Pros
- Fast fraud alerts
- Full feature lineup with every plan
- White glove identity restoration
Cons
- Family plan is expensive
Aura is an identity theft and online security application that’s quickly gaining steam, especially among the highly digital millennial generation. The app is widely available, providing credit monitoring and digital protection for Android, Apple iOS, and Microsoft Windows devices.
Aura Aurora offers a wide range of services like credit monitoring, dark web monitoring, bank account monitoring and identity protection insurance. The company is known for catching potential fraud quickly and delivering some of the fastest fraud alerts in the industry. And Aura users have access to between $1 million and $5 million in identity theft protection.
Read on to learn more about Aura’s features and capabilities — and how it compares to similar applications.
Key Features of Aura for Identity Theft Protection
In an increasingly digital world, it’s refreshing to find affordable digital security and credit monitoring services that work well. Aura is one of those services.
Aura offers:
- Security software
- Bank account, credit, and digital life monitoring
- Insurance coverage
- Identity restoration services
Here are the key features you’ll enjoy when you sign up for Aura:
Complete Digital Security – Sleep Soundly Knowing Your Safe
The star of the services provided by Aura is its digital security suite. Aura users have access to a virtual private network (VPN) and antivirus protection for the majority of popular devices. However, Mac OS isn’t supported, which is a problem if you use a Mac desktop or laptop.
Through the VPN, Aura offers WiFi security, malware protection, and antivirus software. That makes shopping, banking, and surfing the Internet much safer than before.
All of this tech is available with multi-device protection to help secure your laptop, smartphone, tablet, and even smartwatch.
Aura also includes dark Web monitoring. It looks for unauthorized instances of your personal information on sketchy websites — evidence that your identity has been compromised. When Aura finds something concerning, you receive an alert. If necessary, Aura guides you through the process of securing your information and restoring your identity.
Alerts at Lightning Speed – Aura Acts Fast, Really Fast
Fraud happens fast. The faster you know about it, the faster you can act to limit the consequences of a data breach or financial fraud. Aura sends out fraud alerts alerts quickly, giving you the ability to act fast. Aura claims its alerts arrive up to four times faster than their competitors’.
Aura monitors the following aspects of your financial and personal life.
Credit – Aura Monitors This Too
Users enjoy credit monitoring from all three major credit bureaus including Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax. If an action is taken on your credit file, you’ll be alerted up to four times faster than you would with the company’s competitors, giving you the ability to reject the potentially fraudulent loan.
Along with the near real-time credit monitoring, you’ll also have easy access to your annual credit report and monthly credit score updates. However, you’ll only receive one of the three credit reports annually, rather than the three credit reports you’re entitled to on an annual basis.
Bank Account Monitoring – Keep Your Money Safe!
Shopping online is commonplace these days, but it’s also a potentially dangerous activity that could put your financial accounts in jeopardy. Aura offers bank account monitoring, using top-of-the-line technology to determine your spending habits.
If anything happening in one or more of your bank accounts looks suspicious, you’ll be the first to know.
Investment Account Monitoring
Your investment accounts are there to afford you a comfortable retirement, but they’re also a target for hackers and fraudsters. Aura keeps your investment accounts safe by alerting you if anything suspicious takes place.
Dark Web Monitoring – Aura Leaves No Stone Unturned
Rather than use it for themselves, fraudsters often decide to sell data in an attempt to avoid getting caught. These sales take place on the dark web, which isn’t visible to ordinary search engines. If any of your data is found on the dark web, you’ll be alerted and provided with the steps to take to protect your identity.
Home Title and Address Monitoring
Fraud doesn’t just happen in the digital world. There are bad apples in the real world too.
Some scams take aim at homes, using fraudulent documents and loopholes to potentially take ownership of real estate. Aura’s title and address monitoring services help to ensure these things don’t happen to you.
The platform also scans the U.S. Postal Service regularly for address changes. If your address has been changed without your knowledge, Aura alerts you and provides guidance to ensure no further issues arise.
Between $1 and $5 Million In Identity Theft Protection Insurance
Depending on the membership you choose to move forward with, you’ll have between $1 million and $5 million in identity theft protection insurance. These funds are used to cover the costs of identity restoration and ease any financial burdens associated with identity theft or financial fraud.
Lock Your Credit With All Three Major Bureaus
One of the first lines of defense you have when it comes to protecting your credit is the ability to lock it down. Using Aura’s credit freeze feature, you can freeze your credit file. Once that’s done, no one can take out a loan using your Social Security number unless you unlock your credit file again.
While this is generally the first line of defense in the event of a data breach, it’s best to keep your credit locked down on a regular basis. If you decide it’s time to apply for a credit card, bank account, or other loan, simply unlock your credit file during the application process and lock it when you’re done.
Family Protection – Keep Your Children Safe Too!
Shockingly, children are far from immune to identity theft. In fact, more than 1.25 million children in the United States were the victims of identity theft in 2021, according to Yahoo! Finance. These accounts of fraud cost the United States economy about a billion dollars annually.
