (Transunion, Equifax and Experian)

• Financial accounts (e.g. 401k and investment accounts)

• Financial transactions

• Bank fraud

Aura Individual

Aura Individual is a plan for a single adult. It comes with digital security tools for up to ten devices, a 1 GB vault secured with military-grade encryption and a robust restoration package. Its identity restoration service includes $1M identity theft insurance (underwritten by American Bankers Insurance Company of Florida), US-based white glove fraud resolution and lost wallet remediation.

On the financial fraud protection front, Aura Individual offers an instant Experian credit lock on its desktop and mobile platforms, Monthly VantageScore credit scores, Annual credit reports from the three major bureaus and real-time alerts of inquiries into your credit file.

Aura Couple

Aura Couple is a plan for two adults. The plan is almost identical to the Individual option, except you get security for up to 20 devices (10 per adult), up to $2 million in identity theft insurance ($1 million per adult) and 2 GB of data storage in your digital vault.

Aura Family

Aura Family is a plan for up to five adults and unlimited children. With this plan, adult users get access to all of the previously described features, which means each one will get security for up to ten devices, $1 million in identity theft insurance and up to 1 GB of secure data storage. Altogether, this totals 50 devices, $5 million in identity theft insurance and 5 GB of secure data storage

The Aura Family plan also comes with the following services meant to protect your children:

• Spam call and message protection features
• Child Social Security number (SSN) alerts and credit monitoring freezes
• Voice and text monitoring for over 200 of the most popular PC games
• Alerts for known and new sex offenders within a 1-mile radius
• Parental controls

Aura Identity Theft Protection pricing

Below is a quick breakdown of the cost of each Aura plan:

The Aura Couple plan offers fairly good savings compared to buying two Aura Individual plans. The Aura Family plan is quite expensive overall, but paying annually grants significant savings when compared to paying monthly installments.

Aura Identity Theft Protection financial stability

Aura is a subsidiary of Aura Sub, LLC, the parent company of another id theft protection company called Identity Guard. Aura was the result of a merger between Intersections Inc. and a joint venture entity formed by iSubscribed, WndrCo and General Catalyst. The combined businesses rebranded under the name Aura to create a unified digital threat protection platform.

There is little-to-no public information regarding the company’s financials, and it does not appear to be rated by any of the major credit rating agencies. However, we also did not find any pending government or regulatory actions involving Aura.

Aura’s Accessibility

Aura is available nationwide and sells all of its plans online. The company provides 24/7 customer support by phone number, email and live chat.

Aura also offers “white glove” fraud resolution, a service that provides personalized assistance to victims of identity theft or financial fraud. Should you need it, Aura will assign you a dedicated case manager to contact credit agencies and government institutions to help you resolve the issue.

Availability

Aura’s plans are available across all U.S. states and territories. Customers can access the company’s services through its desktop and mobile apps. Plans may be bought directly online or over the phone.

Contact information

Customers can call +1-833-552-2123 or email support@aura.com to get in touch with Aura’s customer support team. The site also has a pop-up web chat feature on the Digital Security 101 page. On this page, customers can learn more about preventing identity theft.

User experience

The Aura site is easy to use and provides detailed service and pricing information. Additionally, Aura’s help center has answers to frequently asked questions. It also includes information on credit protection, credit locks and bank account monitoring.

Aura’s iOS app is rated 4.7 out of 5 based on 23,000 ratings, while the Android app is rated 4.5 out of 5 based on 7,230 reviews on the Google Play Store. The Aura mobile app has a user-friendly interface that allows users to track transactions and secure their online activity. It also notifies you of suspicious activity and provides credit scores and reports.

Some customer reviews on the App Store mention issues with notifications, where the app flags recurring “over limit” charges and doesn’t have a hide option. Customers on Google Play Store report different issues than iOS users, with many claiming the app sometimes crashed and they had to go through the hassle of having to log in again.

Aura Identity Theft Protection customer satisfaction

Aura gets mostly positive reviews online. Consumer complaints are mostly related to billing issues and how some services worked, specifically the password manager and antivirus. Other complaints mention issues with the iOS and Android applications.

Aura has a grade of A+ with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and is accredited as well. The BBB shows that the company has a rating of 1.11 out of 5 (one star) based on 36 customer reviews and has closed 44 complaints in the last 12 months.

How we evaluated Aura identity theft protection

We evaluated Aura’s identity theft protection services and compared these to a list of the best identity theft protection services. After looking at each plan’s features and the number of people and devices covered, we put them side by side to those of Aura’s main competitors.

Finally, we read a number of customer reviews to measure satisfaction with the service as well as the overall opinion of the software and apps offered by the company.

Summary of Money’s Aura identity theft protection review

Aura offers a comprehensive suite of products and services that protect your personal information online and across all your devices.

Its main services are identity monitoring, financial fraud detection and device security for you and your family. Aura also monitors customer’s home titles, bank accounts and credit card accounts. It provides personalized fraud resolution services in the event that there is a breach of your information online or on the dark web.

Aura stands out from its competitors because its comprehensive plans cover every major identity theft concern and offer many additional features, such as a VPN and password manager for up to 10 computers or mobile devices per plan member. If customers add children to their Family plan, they also get access to parental controls and SSN monitoring for each child.