LifeLock vs. Discover Identity Theft Protection 2024: Can Discover's Basic Plan Stand Its Ground?

Discover ID Protection offers credit monitoring for a low monthly cost, but LifeLock’s plans offer above-average monitoring
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Best overall ID theft protection

4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On LifeLock's website

Identity Protection
LifeLock
Up to 52% off first year when paid annually
  • Top-rated identity theft protection service
  • Provides up to $3 million in coverage
  • Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring

Best for basic ID theft protection

4.2
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On Discover Identity Theft Protection's website

Identity Protection
Discover Identity Theft Protection
  • Identity theft protection service that provides up to $1 million in coverage
  • Can protect 1 adult and up to 10 children with its base price
  • You must be a Discover customer to enroll

We compared Norton LifeLock vs. Discover Identity Theft Protection and found that LifeLock took the cake as the better ID theft protection service. It has more robust monitoring, alerts, and plans to keep you and your family protected.

That said, the other option isn't a bad choice for Discover clients looking for some basic protection.

Here are the details on our comprehensive comparison of these two services.

In this article
At a glance
Prices
Monitoring and alerts
Safety
Compatibility and customer support
FAQs
Which is better?

LifeLock vs. Discover Identity Theft Protection review at a glance

LifeLock and Discover Identity Theft Protection plans both offer fraud detection services you’d expect from an identity protection plan, including credit monitoring and fraudulent alerts and notifications. Both plans offer a mobile app and a desktop version. They both also offer credit alerts, so users are notified of activity on credit reports.

It's only once you get into the nitty gritty details that you start to notice the differences.

LifeLock vs. Discover ID Protection compared


LifeLock

Discover ID Protection
Star rating
4.9
4.2
Price $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr $15.00/mo 
Types of monitoring Identity and SSN, dark web, phone takeover, home title, social media SSN, bank account, dark web, alternative loan, address change, and more
Credit monitoring
Identity theft insurance Up to $3 million Up to $1 million
Identity restoration services
24/7 customer support
Learn more Get LifeLock

Read LifeLock Review

Get Discover ID Protection

Read Discover ID Protection Review

Discover ID Protection makes sense if you’re already a Discover card customer looking to fill in gaps in your identity protection. The low, flat monthly rate gets you enough protection to give you and your family peace of mind. Discover covers one adult and up to 10 children, whereas LifeLock family plans allow up to only five children.

Although at a higher monthly expense, LifeLock also offers monitoring across all three major credit bureaus, as well as social media monitoring, which Discover ID Protection doesn’t. LifeLock also covers up to $3 million in recovery expenses versus Discover ID’s $1 million protection.

LifeLock pros and cons

Pros
  • Three-bureau credit monitoring
  • Identity and SSN alerts
  • Up to $3 million in coverage
Cons
  • Costly monthly expense for premium protection
  • Poor customer service

Discover ID Protection pros and cons

Pros
  • Budget-friendly identity protection
  • Coverage for one adult and up to ten children for one fee
  • Up to $1 million in coverage
Cons
  • Users must be a Discover customer to enroll
  • Lacking some security features

Which identity theft protection is the better value?

Though the higher-end of LifeLock's plans can get pricey, the extra benefits you get with the service makes it the overall better value.


LifeLock
Best Value

Discover ID Protection
Price range $7.50–$38.99/mo for first yr $15.00/mo
Best value plan LifeLock Ultimate Plus for $19.99/mo (billed annually) for first year Discover ID Protection for $15.00/mo
Identity theft insurance Up to $3 million Up to $1 million
Learn more Get LifeLock

Read LifeLock Review

Get Discover ID Protection

Read Discover ID Protection Review

LifeLock plans

LifeLock offers three subscription plans: Standard, Advantage, and Ultimate Plus. Within those subscriptions, users can choose coverage for themselves only, a family of two adults, or a family of two adults and up to five children. LifeLock’s identity theft insurance provides reimbursement for lawyers and experts, as well as personal expense and stolen funds reimbursement.

You can choose to pay for a LifeLock plan on a monthly or yearly basis. We should point out that, if you believe you need the protection features and insurance coverage it offers, LifeLock’s annual plans are the better value.

While testing for this article, we received an offer for a free trial, but it required credit card information. LifeLock offers a 60-day money-back guarantee for customers to try protection plans.