With the family protection plans, you not only ensure that your online identity and credit remain intact — you do the same for your children. That could prevent serious financial headaches for them in the future.
Customer Service Offers 24/7 Support
Aura offers 24/7 customer support on the phone, web, and via email. The support staff is highly knowledgeable and can answer general questions you have or guide you through steps you should take if you receive an alert through the service.
Access to All Features, Even With the Basic Plan
The vast majority of online services that offer tiered pricing, identity-theft related and otherwise, greatly limit their basic plans. In some cases, they leave important features out of the lower-cost plans.
That’s not the case with Aura.
Regardless of which plan you choose, you have access to every single service Aura provides. The biggest difference concerns how many individual users and devices can access those services. Here are the limitations of the different tiers:
- Individual. The Individual plan is the most basic plan. It’s billed monthly at a rate of $15 or annually at a rate of $144. The Individual plan limits services to a single user and up to 10 devices. The cap on identity theft protection insurance with this plan is $1 million.
- Couple. The Couple plan is billed at a monthly rate of $29 or an annual rate of $264. It’s limited to two people and up to 20 devices. The identity theft insurance coverage limit is $2 million.
- Family Plan. The Family plan is Aura’s ultimate plan. It costs $50 per month or $444 per year. The Family plan covers up to five users and 50 devices with $5 million in identity theft insurance coverage.
Advantages of Aura for Identity Protection
Aura is quickly gaining in popularity as a leading identity theft protection provider. Some of its biggest benefits include:
- Digital Peace of Mind. The world is becoming an increasingly digital one, bringing new and unfamiliar risks. Aura lets you surf, shop, and bank online with less worry.
- Fast Alerts. The faster you know about a problem, the faster you can take the steps necessary to solve it. Aura’s alerts happen nearly in real time, giving you a jumpstart when it’s time to take action to protect your identity.
- Annual Credit Reports Available. Knowing what’s going on with your credit sets the stage for a solid financial foundation. Aura users receive monthly credit score updates and annual credit reports to make sure everything stays in check.
- Up to $5 Million Insurance Coverage. Aura puts its money where its tech is. If the proprietary technology the company has built can’t keep your identity safe, you have access to up to $5 million in insurance coverage to cover costs and heal financial wounds.
- Lock Your Credit. If you’re not using your credit, there’s no reason for it to be accessible to potential fraudsters. As a subscriber, you can lock your credit file down and prevent scammers from opening new loans using your Social Security number.
- Bank Account and Home Title Protection. But bank accounts and home titles are often targets for financial fraud. As an Aura subscriber, you get complete bank account and home title monitoring and protection to ensure you’re not the next victim of a real estate or bank scam.
- Quality Customer Support. When it comes to your credit, financial security, and online identity, you’re going to have questions from time to time, and it’s important that someone knowledgeable is ready and willing to answer them. The support staff at Aura is second-to-none, offering prompt and detailed responses to any questions you may have.
Pro Tip. Save up to 40% when you sign up for Aura’s services using this link.
Disadvantages of Aura
While there are plenty of reasons to use Aura, it’s far from perfect. Consider this drawback before you sign up.
- High Family Plan Pricing. The price of the Family plan is a tough pill to swallow for many. If your family has three or fewer people to cover, it’s cheaper to break the cost into Couples and Individual plans.
How Aura Stacks Up
How does Aura stack up against Identity Guard, one of the top providers of identity theft protection services online today? Check out the chart below.
Aura | Identity Guard | |
Digital Life Protection | Aura offers access to a VPN, antivirus software, and monitoring services to help secure your digital life. | Identity Guard offers digital monitoring but no antivirus software. |
Annual Credit Report | Annual credit report from one credit reporting agency only (Experian). | The highest-priced plan provides annual reports from all three major bureaus. The lowest-priced plan provides an annual credit report from one credit bureau. |
Home Title Monitoring | Available with all plans. | Available only with the highest-cost plan. |
Address Change Monitoring | Available with all plans. | Available only with the highest-cost plan. |
401(k) & Investment Account Monitoring | Available with all plans. | Available only with the highest-cost plan. |
Social Media Insights Reports | Not Available. | Available only with the highest-cost plan. |
Financial Fraud Protection Speed | Alerts have been proven up to four times faster than the competition. | Alerts happen at industry average speeds. |
Final Word
After thorough review, we’re comfortable saying Aura is one of the highest-quality identity theft protection services available online today. We were impressed by the speed at which notifications are sent if fraud does happen and the fact that all the services are offered to every member, regardless of the payment tier they choose.
Aura does have some drawbacks, such as the lack of Mac OS support, high family plan pricing, and annual credit reports only available through one bureau. However, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks of taking advantage of the service in our view.
Pros
- Fast fraud alerts
- Full feature lineup with every plan
- White glove identity restoration
Cons
- Family plan is expensive