  • LifeLock Standard: LifeLock’s most basic plan offers up to $1.05 million in identity theft coverage, identity and Social Security number alerts, dark web alerts, and Equifax credit monitoring.
  • LifeLock Advantage: LifeLock’s best value plan. This plan offers up to $1.2 million in identity theft coverage plus all the features provided in the Standard plan. You’ll also be able to lock and freeze your credit, check your credit score, and receive financial alerts.
  • LifeLock Ultimate Plus: LifeLock’s most comprehensive plan offers up to $3 million in identity theft coverage and all the features included in the Standard and Advantage plans. You’ll also get social media alerts, home title monitoring, and credit monitoring from the three major credit bureaus.

You can also bundle LifeLock with Norton 360 antivirus software, one of our top-rated security suites. Antivirus is another great way to prevent identity thieves from stealing your info through phishing emails and malware.

Discover ID Protection plans

Discover ID Protection offers a no-frills protection plan at a single-cost monthly rate. The plan, priced at Discover ID Theft Protection, covers one adult and up to ten children. Another adult can be added for an additional $15 monthly. Discover ID doesn’t offer a free trial or a money-back guarantee, but users can cancel at any time and may receive a prorated refund.

  • Discover ID Protection: Discover ID Protection offers up to $1 million in identity theft coverage, credit monitoring, financial account monitoring, as well as dark web, Social Security number, and address change alerts. However, it lacks social media monitoring, the ability to lock and freeze credit, and key security features like 2FA.

Winner: LifeLock. If you want robust monitoring and can afford a slightly steeper rate, we recommend choosing a LifeLock plan for increased monitoring and security. That said, if you're a current Discover customer and just want basic identity theft protection, Discover ID Protection may make more sense for you.

Which identity theft protection has the better features?

Norton LifeLock offers much more comprehensive identity theft monitoring, though Discover does cover all the basics.

Feature
LifeLock
Best Features

Discover ID Protection
Credit monitoring
Bank account monitoring
3-bureau credit reports Yes - Experian, Equifax, TransUnion Experian only
Credit score Yes (Advantage and Ultimate Plus plans)
VantageScore
FICO score
Credit lock and freeze
Identity recovery
Dark web alerts
Social media account alerts
Social Security number monitoring
Home title monitoring
Address change alerts
Learn more Get LifeLock

Read LifeLock Review

Get Discover ID Protection

Read Discover ID Protection Review

While Discover offers the basics of identity theft protection, LifeLock has all that and more, like social media and home title monitoring.

These added features certainly go above and beyond what many identity theft protection plans offer. Home title information is stored online, making it accessible for cybercriminals to hack, enabling them to take out a loan or lien against your home. While some home insurance policies provide coverage, some don’t. LifeLock’s home title monitoring alerts users of any changes in property ownership, new lenders detected, or any updates with loans associated with your name.

While social media connects people worldwide, it introduces new threats to cybersecurity and online protection. LifeLock offers social media monitoring, which alerts you of suspicious activity on your social profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

It can also alert you to suspicious activity, cyberbullying, and inappropriate content on your children’s accounts. In the changing world of social media and the emergence of social media scams, LifeLock’s premium plans’ social media monitoring has substantial appeal.

Additionally, the premium LifeLock plan offers credit reports from three credit bureaus, Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. Discover ID and LifeLock Standard offer credit reports from one credit bureau, Experian.

Discover cardholders can check their FICO Credit Scorecard whenever they want from their online account.

While one credit bureau monitoring is sufficient, LifeLock’s premium plans’ added features of social media monitoring, home monitoring, three bureau reports and additional insurance are niceties that enhance the protection plan. You can still obtain identity protection without the added amenities.

We couldn’t see any information about our Experian or TransUnion credit reports or scores directly after signing up since those take longer to process.

Winner: LifeLock. It’s hard to beat the suite of LifeLock protection plans, especially if you opt for a premium plan, which offers more monitoring than any other LifeLock plan or the Discover ID Protection plan.

Which identity theft protection is more secure?

While both companies share your data to some extent, LifeLock at least offers two-factor authentication on all logins.


LifeLock
Best Security

Discover ID Protection
Two-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication
Collects data
Shares data with third parties
Learn more Get LifeLock

Read LifeLock Review

Get Discover ID Protection

Read Discover ID Protection Review

When considering identity protection plans, security is a primary concern to take into consideration. Plans that offer two-factor or multi-factor authentication are preferable. Discover ID Protection doesn’t offer two-factor authentication on its desktop version, but users can enable facial recognition on the mobile app. LifeLock offers 2FA—users just need to turn it on in the account settings.

These companies monitor your sensitive data, so they store some of your information to facilitate that monitoring. Both Discover and LifeLock gather your information to provide monitoring services.

Winner: LifeLock. Security’s importance cannot be understated, especially when it comes to identity theft monitoring. For the simple fact that LifeLock offers a minimum of two-factor authentication, LifeLock takes the win for data security and protection.

Which identity theft protection has the better compatibility and customer support?

While both products offer an overall good user experience, LifeLock offers many more ways to get in contact with support.

Platform
Our Pick

LifeLock

Discover ID Protection
Windows
macOS
Android
iOS
24/7 customer support
Customer support options Phone, email, FAQs, member portal with information Phone
Learn more Get LifeLock

Read LifeLock Review

Get Discover ID Protection

Read Discover ID Protection Review

The customer service from both companies left a lot to be desired. In our LifeLock chat, a representative responded quickly, but with inaccurate information. Discover ID Protection doesn’t even have a chat option, but it does have a phone number customers can call for support. LifeLock offers 24/7 customer service support, which sounds like a bonus in theory, but the responses from the representative made us question if they were providing accurate information.

Both interfaces were clear, intuitive, and easy to navigate, though we found the Discover ID site a little clunkier. Information is hidden in subcategorical drop-down menus, and we had to make our best guess as to which drop-down menu held the key to our question. It was also challenging to find the Discover ID Contact Us page.

You can access your dashboard after logging in to your account on the LifeLock website.

LifeLock monitoring dashboard


Winner: LifeLock wins this round thanks to having many more ways of contacting support, including at any time of day. 

FAQs


+

Is Discover Identity Theft Protection good?

Discover ID Theft Protection is good if you’re a Discover customer and want to implement identity protection in your online security. For a low monthly rate, you can have credit and account monitoring, up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, and access to Fraud Resolution Specialists.


+

Will LifeLock stop identity theft?

While adding credit and account monitoring to your cybersecurity repertoire will certainly mitigate the risks of identity theft, no identity theft protection plan can completely thwart identity theft. But with increased monitoring and credit reports, LifeLock will certainly diminish those risks.


+

Do identity theft companies monitor my credit score?

Credit score monitoring is considered a baseline feature of identity theft protection, and most plans offer to monitor your credit score. Read our guide to identity theft and credit monitoring for more tips on how to keep tabs on your credit score.

LifeLock vs. Discover ID Protection: Which is better?

Overall, we recommend a LifeLock identity protection plan for customers seeking a more robust protection plan. The Ultimate Plus plan easily provides the best coverage and the most insurance protection at up to $3 million. In addition to premium features, LifeLock’s added two-factor authentication checks the boxes of identity protection and user security.

Discover ID is a good solution for an existing Discover card customer or someone looking to add a basic identity theft protection plan to their online security measures. With credit monitoring, fraud alerts, recovery services, and even dark web monitoring, Discover ID Protection more than covers the basics of average identity protection plans.

If you want to learn more about what kind of options you have at your disposal, check out our full list of the best identity theft protection services.

Top alternatives

Identity protection plans are one of the easiest ways to defend yourself against identity theft and compromised identity. Fortunately, there are multiple plans and options to suit everyone’s needs. If you’re not loving LifeLock or Discover, check out these other best identity theft protection services:

Service





Individual monthly price Starts at $14.95/mo Starts at $9.00/mo (billed annually) Starts at $10.00/mo
Family monthly price Starts at $29.95/mo Starts at $25.00/mo (billed annually)

-

ID theft insurance Up to $3 million Up to $1 million per adult Up to $2 million
Credit monitoring
3-bureau credit reports
Details Get IDShield
Read Our IDShield Review
Get Aura
Read Our Aura Review
Get Omniwatch
Read Our Omniwatch Review

4.9
Editorial Rating
Learn More
On LifeLock's website
Identity Protection
LifeLock
Up to 52% off first year when paid annually
  • Top-rated identity theft protection service
  • Provides up to $3 million in coverage
  • Multiple monitoring features including dark web, home title, and social media monitoring
Author Details
Courtney Daybell brings over 15 years of experience in print journalism and holds a B.A. in Communications from Brigham Young University. Her focus has shifted to cyber security, where she specializes in topics such as identity theft protection, password managers, antivirus software, and more.

Citations

[1] New FTC Data Show Consumers Reported Losing Nearly $8.8 Billion to Scams in 2022